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You likely hear it every day. And if it bugs you, you’re not alone. The most annoying word in American conversation has been revealed: “whatever.” And get this: it’s the fifth year in a row the nine-letter casual word has taken top ticked-off honors. According to a Marist poll, 38 percent of Americans can’t stand the word. Taking second-place honors is “like” with 22 percent, then “you know” with 18 percent followed by “just sayin” with 14 percent and “obviously” with 6 percent. The 38 percent number is up six points from last year.

The Center for American Progress, the Sellers Dorsey Foundation, and the Federal Agencies Project announce the launch of Out2Enroll, a campaign to inform lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) communities about new coverage options available through the Affordable Care Act (ACA) and to encourage LGBT individuals to enroll in coverage. The Out2Enroll campaign kicks off on September 12 with a briefing at the White House that will feature remarks from Senior Advisor to the President Valerie Jarrett, Secretary of Health and Human Services Kathleen Sebelius, and LGBT health and health reform experts from across the country. Out2Enroll will work at...

Sebelius Refuses to Guarantee People Who Go to ObamaCare Website By Dec 23 Will Be Able to Sign Up

A hard-right conservative group led by former Kansas Rep. Jim Ryun is endorsing a Republican who is trying to oust three-term GOP Sen. Pat Roberts. The Madison Project said Thursday that it was backing Dr. Milton Wolf over Roberts, the blunt-spoken conservative who was elected to the Senate in 1996 after eight terms in the House and has never gotten less than 60 percent of the vote in his heartland state. […] The Madison Project faulted Roberts for backing Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius, a former governor of Kansas, during her confirmation in 2009. …

In a move sure to spark consternation inside the White House, Rep. Phil Gingrey (R-GA) sent a letter Tuesday to embattled Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Kathleen Sebelius requesting she produce a list of the one-on-one meetings she and President Barack Obama allege to have held in the over three-and-a-half years leading up to Obamacare’s calamitous rollout—meetings that do not appear on the White House´s own official calendar. “I have been greatly concerned over the lack of transparency and disregard for straight answers,” says Gingrey in his letter to Sebelius. “The Government Accountability Institute reported this month that according

ByStephanie Condon CBS News December 13, 2013, 6: 31 PM Sebelius dodges question about whether she offered resignation Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius on Friday refused to say whether she's offered to resign in the wake of botched rollout of the new Obamacare marketplaces. "I'm not going to discuss what I talk about with the president," Sebelius said from Miami, where she was promoting the new marketplaces. Earlier this week at a congressional hearing, Sebelius acknowledged to lawmakers that the launch of HealthCare.gov, the Obamacare website, was "flawed and failed and frustrating." She hasaccepted responsibility for the failed...

On a recent trip to Miami, Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius admitted that, yes, some people will be paying more for health insurance under Obamacare:Sebelius Admits Americans Could Pay More For Insurance Due To Oba . . ."More back tracking now from the Obama administration admitting that some Americans will pay more for health insurance under the Affordable Care Act," said the Florida news anchor. "During a visit to Miami, Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius stopped at a local library to talk to local residents about enrolling on the health insurance website. She also acknowledged that...

Kathleen Sebelius went to bat for Obamacare navigators in an op-ed prior to a hearing led by Darrell Issa investigating the people designated to promote the health-care law as “navigators.” She accused the House Oversight Committee chairman of holding a field hearing in Dallas “designed to stifle, intimidate and impugn the reputation of people who have been working hard to help their fellow Texans get covered.” In the Dallas Morning News, Sebelius urged Republicans on the committee to stop “demonizing, demoralizing or deterring” navigators, praising the navigators for their efforts. She wrote navigators are “not paid to sell insurance,” but...

On December 11th, HHS head Kathleen Sebelius told Darrell Issa’s House Government Oversight Committee that 365,000 had enrolled in ObamaCare. Later on during the hearing, this conversation took place between Sebelius and Representative Michael Burgess (R) of Texas concerning the definition of “enrolled”: Burgess: What if that patient doesn’t make the premium payment? You said they’re covered Dec. 23, but they never write the check. They never make the payment. Sebelius: Then they’re not covered. They are not enrolled, and at every point along the way, on the website they are told until they make the payment— (1) Sebelius repeated...

While the Government continues to struggle with what seem to be insurmountable problems with the Affordable Care Act's implementation, Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius urged insurers to “cover whoever claims to have insurance.” “We fully understand that under normal conditions insurance isn't effective until the insured has paid a premium for coverage,” Sebelius said. “However, we aren't dealing with normal conditions. Many who have tried to sign up for insurance haven't been successful. For many of those who have been told they're signed up our system hasn't been able to properly bill them. Some have assumed that the...

Oppressive regimes throughout history have built cities of false facades meant to impress from afar, concealing the embarrassing condition of the places. In its quest to persuade Americans that Obamacare is working, the Obama administration has built the most expensive Potemkin website yet. Rep. Darrell E. Issa, chairman of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, wants to bulldoze the facade of Healthcare.gov to find what lies beneath, but Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius is telling her aides they better keep quiet, or else. In a Dec. 6 letter to Creative Computing Solutions, she instructed the Healthcare.gov construction...

(CNSNews.com) - Fearing that many people will think they have health insurance coverage when they do not, Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius is "urging" insurance companies to "give consumers additional time to pay their first month's premium and still have coverage beginning Jan. 1, 2014." Insurance companies should cover people who haven't yet paid, in other words. With just a few weeks to go until Obamacare takes full effect, Sebelius announced additional changes on Thursday, some that tell insurance companies how to run their business and others that "strongly" encourage insurance companies to waive their rules -- on...

WASHINGTON — With many Americans still foiled in their efforts to buy insurance under the new health care law, the Obama administration moved Thursday to give them more time to sign up and pay premiums, and it extended a program for people with cancer, heart disease and other serious illnesses. The administration strongly encouraged insurance companies to let new subscribers go outside their networks of doctors and hospitals and refill prescriptions for drugs not on their lists of approved medications. Kathleen Sebelius, the secretary of health and human services, said these steps would ensure that consumers have “a smooth transition...

The Health and Human Services Department told House Oversight and Government Reform Committee Chairman Darrell Issa that it won’t turn over documents related to the security of the Healthcare.gov website because it can’t trust him to keep secret information that could give hackers a roadmap to wreak havoc on the system. Issa has issued a subpoena to MITRE, a government contractor, to turn over unredacted copies of security-testing documents by noon Friday. At issue are website development plans MITRE drafted for the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, which is under HHS. Already, Issa has been given access to the...

The Democrats’ health insurance law gives the Health and Human Services Department “immense powers and decision-making authority,” Rep. Ed Whitfield (R-Ky.) told Kathleen Sebelius on Wednesday. “And we know that many regulations have been written. Could you tell me how many pages of regulations have been written to implement this act?” Whitfield asked Sebelius. “Sir, I can get you that number. I do not know,” Sebelius replied. …

(VIDEO-AT-LINK) The millions of Americans who received termination notices for their insurance policies are “thrilled” that they now have other options on the exchanges, saus HHS secretary Kathleen Sebelius. The cancellations allowed people to be “unlocked from a policy” that most actually didn’t want, she explained during a House Energy and Commerce subcommittee. “A lot of individuals who received cancellation notices are thrilled with the choices that are now available to them.”(continued)

The lead congressman investigating HealthCare.gov’s dismal performance during its first two months online ratcheted up the executive-congressional conflict on Wednesday, accusing Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius of criminal obstruction of his investigation. The dispute centers around a letter the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services sent to a contractor that worked on the online health insurance marketplace, directing it not to turn over correspondence and other documents to congressional investigators and stating CMS would manage any congressional inquiries. That letter amounted to “criminal obstruction” of a congressional investigation,” according to House Oversight and Government Reform Committee Chairman Darrell...

Well that was fun, butt it’s back to work today.Happy, Happy, Happy!I can’t believe that people are still talking about whether Lady M was really mad at Big Guy for his sophomoric antics at the memorial. I’m not going to discuss this any further, because I don’t want to be accused of being a racist. I will, however, direct you to a close up of our return to the Big White.Look closely: that is NOT smoke coming out of her nose/ears.Suffice it to say I spent the evening in the bunker. Butt with so many new issues on deck, we’ll...

News Print Article | Email Friend | Reprint Permissions Tense confrontation: Congressman asks Sebelius for list of ObamaCare plans that don’t cover abortion by Ben Johnson Wed Dec 11, 2013 14:12 EST Tags: chris smith, john shimkus, kathleen sebelius, obamacare WASHINGTON, D.C., December 11, 2013 (LifeSiteNews.com) – Sparks flew on Capitol Hill today as a Republican congressman demanded that HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius produce a list of ObamaCare health insurance plans that do not cover abortion. On October 30, Rep. John Shimkus of Illinois asked Sebelius if she could “provide for the committee the list of insurers in the federal...

Rep. Darrell Issa (R-CA), the Chairman of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, charged HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius with “criminal obstruction” of the committee’s Obamacare investigation. Issa released a press release earlier today. NextGov.com reported: The lead congressman investigating HealthCare.gov’s dismal performance during its first two months online ratcheted up the executive-congressional conflict on Wednesday, accusing Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius of criminal obstruction of his investigation. The dispute centers around a letter the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services sent to a contractor that worked on the online health insurance marketplace, directing it not to turn...