Free Republic

**SNIP** Desperate to keep insurers on board, the administration scrambled to find another source of money. Unfortunately, a big part of that money pot belongs to the public. Disregarding that fact, the administration announced on Feb. 12 that the money will be handed out to insurers - a whopping $7.7 billion this year alone. That huge handout to the insurance industry violates the law. This is money you and everyone else who already has insurance is forced to pay, called a reinsurance fee. You pay the fee whether you buy your own plan or get covered at work, even if...

VINTON, Iowa, Jan. 22 (UPI) -- Hillary Clinton has been taking increasing credit for the Affordable Care Act in a bid to discredit the healthcare policy of opponent Sen. Bernie Sanders. At a campaign stop Thursday in Vinton, Iowa, she told supporters: "It was called Hillarycare before it was called Obamacare. I don't want to start over again, I don't want to rip up this accomplishment and begin this contentious debate all over again." **SNIP** By contrast, the healthcare reform plan put forward by Clinton's husband in 1993 was far more overreaching than the Affordable Care Act, and in fact...

With less than three weeks of open enrollment left, Covered California is working to highlight increased penalties for not having health insurance this year. Since its individual coverage requirement took effect in 2014, Obamacare has doled out increasingly expensive fines to people who do not purchase coverage through health exchanges or obtain insurance from an employer or a government program such as Medicare. This year brings the highest penalty yet, Peter Lee, Covered California's executive director, said during a news conference Wednesday. "This is real money going straight to the IRS, where the consumer gets nothing in return," Lee said.

Michael Chadwick is all for Obamacare insurance - up to a point. The 32-year old Manhattan realtor was uninsured in his late twenties, and he was optimistic when he initially signed up for coverage three years ago. Then, his income changed. "I couldn't keep up with the payments, so I had no health insurance for the remainder of 2014," Chadwick explained to CNBC. He had a better year in 2015, and he's hopeful he'll be able to maintain his health coverage again this year. Still, he expressed frustration with the law's mechanics. "The Affordable Healthcare Act (ACA) doesn't take into...

**SNIP** But even if enrollment tops 12 million, that's barely more than had signed up last year - when the administration said 11.7 million had enrolled. Whatever the number is, it's inflated, because the administration counts anyone who went through the process of selecting a plan, not those who have actually paid for it. It would be like Amazon counting anything anyone put in their shopping cart as a sale. Last year, the initial 11.7 million "enrollees" had dropped by 25% once the non-payers got subtracted out. That's why the White House figures that, by the end of next year,...

People who don't buy health insurance next year will face a penalty of at least $695, a price that is being linked to a jump in ObamaCare sign-ups, particularly among people under 35 years old. The administration said Tuesday that 8.2 million people have signed up so far, compared to 6.4 million at this point last year. That includes 2.1 million people under age 35 - nearly double the number of young people enrolled during the same period last year. Administration officials touting the numbers have pounded home the message that ObamaCare coverage is affordable in explaining the rush of...

After two years of genteel coaxing of millions of Americans to sign up for health insurance under the Affordable Care Act, the Obama administration has begun to turn up the heat with the threat of a sharp increase in tax penalties and other sanctions. While many people found it far less expensive to pay a penalty than to enroll in a new government-subsidized health care plan, they will be in for a rude awakening if they try that again. In fact, in some ways it will be cheaper to purchase one of the more modest insurance plans than to pay...

WASHINGTON (MEDIA GENERAL) - Five years after Obamacare became federal law, the U.S. Senate is on track to pass a major repeal this week, following dozens of previous attempts in the House. **SNIP** To achieve that, Thune and other conservative leaders will give the Affordable Care Act its biggest gut punch to date - an official repeal vote. In a twist of legislative fate, GOP Senate leaders will pass their Obamacare repeal package through reconciliation, the same technical procedure Democrats used to pass it in 2010. Reconciliation is a parliamentary maneuver only allowed on budget-related bills. It's a useful tool...

Under the Affordable Care Act, young adults are allowed to stay on their parents' health insurance up to age 26. Since people generally like the idea of helping their own children avoid sickness and financial ruin, this has been one of the law's more popular features. But how exactly has the rule changed life for American twentysomethings? According to one new study, it seems to have given them a bit more leeway to bum around and find themselves - which is just about what you'd expect to happen when getting a job isn't a prerequisite for getting insurance. In a...

There have been many articles in the last year with some variation of the headline "GOP Surrenders on Obamacare." The stories mostly concern a tendency among some Republican policy elites to adopt the Washington conventional wisdom that Obamacare cannot be repealed because it has already become deeply entrenched in American life. Those Republicans might want to reconsider. A series of developments in recent days suggests the Affordable Care Act is in perilous condition and could become even more troubled in months to come. **SNIP** That's an enrollment rate of about 35 percent of those eligible for subsidies. Think about it:...

Troubling signs about the Affordable Care Act and the state of health care in the U.S. have bubbled up in the last few weeks. The administration's Obamacare enrollment projections for the coming year are down, the projected cost of premiums and out of pocket costs are up, nearly half of the insurance co-ops associated with the program are going out of business, and UnitedHealth Group, the nation's largest health insurer, said it may withdraw from the government marketplaces in 2017. Now comes a new survey by Gallup showing growing discontent with Obamacare and the U.S. health-care industry more generally after...

It wasn't very long ago that President Obama would jeer at Republicans for the many congressional votes they had taken to amend or repeal his healthcare law. But, much though he loves to jeer - his shameful and unpresidential fit of pique about GOP concerns on terrorists camouflaged as refugees, was a recent example - the president may soon beg them for a few more such votes. Because as its sixth birthday approaches, his health insurance law is in critical condition. The latest bad Obamacare news came on Thursday, when America's largest insurer had to tell Wall Street that it...

**SNIP** If profiteering from the rigged system is bad, how much worse is it that the government itself reported twice since July that basic information to determine enrollment and subsidy eligibility was not verified by the federal Health Insurance Marketplace or insurance exchanges examined in California and Kentucky? To test the system, investigators submitted 10 fictitious applications. All 10 were approved. One study concluded the government "could not verify" $2.8 billion in financial assistance payments through April 2014. Central planners never can include enough protections and contingencies to thwart self-interested human behavior. Neither can Washington foresee how markets will behave...

**SNIP** In addition to touting the opening of the enrollment period, Obama took on the law's critics in his weekly address. "What we're talking about is no longer just a law, and it's certainly not the myths and scare tactics that the cynics have peddled our way for years," Obama said. "This is healthcare in America. And the bottom line is, Americans like it."

As open enrollment season on HealthCare.gov begins, President Obama is introducing a contest meant to motivate Americans to sign up for health insurance coverage through federal and state exchanges. "I want to see how many of your neighbors you can get signed up," the president said in a video released Saturday. "I'll come visit the city that enrolls the highest percentage of folks who aren't covered right now. That's a promise." Twenty major cities will participate in the Healthy Communities Challenge, competing to see the largest decrease for those without health insurance. A high percentage of the population in these...

**SNIP** Obamacare's employer mandate, which requires companies to provide affordable health insurance to their workers or pay fines, will take full effect next year. Currently, only firms with 100 or more workers had to comply with the rule. But starting Jan. 1, 2016, businesses with 50 or more full-time workers will have to furnish coverage for at least 95 percent of their employees. This mandate will cost companies dearly. It requires them to cover employees' adult children up to age 26. What's more, an employee's share of the premium can't amount to more than 9.5 percent of his or her...

**SNIP** About $4.6 billion was given to these 17 recipients, including California, New York, Washington state and Kentucky. But the GAO report found that so far, just $1.4 billion of that has been spent on IT projects, and a total of $3 billion has been “spent or drawn down,” though not all the spending is detailed. That, then, leaves at least $1.6 billion unaccounted for. Yet only three states returned any portion of the money – a total of just over $1 million was given back. “[T]he specific amount spent on marketplace-related projects was uncertain, as only a selected number...

Now that ObamaCare is failing in the exact way its critics predicted more than 5 years ago, the White House is preparing to use threats to increase ObamaCare enrollment numbers next year. The threat, of course, is the ObamaCare tax. Next year the annual fine for not buying President Obama’s overpriced health insurance will jump to $695 or 2.5% of your income, whichever is greater. The White House intends to use the hefty fines as leverage in the upcoming 2016 enrollment period, which starts in November: Administration officials are looking for a balance. “We need to be make sure that...

A federal judge on Monday denied a request from the Obama administration to immediately appeal a ruling in House Republicans' ObamaCare lawsuit. The district court judge, Rosemary Collyer, last month gave House Republicans a big win by ruling that their lawsuit against the administration could move forward. The Obama administration strongly objected to that decision and asked for the ability to immediately appeal to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit. But on Monday, Collyer denied that request, deciding that she will first decide the substance of the case. Collyer wrote that a ruling on the substance of...

**SNIP** For 2014, the penalties were relatively small. The minimum amount was $95 per adult and $47.50 per child, which, for large families, is capped at a total of $285. If your income is higher, though, then your penalty could be as much as 1% of whatever income you earn over the tax filing threshold. In general, individuals making more than $20,000 have had to pay a higher penalty than the base $95 amount, and families making above certain higher limits have had to pay more than the $285 cap. This year, though, the penalty amounts are ratcheting up significantly....