NBC News
White House: Health care penalty deadline to be delayed by up to six weeks
The
President released a video Tuesday night rallying supporters of
Obamacare and encouraging citizens to enroll in Obamacare via methods
other than their website, which is being criticized for its design and
structure.
Amid
mounting criticism, the White House said Wednesday that it plans to
soften the deadline for when Americans are required to purchase health
insurance. The date by when Americans would be penalized for not having
signed up for health insurance could be “slid” back by as much as six
weeks, administration officials told NBC News.
AP Photo/ Evan Vucci
Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius seen arriving in the Rose Garden of the White House, Monday.
But it was not immediately clear Wednesday whether the adjustment to a cornerstone of the Affordable Care Act would need to be approved by Congress or could be done by the Department of Health and Human Services administratively.
As the law stands now, individuals are expected to begin the application process via HealthCare.gov by Feb. 15 to avoid a financial penalty when the deadline hits on March 31, since it generally takes a few weeks insurance to kick in.
But under the prospective change, individuals will only be expected to have started enrollment by March 31 to avoid incurring a penalty.
Meanwhile, Democratic Sen. Joe Manchin of West Virginia was already drafting a bill earlier Wednesday to delay the mandate for a year, his spokesman said. And Sen. Jeanne Shaheen, D-NH, on Wednesday called for an extension of the open enrollment period to allow people more time to purchase coverage; Democratic Sen. Mark Pryor of Arkansas said he supported Shaheen’s “common sense idea” in a statement.
Other critics of the health care law, including Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., have proposed delaying the individual mandate penalty until six months after the Government Accountability Office certifies that the problem-plagued health care website is working.
And as the Obama administration weighed the changes, the Department of Health and Human Services announced Wednesday that it will hold daily briefings to update reporters on the progress of what President Barack Obama has called the “tech surge” to rectify the hitches and glitches on the troubled health care website.
The daily briefings will start Thursday, just two days after Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius said Obama did not know about the health insurance website’s hitches and glitches until after it was launched three weeks ago.
The president was made aware of the glitches as people reported problems “in the first couple of days” in the rollout of the site designed to help people access healthcare as part of the Affordable Care Act, Sebelius said in an interview with CNN that aired on Tuesday night.
Read More and Watch Video Here
..........
Images Source: Wikimedia.Org CC- 3.0 unported
Ted Cruz by Gage Skidmore
..........NBC News
In face of GOP criticism, Cruz pledges to continue fight against Obamacare
Sen. Ted Cruz, R-TX, returned home to a heroes welcome on Monday, pledging to a crowd of excited supporters that he would continue his crusade against President Barack Obama's health care law despite criticism from some members of his own party.
The Texas firebrand began his remarks at a tea party rally in Houston by jokingly acknowledging the ire some fellow Republicans have directed at him after helping to orchestrate a government shutdown that resulted in a sharp drop in the GOP's approval ratings.
Cruz told a story about how one of his young daughters dismissed the prospects of growing up to work in the Senate with her father because "by then daddy will be dead."
"I kind of wondered if [my daughter] had been talking with Republican leadership in Washington, if she knew something I didn't know," Cruz said.
Despite some moderate members of Cruz's party questioning his decision to help lead a 16-day government shutdown that resulted in Republicans getting none of their demands, the freshman senator has been heralded by conservative activists for his efforts to defund Obamacare and not cave to outside pressures.
Acknowledging the public and private rebukes by some of his colleagues, Cruz simply said, "Who cares?"
Read More Here
..........
Related articles
No comments:
Post a Comment
Hello and thank you for visiting my blog. Please share your thoughts and leave a comment :)