If it’s the law, how can Obama keep changing, delaying, modifying, and ignoring it?
If Obamacare is so great why don’t the Democrats embrace it and run their November campaigns around this superlative feather in all their caps?
Are you still waiting for your $2,500 annual savings?
White House ‘Quietly’ Exempts 4.5 Million People In 5 “Territories” From Obamacare
Submitted by Tyler Durden on 07/20/2014 21:52 -0400
As WSJ reports, last week’s geopolitical chaos and distraction was ideal for a news dump, and the White House didn’t disappoint: On no legal basis, all 4.5 million residents of the five U.S. territories were quietly released from ObamaCare. It seems the costs of healthcare soared in these five territories due to uneconomic mandates – which woul dhave been a disaster PR-wise for the administration and so, under cover of catastrophe, WSJ reports all of a sudden last week HHS discovered new powers after “a careful review of this situation and the relevant statutory language,” that enabled them to ‘selectively exempt’ American Samoa, Guam, Puerto Rico, Northern Mariana Islands, and Virgin Islands from Obamacare. And all while vacationing…
As WSJ reports,
The original House and Senate bills that became the Affordable Care Act included funding for insurance exchanges in these territories, as President Obama promised when as a Senator he campaigned in Puerto Rico, the Virgin Islands and other 2008 Democratic primaries. But the $14.5 billion in subsidies for the territories were dumped in 2010 as ballast when Democrats needed to claim the law reduced the deficit.
As a consolation, Democrats opened several public-health programs to the territories and bestowed most of ObamaCare’s insurance regulations, which liberals euphemize as “consumer protections,” such as requiring insurers to accept all comers and charge the same premiums regardless of patient health.
However, costs soared as no insurer would touch them…
These uneconomic mandates promptly caused insurance rates to soar and many insurers to flee the territorial markets. You can’t buy any policy at any price in the Mariana Islands. So the territories have spent the last two years beseeching HHS for a regulatory exemption.
So time to change the rules… from this…
As recently as last year, HHS instructed the territories that they “have enjoyed the benefits of the applicable consumer protections” and HHS “has no legal authority to exclude the territories” from ObamaCare.
To this…
Laws are made by Congress, but all of a sudden last week HHS discovered new powers after “a careful review of this situation and the relevant statutory language.”
American Samoa, Guam, Puerto Rico, Northern Mariana Islands, and Virgin Islands.
* * *
Which leaves only one question… where does everybody else apply for their ‘uneconomic’ exemption?
“In every age it has been the tyrant, the oppressor and the exploiter who has wrapped himself in the cloak of patriotism, or religion, or both to deceive and overawe the People.”
-Eugene V. Debs
I’m not sure the tyrant in chief has wrapped himself in anything but the cloak of liberalism, which is quite the misnomer. Fascism is the tune to which he dances and the fiddler fiddles.
Texas Gov. Perry to Deploy 1,000 National Guard Troops to Border
“Texas Gov. Rick Perry said on Monday he planned to send 1,000 Texas National Guard troops to the Mexican border to boost security during a surge in illegal immigration by children, a move that could increase pressure on President Barack Obama.”
http://www.newsmax.com/Newsfront/Texas-Rick-Perry-National-Guard-border-crisis/2014/07/21/id/583961/?ns_mail_uid=62314509
In Potentially “Lethal Blow” For Obamacare, US Appeals Court Finds Insurance Subsidies Invalid In Most States
Submitted by Tyler Durden on 07/22/2014 10:50 -0400
It may be back to square 1 for Obamacare.
Moments ago, in what NBC classified as a “potentially lethal blow to Obamacare” a federal appeals court has ruled that the federal government may not subsidize health insurance plans bought by people in states that decided not to set up their own marketplaces under Obamacare. The law clearly says that states are to set up the exchanges. But 34 states opted not to, and the federal government took over in those states. The court ruled that federal government may not pay subsidies for insurance plans in those states.
As the Hill reports further, the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals said the Affordable Care Act does not permit the IRS to distribute premium subsidies in the federal ObamaCare exchange, meaning those consumers must bear the full cost of their insurance.
But… they said socialism is for the greater good!?
The 2-1 decision by the three-judge panel in Halbig v. Burwell sets up a major legal showdown that conservatives believe could deal a fatal blow to President Obama’s healthcare law.
And here is where the government’s appeal process is sure to benefit from the NSA’s treasure trove of dirt on all those judges who dared to throw a spike in the suboptimally greased wheels of government wealth redistribution:
The government is expected to appeal the ruling to the full D.C. Circuit, but even if the administration triumphs there, the case appears destined for the Supreme Court.
The appeals court’s decision tossed out the ObamaCare subsidies on the grounds that the statutory language of the Affordable Care Act does not explicitly allow enrollees on the federal exchanges to receive premium tax credits.
“Because we conclude that the ACA unambiguously restricts the section 36B subsidy to insurance purchased on Exchanges ‘established by the State,’ we reverse the district court and vacate the IRS’s regulation,” the court said.
Previous courts rejected that argument, saying Congress’s clear intent was to provide the subsidy help to everyone in the system.
And now, the time for a diversionary war has clearly come.
Since Obamacare does benefit big insurance and big pharma, I’d look for the Supreme Kangaroo Court to overturn that ruling, so that the fleecing of the sheeple can continue unabated.
Study: Average premium hike is 76% in states without federal subsidies
July 22, 2014, 3:06 PM ET
By Russ Britt
Avalere Health Map shows how much premiums would increase in states without their own exchanges
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A side note on Tuesday’s U.S. Court of Appeals ruling, striking down subsidies for those who receive Obamacare in federal exchange states…
A study from Avalere Health shows that the average health-care premium increase for those who actually lose their subsidies would be 76%. The hike in premiums would be highest in Mississippi, where it would be roughly 94%, as well as Missouri, Georgia, Florida and Alaska.
The map shows just how much the increases are likely to be, and the decision could exempt many of the roughly 4.7 million people who received subsidies and enrolled via federal exchanges. Those who enrolled in states with their own exchanges are not subject to the ruling.
Thirty-six states currently use the federal exchange, but two of those — Idaho and New Mexico — are setting up their own marketplace. That means 16 states plus the District of Columbia will be operating their own exchanges in future years.