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To: puborectalis who wrote (767595)	2/3/2014 8:58:00 AM
From: Brumar89	1 Recommendation Recommended By FJB Respond to of 1574786

Ex-Clinton Aide Urges Pelosi to Apologize for Obamacare by Rick Moran February 2, 2014 - 7:13 am Lanny Davis, former special counsel to Bill Clinton, is urging House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi to apologize to the American people for Obamacare screw ups. I’m sure Pelosi will do that about the time that Davis gets around to apologizing for Bill Clinton’s serial adultery. No matter. Davis wants the Democrats to go through a 12 step program, where the party fully acknowledges problems with Obamacare, apologizes to the American people, and then tries to make amends for screwing up so badly. It may be easier to quit heroin cold turkey. The Hill: A top Democratic strategist on Friday said his party needs to admit they “screwed up” on ObamaCare. In an interview on Fox News’ “The Kelly File,” Lanny Davis, White House special counsel to former President Clinton, said Democrats — including House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (Calif.) — should take ownership of their mistakes on the healthcare law. “Nancy Pelosi should say that — we messed up…We have to take ownership,” Davis said, indicating that admitting fault is the first step to fixing the Affordable Care Act. He added that the private sector should have had more of a role in developing HealthCare.Gov, which debuted Oct. 1 with significant glitches. “We screwed up,” Davis said, advising Pelosi that she should admit that Democrats relied too heavily on the government to set up ObamaCare. Really? Ed Morrissey points out that the opposite is true: Actually, the problem wasn’t that there was too little involvement from the private sector; it’s that it didn’t belong in the federal government in the first place. But even apart from that, the site was built by the private sector, with the full cooperation of private insurers who hoped to score big off of a historic government mandate that forced Americans to participate in a command economy. The problem was that the people who command that economy are singularly unqualified for the job, as most if not all of them have done little but public-sector work for the majority of their lives. The incompetent management of this system began in the bid process and escalated throughout the project-management phase, and was obvious by the increasingly arbitrary ways in which regulations and statutes were applied and enforced. That’s what is painful to Davis, who cheers government-controlled universal health care as the appetizer to his advice to Pelosi. Davis says it could have been accomplished through distributed authority in the private sector, but that’s never been the point of Democratic health-care policy. It’s always been about control and power, and dictating outcomes to insurers, providers, and consumers. We tried it, and now we see why the public sector should be limited to appropriate regulatory functions and law enforcement, and private economies left to voluntary association and the private sector. Ed makes a marvelous point that should be stapled to the forehead of every GOP politician; Obamacare is living, breathing proof that big government should be limited in its power. The bigger government gets, the greater the harm its actions can cause. Lanny Davis misses the point. A better website would not fix what ails Obamacare. The massive overreach of the law — the way it seeks to control private individuals and public companies alike — doomed the ACA from the moment it was signed. Pelosi will never apologize for Obamacare because she can’t blame it on Republicans. Besides, she’s too busy putting lipstick on a pig on national TV — extolling the virtues of Obamacare on John Stewart’s show — to contemplate the responsibility of Democrats for messing up the health insurance industry so completely. Maybe Pelosi will apologize for Obamacare about the time that Lanny Davis can think of one, single accomplishment by Hillary Clinton when she was secretary of state. pjmedia.com

To: puborectalis who wrote (767595)	2/3/2014 11:43:21 AM
From: Broken_Clock	Respond to of 1574786

Obamacare Sticker Shock Found in Deductibles, Not Premiums By Brianna Ehley5 hours ago Despite concerns that Obamacare would cause the price of insurance premiums to skyrocket, a new study found that they are either lower or comparable for similar employer-based policies. However, consumers may still experience sticker shock from Obamacare’s pricey deductibles. According to a report released by PwC’s Health Research Institute, insurance premiums on the new health exchanges are cheaper than those paid by the majority of Americans who have employer-based coverage—partly because of high deductibles. Related: Majority Still Having Problems With Obamacare Website The report found that the average cost of premiums sold on the Obamacare exchanges is about $5,844 annually —or 4 percent less than the average cost of $6,119 for an employer-provided plan with comparable benefits. "We were a little bit surprised" when PwC crunched the numbers and found "the exchanges are competitive, and even cheaper in some instances," Ceci Connolly, managing director of PwC's Health Research Institute, told CNBC. She Added that PwC clients "have been very intrigued by" the results. [iframe src="http://embed.newsinc.com/Single/iframe.html?WID=2&VID=25534551&freewheel=91214&sitesection=fiscaltimes&height=309&width=550" height="309" width="550" frameborder="no" scrolling="no" noresize="" marginwidth="0px" marginheight="0px" id="yui_3_9_1_1_1391445612186_9827" style="display: block; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: auto; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: auto; max-width: 100%; "][/iframe] Still, PwC’s study doesn’t account for other costs to consumers—like deductibles, which are likely to be more expensive under the new plans. A study by HealthPocket Inc. in December found that the average individual deductible for Obamacare’s bronze plan was $5,081 a year—42 percent higher than the average deductible of $3,589 for an individually purchased plan. “Picking one dimension as PwC and others do gives a distorted picture of what the consumer is likely to experience,” Joe Antos, health policy analyst at the conservative American Enterprise Institute said. He added that the PwC study also doesn’t mention other changes that affect consumers like insurers narrowing provider access. Still, PwC researchers say if the price trend continues, employers may shift their employees onto the Obamacare exchanges. The study found that the price of premiums is lower for consumers who select the lowest-priced Obamacare plans. The average cost for a bronze plan was about $4,885 or 20 percent less than an employer-based plan. The study did not factor in the subsidies offered by employers, or the tax credits offered on the Obamacare exchanges. "Across the board, at every level, average exchange premiums are lower than this year's average premiums for employer-sponsored coverage," the report said, adding that the exchanges also offer a wider selection of plans to choose from than those offered by employers. However, a number of top hospitals and doctors are not accepting insurance provided by the exchanges because of low rates and more bureaucratic red tape. Related: Confusion Over Deadlines Jeopardize Obamacare Obamacare offers consumers four different levels of coverage. There’s the bronze plan, which pays for 60 percent of medical costs and has the lowest premiums, the silver plan, which pays 70 percent of costs, the gold plan, which pays 80 percent and the most robust plan, the platinum, which pays 90 percent of costs and has the highest premiums. "Employers today are frustrated by the cost and hassle of providing health insurance, so they are looking for an affordable alternative to keep their employees healthy,” said Connolly. Related: More Companies Dump Employee Insurance for Obamacare Companies like Target, Trader Joes and Home Depot have already dropped their coverage for part-time workers and are encouraging them to sign up for health insurance on the new exchanges instead in order to cut costs. “This may be an option for employers in the not-too-distant future," Connolly said. "This data suggests this will be a competitive market." Others say it’s too early to tell how it will affect employers. “The claim that premiums this year are cheaper is completely irrelevant,” Antos said. “What matters is how this develops over the next few years and what happens that might destabilize the ACA rules.” So far, more than 3 million people have signed up for Obamacare, though a recent CNN poll of insurers estimates that about 20 percent of those have not paid their first month’s premiums—meaning the true number of people receiving coverage under the new law is still unknown.