Hot Air » exchanges

Uh oh: Obamacare author warns implementation could be a “train wreck”

Mary Katharine Ham — Wed, 17 Apr 2013 20:01:42 +0000

Sen. Max Baucus (D-MT), who helped write Obamacare and is up for reelection in 2014: Senate Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus, one of the health reform law’s chief authors, says he’s worried about a “huge train wreck coming down” if the Obama administration doesn’t improve its public outreach about the legislation. Baucus, a Montana Democrat [...]

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ObamaCare exchanges now costing at least double initial projections

Erika Johnsen — Thu, 11 Apr 2013 17:21:19 +0000

Price check.

A not-at-all surprising admission from President Obama’s budget release on Wednesday. We already knew that the administration’s mishandling of the whole situation was going to cost us, but Bloomberg reports on the more exact figures: The $1.3 trillion U.S. health-care system overhaul is getting more expensive and will initially accomplish less than intended. Costs for [...]

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DC joins several states classifying smoking as a “pre-existing medical condition” under ObamaCare

Erika Johnsen — Wed, 10 Apr 2013 16:41:27 +0000

New frontiers in non-accountability.

Under ObamaCare, insurers have the option of charging smokers up to 50 percent more to cover the associated higher costs of providing them with health care — but the District of Columbia, along with several other states, have decided that any plans being sold within their exchange are prohibited from adding tobacco surcharges. That simply [...]

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Sebelius: Certain stubborn states are making the ObamaCare rollout more tricky than we anticipated

Erika Johnsen — Tue, 09 Apr 2013 20:41:34 +0000

"The politics has been relentless and that continues." ...You don't say?

At an event on Monday night, HHS Secretary Sebelius acknowledged some of the messiness of the ongoing ObamaCare implementation, but of course had at least one readily available excuse as to why the administration is so very unreasonably put-upon at the moment: Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Kathleen Sebelius said Monday that she did [...]

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Joe Klein: My, the administration is looking pretty incompentent in Obamacare implementation

Mary Katharine Ham — Wed, 03 Apr 2013 23:21:25 +0000

"[W]e are now seeing weekly examples of this Administration’s inability to govern."

This sounds remarkably like what we’ve been writing, and it’s nice to see a few Obamacare supporters recognize this reality. Holding Obamacare to its promises is rather important, no matter which side you’re on. On my side, it’s to ameliorate the damage and prevent such debacles in the future. For Klein, it’s to make sure [...]

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CNN: Hey, were Americans misled about the costs of ObamaCare?

Mary Katharine Ham — Thu, 28 Mar 2013 21:21:06 +0000

Yes.

Things that could have been brought to our attention….three years ago! This segment is a bit myopic, dealing mostly with whether Sec. Kathleen Sebelius said this (yes, she did) and one study that shows costs going up. But it’s decent as far as it goes, and we could have used a whole lot more such [...]

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Obamacare official on exchanges: “Let’s just make sure it’s not a third-world experience.”

Mary Katharine Ham — Fri, 22 Mar 2013 17:21:37 +0000

Vital signs fading.

A quick reminder about what I’ve been saying about the challenges of Obamacare exchange implementation, here and here. Now, Obamacare feds are conceding the same. Gary Cohen, head of the Center for Consumer Information and Insurance Oversight, is the one charged with getting this bird off the ground, and has faced grilling from even Democratic [...]

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Christie, Scott hold the line on ObamaCare exchanges

Erika Johnsen — Sat, 16 Feb 2013 01:41:48 +0000

No can do.

The clock ran down today on ObamaCare’s already-extended deadlines for states to figure out whether they’d be formulating their own state-run health insurance exchanges, resigning the task over to the federal government, or forging some kind of partnership — and three more GOP-led states have reported that they’re officially disinclined to acquiesce the Obama administration’s [...]

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CBO and small biz: Yeah, about keeping your health care plan if you like it

Mary Katharine Ham — Thu, 07 Feb 2013 19:01:31 +0000

If you like it, good luck keeping it.

This week the Congressional Budget Office put to rest for good the idea that if you like your health care plan, you can keep it: “In 2022, by CBO and JCT’s estimate, 7 million fewer people will have employment-based health insurance as a result of the Affordable Care Act,” the CBO announced in its new [...]

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Could a single word undo ObamaCare?

Ed Morrissey — Wed, 18 Jul 2012 00:41:49 +0000

You're kidding, right?

Wouldn’t that be nice? In the haste to pass ObamaCare through arcane parliamentary maneuvers — whoever heard of “reconciliation” outside of the Beltway before Scott Brown won a US Senate seat? — maybe the drafters of the Affordable Care Act made a one-word mistake in the 2800-page bill that would demolish the entire law. After [...]

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Good news: Leader of Romney’s transition wants to implement ObamaCare exchanges

Allahpundit — Mon, 04 Jun 2012 20:23:08 +0000

Trouble.

Remember, under ObamaCare states have a “choice” of either introducing their own exchanges — subject to federal regulations, natch — by 2014 or letting their citizens participate in the new federal exchange when it finally comes online. If you’re a Republican governor who opposes O-Care, the obvious move is to do nothing. By creating a [...]

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