SEPT 28 DEADLINE - Obamacare Health Insurance "Exchange" comments open

The Obama Administration is setting up the rules and regulations to establish a federal Health Insurance Exchange in every State. This will put all insurance and health care delivery under federal control. The Exchange could best be called a "lobster trap". Once installed, it'll be almost impossible to get out. The deadline for your comments is next Wednesday, September 28. Please take this opportunity to say NO.

Sample Comment (if you do not want to have your letter tagged as a “form letter,” please alter the sample below, use some or all of your own words, or add at least one sentence of your own to the comment):

I oppose this proposed federal rule to implement a federal health insurance exchange in every State in the country. I oppose claims that the exchange will provide “choice,” “competition” and “clout” when it will actually restrict health insurance options, violate patient privacy, monitor my compliance with the unconstitutional individual mandate to purchase health insurance, and expand government dependency into the middle class through federal subsidies. The rule uses the word “require” 628 times. This means federal control. I request the proposed rule be withdrawn until the U.S. Supreme Court issues a ruling on the constitutionality of the federal health care reform law.

From the first page of CCHF’s public comment:
...We oppose the overreach of federal authority, the false advertising, the false “flexibility” claims with no meaningful flexibility for States, the continued discussion of an HHS-run “federal” Exchange while the Administration has no plans or money to create or run one—every State-based Exchange will actually be a Federal Exchange—the controls implemented over patient care and the many uses of the word “require” and “must” while still claiming the Exchange offers choice, competition, clout, and “flexibility.”

In general, we are opposed to the proposed exchange regulation, which requires States to set up a federal structure by which the federal government can control virtually all facets of health care nationwide. We conclude by asking HHS to withdraw the entire rule.

...The specific concerns we have chosen to address regarding the exchange proposals, although there are many more, are titled:

Endless Stream of Exchange Regulations
Overreach of Federal Authority – proposed codification must be withdrawn
False Advertising
Exchange is Government Entity
Privacy Protection Ruse
Myth of a “Federal” Exchange
Ruse of “Flexibility” for States – a long list of examples
Discrimination against Average Citizens
Elimination of an Entire Industry by a Government Entity

http://www.cchfreedom.org/files/files/Public%20Comments%20-%20Exchanges%20and%20QHP%20FINAL%20Sept%2021,%202011%281%29.pdf

President Obama is planning to require disclosure of all your medical records (see 3rd column, p. 41940) to determine each "individual's risk score" -- your potential for health conditions (and high costs).

http://www.cchfreedom.org/files/files/NPRMPPACARiskAdjustment71511.pdf

To comply, the proposed rule states, "Some States indicated that they are developing 'all payer claims databases.'" MN's controversial "all payer claims" database is located in Maine. Every insurer sends the database a long list of private data on every patient encounter for analysis by the Minnesota Department of Health and its contractor, MN Community Measurement. Only cash payers escape government scrutiny.

The deadline to oppose this plan is just FIVE DAYS AWAY - Wednesday, September 28. Please take this opportunity to say NO.

Go to http://1.usa.gov/qRJfMi . Select "Submit a Comment." Enter CMS-9975-P as the Keyword or ID. Click "Search." The name of the proposed regulation is, "Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act; Standards Related to Reinsurance, Risk Corridors and Risk Adjustment."

Here is a portion of the commentary written by Republican Rep. Tim Huelskamp (R - KS) in the Washington Examiner today:

...The HHS has proposed the federal government pursue one of three paths to obtain this sensitive information: A “centralized approach” wherein insurers’ data go directly to Washington; an “intermediate state-level approach” in which insurers give the information to the 50 states; or a “distributed approach” in which health insurance companies crunch the numbers according to federal bureaucrat edict. It’s par for the course with the federal government, but abstract terms are used to distract from the real objectives of this idea: no matter which “option” is chosen, government bureaucrats would have access to the health records of every American - including you....

http://washingtonexaminer.com/opinion/op-eds/2011/09/obamare-hhs-rule-would-give-government-everybody-s-health-records

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