Posted on 08/03/2013 4:37:04 AM PDT by Kaslin
Montana Senator Max Baucus, who led the effort in Congress to pass Obamacare, is now referring to it as a “coming train wreck”. Baucus has announced he will not to seek re-election in 2014, perhaps to avoid the inevitable embarrassment of this pending disaster. He’s not alone in his concern. The prospect that too few Americans will enroll in the program, thus rendering it unfeasible, has the administration fearful that Baucus is right -- it may actually end up derailed. These enrollment fears have prompted the creation of dubious non-profit organizations to promote Obamacare. Enroll America and Organizing for Action are tax-exempt organizations, led by former Obama campaign operatives, which plan to spend tens of millions of dollars pitching Obamacare enrollment. Their funding primarily comes from special interests and healthcare related corporations who stand to profit from Obamacare.
Success or failure of Obamacare depends on the administration’s ability to sign up a large portion of the 50 million Americans currently without health insurance. One group that is particularly vital to Obamacare’s success are young adults, ages 18 to 35, who will pay more into the system than what they will take out in healthcare benefits. Private health insurance companies have long-attempted to enroll young, healthy Americans to offset the costs of care for the elderly -- but it’s proven to be a near impossible task. Many young people simply choose to avoid the burden of monthly expenses for healthcare policies they don’t believe are necessary. If this demographic was a tough sell for private insurance companies before Obamacare, it will be even more difficult now. A survey of insurers, conducted by the American Action Forum, reveals that a health insurance policy for a 27-year-old male nonsmoker will be 190 percent higher under Obamacare.
Obamacare is now relying on a simple math equation. By 2016, the Administration will need 22 million uninsured Americans signed up with new state-based insurance exchanges or the federal government’s program. Enrollment begins on October 1, with a goal of at least 7 million people onboard over the next year. Included in this goal are 2.7 million young adults who aren’t exactly enthusiastic about signing up. Needless to say, it will require a massive public relations and education campaign to get these young people signed up. Congress hasn’t provided Obama with the funding to make this happen but that’s not stopping the Administration from finding other methods to achieve its goals.
On queue, several private non-profit tax-exempt organizations, managed by former Obama political operatives, have popped up to do the job. But there are serious questions about whether organizations like Enroll America are really operating as non-profits. Enroll America’s board of directors includes representatives of “for-profit” healthcare providers such as Teva Pharmaceuticals and Kaiser Permanente—big business interests that will clearly profit from Obamacare enrollment. Big insurance companies such as Aetna and Blue Shield, who rely on young adult enrollment with their companies, have also jumped on board. Tom Epstein, Vice-President of Public Affairs for Blue Shield is a member of the board of directors for Enroll America. Epstein is clear about the benefit to Blue Shield, “We're losing money on individual policies right now. We'll definitely need to make some money in the exchange."
Congress is now investigating Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius’ use of her office to raise money and support for these non-profits from private sector special interests --a potential ethics violation.
Enroll America launched a major grassroots campaign this summer to help educate and pre-enroll uninsured Americans. Their “Get Covered America” campaign kicked off with 78 events in 26 states and included community meetings, grassroots training and door-to-door neighborhood canvasing. They are keeping their donors and budget out of the public eye, but have announced they will spend millions on both grassroots and paid media to get young people enrolled in Obamacare.
Enroll America’s tax exempt status should be revoked. It represents the epitome of corporate welfare and political cronyism. The public should be outraged that big healthcare corporations and big government are teaming up to profit from a government healthcare takeover. If Obamacare truly offered the healthcare utopia originally sold to the American public, there would be no need to spend millions of dollars trying to persuade individuals to join the program, and there would be no need to create questionable front groups like Enroll America. Congress must thoroughly investigate the Administration’s role with these questionable non-profits to ensure there is no violation of the law or federal ethics rules, and make sure businesses are not colluding with government agencies to benefit their bottom lines. Rather than helping Obama avert the coming train wreck, these special interests and corporations would be better off allowing Obamacare to fail, thus saving the American public from an unhealthy and unaffordable healthcare disaster.
Thanks Max. You hit us now you run.
You could stay and work against Pelosi if you had the balls.
Baucus is in the Senate. If he stayed and worked against REID (not Pelosi), that would be cool, but of course that’s a dream, not reality.
Of Course.
Most people wont have a choice. Their current policy will be canceled and any new policies will be at least twice the price.
“Private health insurance companies have long-attempted to enroll young, healthy Americans to offset the costs of care for the elderly — but it’s proven to be a near impossible task.”
The difference is the government can do it at gunpoint.
The choice will be not to sign up and wait until you get sick or injured to enroll and pay the low fine (first year $95) in the meantime.
But, but Obama said that if we liked the policy we had we could keep it. And he said that premiums would go down by $2500. He wouldn’t lie, would he?
Maybe Max could make some ads describing the error of his ways. How the dems wanted the bill rushed through before anyone could read it and think about it. How he made the mistake of pushing it himself. How he wishes he had never voted for it. How he feels so badly about it that he is not running for re-election. How he thinks it should be repealed and replaced.
A lot of people would be willing to donate for a series of ads like this by Max and other people who voted for it.
He could at least try to go out an honorable man.
He could at least try to go out an honorable man.
You are right-—he could—but he won’t.
That might not be very effective, with Baucus in the Senate and Pelosi in the House.
Yeah somebody else already said so. Still it was Nancy that got this thing passed, and some Senators working against her wouldn’t hurt.
Advantage, lower costs and I'm not supporting Obamacare. Not supporting abortion. And not paying any fine.
I’ve heard about those but have never used them. My concern with them is that the cash price at most medical providers is crazy high. Also, once obamadeathcare gets going you’ll probably see most doctors stop taking cash patients.
Doesn’t anyone read the thread before adding to it.
You are number 3 this morning.
The cash price (or list price) is the price that is listed with the insurance company that is then discounted by contract with the insurance company.
Thus if you have no insurance you pay the really high price.......
However, if you negotiate you will find that almost all providers will give a significant discount for cash.
No paperwork on their part which is a significant part of their overhead.
I'm thinking that there will be more doctors working for cash as the bureaucratic nightmare that is Obamacare complicates the healthcare process even more than it already is.
Ya don't say...and they wrote the bill to. This is what "Obamacare" was all about to begin with.
Just as Stalin never gave up on collectivizing agriculture, no matter how many people were starved, Obama and the left will never give up on ObamaCare, no matter how harmful it is. The media will abandon the ‘it’s working’ lie to switch to ‘it’s all the Republicans fault’ lie. The inroad to absolute power over the American people will never, ever be relinquished.
Exactly right. Central planning only works when the consumer has no choice. That's why it's inconsistent with freedom.
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