“I do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will faithfully execute the Office of President of the United States, and will to the best of my Ability, preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States.”
Like an Oval Office Pontius Pilate Obama tried to wash his hands of the disaster of his own creation affectionately known as Obamacare.
Bowing to pressure, President Barack Obama on Thursday announced changes under his health care law to give insurance companies the option to keep offering consumers plans that would otherwise be canceled.
The administrative changes are good for just one year, though senior administration officials said they could be extended if problems with the law persist. Obama announced the changes at the White House.
“This fix won’t solve every problem for every person, but it’s going to help a lot of people,” the president said.
The political calculus is classic Obama- deflect the responsibility from himself and direct it to the insurance carriers. The irony is that Obama, who was unable to construct a functional website after three years, is now sticking insurance carriers with the burden of reviving the plans they had to cancel in order to meet Obamacare regulations after those same three years. And they need to do it in days, not years.
It’s an actuarial nightmare and it is not a “fix.” All Obama is doing is taking a steaming pile of dog excrement, putting it into a plastic bag, setting it on the stoop to be taken out and rewarmed next year.
Obama’s “fix” is a huge problem to insurance companies:
Health insurance industry consultant Robert Laszewski told Fox News’ Megyn Kelly Thursday night that President Obama’s ObamaCare fix “makes everything so much worse” for insurance companies attempting to implement the new law.
Laszewski said on “The Kelly File” that the deadline for Americans to sign up for insurance coverage that will be effective Jan. 1 is Dec. 15 — a deadline the insurance industry has been working for months to prepare for.
However, Laszewski said Obama’s announcement that insurance companies can offer Americans their current plan for another year even if it doesn’t meet the law’s requirements means insurers only have 31 days to “reverse everything they have been doing.”
“Now they are saying to the insurance industry you have to turn on a dime and redo everything,” he said.
And his “fix” could make things worse:
Insurance companies already have devised plans for next year, received the necessary approval from states and begun to sell policies. They aren’t required to continue to offer their existing policies and state insurance commissioners aren’t required to approve those 2013 plans.
“Changing the rules after health plans have already met the requirements of the law could destabilize the market and result in higher premiums for consumers,” Karen Ignagni, the president and CEO of America’s Health Insurance Plans, which represents the industry.
Obama’s stopgap measure echoes the failure of his lies that you would be able to keep your plan:
Washington state’s insurance commissioner, Mike Kreidler, announced Thursday he won’t allow insurers to extend their policies, saying Washington’s state-based exchange was “up and running and successfully enrolling thousands of consumers.”
“We are staying the course,” said Kreidler, a Democrat who’s one of the longest-serving state insurance commissioners in the country.
Someone didn’t get the memo.
Still, there is arguably a greater issue in play- where does Obama get the Constitutional authority to rewrite law at this whim from the Oval Office?
Obama has already rewritten establish law. He altered the ACA when he unilaterally delayed the business mandate and additionally selectively enforces immigration laws.
Howard Dean isn’t sure where he gets the authority to offer the current “fix.”
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MPI7rABWI9c[/youtube]
Question: What other laws could Obama choose not enforce- the civil rights of conservatives?
Then again, it could be argued that he’s already doing that.
Rep. Fred Upton is offering a plan to that would allow Americans to keep their plans and other to buy the same.
The Republican congressman behind a proposal that would allow insurers to continue selling health plans that would otherwise be banned under ObamaCare told Fox News’ Greta Van Susteren Thursday his solution is “a better answer” than the president’s to fix the health law.
Rep. Fred Upton of Michigan said on “On the Record” that Obama’s solution “discriminates” against some Americans because it only allows people to keep their current plans. Upton’s bill would not only allow Americans to keep the health plan they like, it would also allow others to purchase those plans if they wished.
Obama has threatened to veto it.
I have a suggestion for Upton. He should make a few amendments to his bill, then put it in a manila folder and seal it and then bring it before the House, Senate and Obama, saying
“We have to pass it to find out what’s in it.”
DrJohn has been a health care professional for more than 30 years. In addition to clinical practice he has done extensive research and has published widely with over 70 original articles and abstracts in the peer-reviewed literature. DrJohn is well known in his field and has lectured on every continent except for Antarctica. He has been married to the same wonderful lady for over 30 years and has three kids- two sons, both of whom are attorneys and one daughter on her way into the field of education.
DrJohn was brought up with the concept that one can do well if one is prepared to work hard but nothing in life is guaranteed.
Except for liberals being foolish.
Common Sense
yes Greg is always comming to soil the ground here,
he type his notes and leave his dirt on the floor to pretend that the CONSERVATIVES DID IT,
you should have seen the STOSSEL SHOW TONIGHT,he expose a skam FROM government employees,
going around the country and finding honest citizens to tell them they broke the law and must pay a fee,
YES THAT BOOK OF 2 THOUSANDS PAGES OF REGULATION IS USE TO HARRASS THE CITIZENS,
now which they determine an amount, and tell them to fix it which is an idiotic thing they target,
and come back to check and collect again, THEY SAY THEY ARE LAWYER AND PINPOINT A FAULT,
that HAS BEEN DONE SINCE THE OBAMA TOOK POWER, A LAWYER WAS PAYING AN HANDICAP PERSON TO FIND FAULTS IN BUSINESSES ON THE HANDYCAP LAW HE WAS THEN GOING TO THE BUSINESS AND CHARGE THE OWNER ON A BIG CHARGE WHICH WOULD COST HIM A LOT AND MIGHT LOSE HIS BUSYNESS SO HE THAN ARRANGE A SETTLEMENT FEE AND THE MAN WOULD PAY TO GET RID OF HIM,HE WAS CAUGHT AND THE JOURNALISTASK HIM WHY HE WAS PAYING THE MAN TO FIND SMALL ERRORS, THE HANDICAP MAN TOLD HOW MUCH HE MADE AND HE SAID NOW IT AMOUNT TO A THOUSAND DOLLARS, THAT WAS AT THE BEGINNING OF OBAMA PRESIDENCY,
AND THERE ARE MORE THAT I HEARD OF, ITS A REAL DISEASE TO INTIMIDATE THE GOOD PEOPLE,
THEY SHOULD BE UNCOVER FOR GOOD, THEY HARASS PEOPLE ALL OVER THE USA, UNDER SIEGE
A little information for you morons could go a long way. But we all know how you like to cling to your hate, lies and fear; No, Obama didn’t lie to you about your health care plan Terminated policies were introduced after ACA’s passing — often with insurers’ knowledge they’d be scrapped:
First, it is important to note that the ACA grand-fathered all the individual policies that were in place at the time the law was enacted. This means that the plans in effect at the time that President Obama was pushing the bill could still be offered even if they did not meet all the standards laid out in the ACA.
The plans being terminated because they don’t meet the minimal standards were all plans that insurers introduced after the passage of the ACA. Insurers introduced these plans knowing that they would not meet the standards that would come into effect in 2014. Insurers may not have informed their clients at the time they sold these plans that they would not be available after 2014 because they had designed a plan that did not comply with the ACA. However if the insurers didn’t tell their clients that the new plans would only be available for a short period of time, the blame would seem to rest with the insurance companies, not the ACA. After all, President Obama did not promise people that he would keep insurers from developing new plans that will not comply with the provisions of the ACA.
In addition to the new plans that were created that did not comply with the terms of the ACA, there have been complaints that the grandfathering was too strict. For example, insurers can only raise their premiums or deductibles by a small amount above the rate of medical inflation. As a result, many of the plans in existence at the time of the ACA are losing their grandfathered status. http://www.salon.com/2013/11/15/no_obama_didnt_lie_to_you_about_your_health_care_plan_partner/
@Greg:
did I call you Greggie?
Greg
THOSE LOYAL GOONS LAWYER OF OBAMA ARE STEALING MONEY FROM THE GOOD TOLERANT PEOPLE,
WHAT DO YOU CALL THAT GOVERNING STYLE,
IT’S NOT BLACK MESSIAH,
IT’S BLACK MAFIA
@This one:
Then why did he apologize for lying?
Quoting Obama’s lies does not dignify them. You’re saying that if you had a plan that discriminates against pre-existing conditions that was before 2010 that you can keep it? Never-never land is that way. Are you saying that plans that don’t provide for women to get prostate exams and men to get mammograms are still legal?
This one, you need to go back to sleep and wake up after you leave LaLa land.
Clearly Greggy is delusional. He wished 0-blama told America what he said but he didn’t!! He said if you like your doctor and or insurance you can keep it period!! He even said it before his signature legislation passed!! Tell that to the 5 million souls who no longer have either Greg. The 5 million could likely grow to over 50 million when the group plans hit!! Whey did 0-bama apologize if he didn’t blow it?? What about the 39 Democrats in the House who are no running away from it?? He has NO answers accept to blame Republicans of which NONE voted for this loser!!
@Greg:
Yet again Greg, you show us your bigotry against Mormons. Carter was a church deacon:
Yet, Jimmy’s political opponents did not use his dedication to his religion to as a means to disparage Carter, nor did they paint him as a “cultist,” unfit to hold office because ‘Jimmy might bring his religious beliefs into office and force them on the rest of us’, (As the left has done so often implied for decades when discussing Republican candidates of faith.)
Why do you hate Mormons so much Greg? Or is it people of all religious faiths that you are bigoted towards?
@This one: Just because you attempt to tell me 0-blama didn’t lie doesn’t mean he didn’t. What it means is that you are clinging on to a lie!! So sorry, he said if you like your health insurance or doctor you can keep it period!! Now as the 5 million and counting if he lied or not!! In fact ask him!!
Did Obama lie? You betcha, and here is how:
Obama Inadvertently Suggests he Lied
by Keith Koffler on November 14, 2013, 3:28 pm
President Obama today inadvertently pointed to evidence that he lied when he said repeatedly that under Obamacare people could keep their health plans if they wanted, because he hung the misstatement on the “insufficiency” of the “grandfather clause.”
The “grandfather” clause is a portion of the law that allows people to maintain plans in existence before the law was signed in March 2010, even if they don’t adhere to Obamacare’s insurance standards. Today, Obama, who appeared in the White House Briefing Room try to explain himself, blamed the “grandfather clause” for the fact that his statement “ended up not being accurate.”
He said:
With respect to the pledge I made that if you like your plan you can keep it, I think — you know, and I’ve said in interviews — that there is no doubt that the way I put that forward unequivocally ended up not being accurate. It was not because of my intention not to deliver on that commitment and that promise. We put a grandfather clause into the law but it was insufficient . . .
You have an individual market that accounts for about 5 percent of the population. And our working assumption was — my working assumption was that the majority of those folks would find better policies at lower cost or the same cost in the marketplaces and that there — the universe of folks who potentially would not find a better deal in the marketplaces, the grandfather clause would work sufficiently for them. And it didn’t. And again, that’s on us, which is why we’re — that’s on me.
What Obama did today was ADMIT that he knew about the grandfather clause and that he in fact was referring to it when he stated people could keep their plans. He said, “My working assumption” was that the grandfather clause would help those who lost their plans and couldn’t find a better deal.
Well, you see, the problem here is that Obama kept making his promise well after March 2010, even during the 2012 campaign, even though he knew that grandfather clause was just for pre-March 2010 plans.
During the first presidential debate on October 4, 2012, Obama said clearly:
If you’ve got health insurance . . . you keep your own insurance. You keep your own doctor.
He didn’t mention during the debate that this guarantee applies only to insurance plans in existence before March 2010 – some two and a half years before the debate – and only if those plans hadn’t changed in even minor ways. Instead, he was, by addressing voters in the present tense, telling them they could keep their current policy, which they couldn’t.
So he knowingly based his statement to 2012 voters on a clause he realized no longer applied.
And that’s a lie.
http://www.whitehousedossier.com
If Obama didn’t lie, which he did, he is the most out of touch president ever elected since we became a nation. And that is frightening.
retire05@#59 – What is even more frightening is the Spin by some in the Media which has come out trying to convince everyone and actually BLAME the American People for not “understanding” the line below- and that what was said (30 some odd times by Obama) in Plain English Language which we all understand…wasn’t what was ‘really said’ by the Ofraud…
“If you’ve got health insurance . . . you keep your own insurance. You keep your own doctor.”
Is that the epitome of Liberals and Liberalism??
Seriously – do we live in some kind of parallel universe??? You just cannot make this stuff up… If this wasn’t so serious an issue for millions of Americans at the Hands of extreme Liberalism and Blatant Socialism – It certainly borders on some comic relief level… Pathetic…
No escaping the fact that Government will run Health Care much like they run the public school system, they will run in the ground. That fact that kids coming out the public system having to take prep courses just to get into college speaks volumes of whats ahead of us.
The unintended consequences of the ACA is that it will stigmatize a whole generation that big government cant be counted on to fix basic problems, it can only make them worse.
This why Gregg defends the undeniable truth that ACA is colossal failure.
this one
you add up moron to your name, didn’t you?
well, congrat , it fit you like a glove, keep it,
@Ditto, #57:
I don’t, although I suppose you could talk people having reading comprehension problems into believing that I do. It was a demonstration of what is wrong with using the phrase, “your black messiah.”
@Frodus:
Yep, if the objective was to run public education into the ground, they’ve succeeded. The dimocrat liberal run teachers union has succeeded beyond expectations to make the US school system one of the worst in the civilized world. I guess it’s a good thing they’re trying to make everyone 100% dependent on the government because without knowing math, they won’t even know they don’t have any money.
@Greg:
Do you also see a problem with the phrase, the white house, the blue ball, the red dress, etc? It seems as if the problem is that you don’t think people should use ‘colors’ as a descriptive pronoun. I guess you also object to ’round’ ball, square box, etc. saying black messiah was just a method to allow someone ease in identification. A racist would see it as something else.
@This one:
Your stupidity really knows no bounds.
Obama lied. He did not campaign for office saying, “If you like your plan and your doctor, you can keep them provided they were originated before March 2010 and maintain their grandfather status by never changing beyond limitations from HHS that will make them financially unfeasable”
You do realize we have video of Obama saying, “If you like your doctor and your plan, you can keep them, Period!” At last count over 30 times. We also have video of all the other lying democrats, Pelosi, Reid, Schumer, Durbin, and at last count over 50 total dem politicians – all using the same talking point quote.
You are the moron if you think that spewing vituperation against us will erase the bald-faced lies from Obama and the rest of the dems on this. You demonstrate even less brain function than a starfish if you think Obama’s apology for his intentional misleading of the American public isn’t a slippery admission of his dishonesty but also only delivered because the dems are in panic mode over the pending election in November.
I already posted the link in another thread to the 15 November editorial from the Chicago Tribune where the author calls for the repeal of obamacare. In ultraliberal Chicago, for crying out loud!
Obama didn’t just lie about one thing on obamacare. He also lied about:
1. Bending the cost curve down by an average of $2500/yr per family for their insurance costs.
2. Not raising taxes on anyone making less than $250,000/yr.
3. He lied about the obamacare premium not being a tax when campaigning…then had his lawyers argue in multiple court cases that obamacare premiums were taxes.
4. Obama lied – or was at least a complete fool – when he claimed repeatedly that obamacare would cut the deficit. The most recent CBO estimate is that obamacare will ADD an extra $2.4 trillion over the first 10 years to the national debt.
Obama and his ilk are blatantly dishonest. They are absolute liars. Fortunately people who weren’t really paying attention because they allowed their common sense to be anesthetized by the deliberate gasbaggery from the left (that somehow an extra 30-45 million people could be “given” health care without anyone having to actually pay for someone else’s costs) are being rudely awakened with the shocking increases in costs under this socialist insanity. I mean, really, TO…. knowing how arrogant the dems are (note how they rammed obamacare through “deeming” it passed via a highly questionable budget reconciliation trick before Pelosi lost her speakership) do you really think they would be fracturing over obamacare if they didn’t KNOW it was a disaster for which their constituents would hold them accountable?
Obama is a completely untrustworthy liar. So are Pelosi and Reid. They will eventually answer for their dishonesty. I only hope they are forced to answer for it in November 2014.
@Greg:
You gratuitous reference about Romney and his religious background had nothing to do with the discussion. Frankly, I consider it beneath normal civil political discourse to continually bring up someone’s religion, unless they themselves, try to make it a reason “why” people should vote for them. I didn’t care that Carter expressed that he is a “born again Christian, that Lieberman is Jewish, that Kennedy was Catholic, or that Romney is Morm0n. While I might consider their beliefs as partly relevant in speculating how a candidate might react if they win elective office, it certainly doesn’t drive my vote.
The reason is well known by all (including you,) of why Obama has been labeled the “black messiah” and it has nothing to do with his expressed religious beliefs. Since you seem to be pretending you don’t know from whence it came, I shall explain. Read it as slowly as you need Greg to reach self illumination of what led to the conceptional creation of that particular “nickname” for Obama :
(1) Obama is considered to be “black” by most Americans (although he is 1/2 black and 1/2 white). With that consideration being accepted even by the MSNBC talking heads, we remind you that “black” is still an acceptable alternative to “African-American”. Considering that Obama was the first presidential candidate with a shadowy past, much of which has been locked away from public view, One could consider such absence of information to make him the first truly “black” (ie. secretive, unknown, obscured) president. Not at all “transparent” as he claimed he would be.
(2) Obama endowed himself with messianic references during his campaign, and his supporters made heavy use of messianic symbolism in marketing him to the public. Most notable was his declaration: “I’m the one you’ve been waiting for.” (A clearly messianic statement, that no reporter ever asked him to explain; ‘what he meant by that’, ‘why he said it’, or ‘who that message was meant for’.)
@This one:
Absolutely false.
https://www.healthcare.gov/what-if-i-have-a-grandfathered-health-plan/
@This one:
So, TO, let’s deal with reality:
http://blogs.law.uiowa.edu/jcl/wp-content/uploads/2012/01/A2-Leonard-Final.pdf
Sen. Feinstein has come to her senses.
How long before more lesser-powerful Dems?
She said,
http://www.nationalreview.com/article/364005/feinsteins-flip-flop-charles-c-w-cooke/page/0/1
That means a LEGAL fix.
Not Obama’s clusterfix.
Obama might veto this Landrieu bill, should it ever reach his desk.
We know he wants total power to allow these insurers to act or not.
Landrieu’s bill takes that away from him.
IF Fienstein can wake up from the Obama dream so can other Dems.
Some have…..
Ex-president Bill Clinton.
Sen.Mary Landrieu.
Rep. Ron Barber (D-Ariz.)
Rep. John Barrow (D-Ga.)
Rep. Ami Bera (D-Calif.)
Rep. Tim Bishop (D-N.Y.)
Rep. Bruce Braley (D-Iowa)
Rep. Julia Brownley (D-Calif.)
Rep. Cheri Bustos (D-Ill.)
Rep. Jim Costa (D-Calif.)
Rep. Peter DeFazio (D-Ore.)
Rep. Suzan DelBene (D-Wash.)
Rep. Tammy Duckworth (D-Ill.)
Rep. Bill Enyart (D-Ill.)
Rep. Elizabeth Esty (D-Conn.)
Rep. Bill Foster (D-Ill.)
Rep. Pete Gallego (D-Texas)
Rep. John Garamendi (D-Calif.)
Rep. Joe Garcia (D-Fla.)
Rep. Ron Kind (D-Wis.)
Rep. Ann McLane Kuster (D-N.H.)
Rep. Dave Loebsack (D-Iowa)
Rep. Dan Maffei (D-N.Y.)
Rep. Sean Maloney (D-N.Y.)
Rep. Jim Matheson (D-Utah)
Rep. Mike McIntyre (D-N.C.)
Rep. Jerry McNerney (D-Calif.)
Rep. Patrick Murphy (D-Fla.)
Rep. Rick Nolan (D-Minn.)
Rep. Bill Owens (D-N.Y.)
Rep. Scott Peters (D-Calif.)
Rep. Gary Peters (D-Mich.)
Rep. Collin Peterson (D-Minn.)
Rep. Nick Rahall (D-W.Va.)
Rep. Raul Ruiz (D-Calif.)
Rep. Brad Schneider (D-Ill.)
Rep. Kurt Schrader (D-Ore.)
Rep. Carol Shea-Porter (D-N.H.)
Rep. Kyrsten Sinema (D-Ariz.)
Rep. Filemon Vela (D-Texas)
Rep. Tim Walz (D-Minn.)
@Nan G:I believe this is only about their political life. They have no interest in amending Obamacare.
@Redteam: We are in agreement Redteam, not a vary wise move by the house….. They should have waited until the Dim’s started to hit the air ways hot and heavy before they moved to fix the unfix-able, surly they know it cant be fixed, surly they know in Oct one month before the election more policy’s will be cancelled.
Remember the Dim’s and Republicans have both turned this into a political football. Which reminds me of the final outcome of this, to create more people dependent on the Government.
@Ditto, #67:
There was nothing gratuitous about it. “Your black messiah” wasn’t intended as a compliment. “Your white high priest” was humor—the humor residing in the irony of the fact that it’s actually a totally accurate description. So, which of those two descriptors do you find offensive?
At which point some of his opponents seem to have concluded he was actually claiming the ability to walk on water.
As you noted, the nature of his presentation was symbolic. A political campaign in may ways is a marketing campaign. He successfully sold himself to the American public as the proponent of certain ideas, and as a person who would do his best to advance them. In my opinion that’s what he is, and that’s what he’s tried to do. Invariably, the actual accomplishments of elected presidents fall short of achievement of all of the goals that they set during their campaigns.
A moment’s honest reflection should be all it takes to realize that Obama is nowhere near as overtly religious on campaign as a Sarah Palin or a Ted Cruz.