Free Republic

Between 30 and 40 percent of the IT system for the federal health insurance marketplace must still be built, a top official at the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services said Monday. Henry Chao, the agency’s deputy chief information officer, said that a large portion of the behind-the-scenes work has yet to be finished. “I think it’s just an approximation, we’re probably sitting somewhere between 60 or 70 percent [completed],” he told the House Energy and Commerce oversight subcommittee. Chao’s comments, which came during a hearing on data security of the federal website, come less than two weeks before the...

President Obama told supporters Monday night that he needed their help battling against “a lot of misinformation” spread by political opponents about his signature healthcare legislation. Speaking on a virtual conference call hosted by Organizing for Action — the political group born from his reelection campaign — the president admitted that problems with the ObamaCare website had put a damper on early enrollment efforts. “The good news is it’s getting better every single week,” Obama said. “I am confident that by the end of this month it is going to be functioning for the vast majority of folks.” The president...

".................Among the 20 percent who will not be able to sign up for the federal exchanges through the website, Carney said, will be some who are experiencing technical difficulties, delayed response times or website stability issues. Other users may decide not to enroll on the website because they are not as familiar with signing up for products online, and some people whose family situation is “complex” may choose to call in their applications or go to an in-person walk-in center. “They may decide to use the different method of enrolling not because of the website, but they may have children...

Former White House press secretary Robert Gibbs said Monday that the White House must fire someone – or possibly even a group of people – over the “botched” ObamaCare rollout. “I think longer term, in terms of credibility, I think they’re going to have to give people confidence, not just in healthcare, but in other aspects of government,” Gibbs said on NBC’s "Today." “I think they’re going to have to hold someone accountable for the botched rollout and the website not working – someone at HHS or a group of people at CMS.” The Centers for Medicaid and Medicare Services...

".....[Valerie] Jarrett, a Chicago associate of Obama's who now serves in the opaque but highly influential role of senior adviser to the president, told biographer David Remnick in his 2010 book “The Bridge: The Life and Rise of Barack Obama”: “I think Barack knew that he had God-given talents that were extraordinary. He knows exactly how smart he is. … He knows how perceptive he is. He knows what a good reader of people he is. And he knows that he has the ability – the extraordinary, uncanny ability – to take a thousand different perspectives, digest them and make...

By chance, have you had enough yet? Many of you have either lost your jobs or you've had your hours reduced. Millions of you are seeing your insurance policies go up in a fireball before your very eyes, like a KISS concert only instead of singing, "I Stole Your Love," the front man now sings, "I Stole Your Heath Care." But I don't want you to feel gullible. I think, under the circumstances, something approaching totally bamboozled would be understandable, ... or snookered, or hoodwinked, or hornswoggled, swindled, fleeced, scammed, deluded, stung, bent, folded, spindled and mutilated perhaps, broken into...

A disturbing trend among American conservatives is the increasing sense of optimism about President Obama's slow fade in mainstream perceptions, and its ramifications for the future of American leftism. Does Obama's decline entail the undoing of the movement he represents? Progressivism's history reveals another option, which is that the movement will, in the name of saving itself, reject Obama.Progressives are rigid in their ideology, to be sure, but this rigidity does not extend to their support for leaders. For it follows from the inhumane core of progressivism itself that all men--even "historic" ones--are expendable in the name of the cause,...

".....Having authored an inspirational politics, President Barack Obama’s difficulties are spawning a new fashion for perspiration. Given its limited powers, the strength of the US presidency derives largely from its occupant’s credibility....... ...........................[SNIP].......................... ......The contagion is starting to spread to his own party. Fearful of losing their seats next year, Democrats are defecting in growing numbers on a widening range of issues, from the Middle East to Obamacare. Last week 39 Democrats joined Republicans in voting to suspend an important chunk of the law. More are planning to do so in the Senate. Until recently, Mr Obama had a reasonable...

Last week I was informed by the agent who handles my firm’s health-care insurance that, come 2014, our group plan will be cancelled and replaced with an ObamaCare plan. Never mind that President Obama, his spokespeople, and Democratic Congressional leaders all stated over and over that Americans happy with their health-care plans would be able to keep them. Never mind that none of that was true

".......Administration officials privately acknowledge that no argument defending Obamacare will connect with Americans until they begin to see the effects of the law at work. No work-around or temporary fix will reach enough people to build a critical mass of support. The website has to function, admit edgy aides who sometimes spit the word "website" with the contempt familiar to anyone who has ever called a tech help desk.Obama revealed his own frustrations Thursday, saying at a White House news conference that he has an obligation to show Americans that the law has made health insurance more affordable and accessible—"if...

It’s Nov. 16, 2013, and the partial government shutdown ended one month ago today. In those four weeks, and the two prior, everything conservatives said would happen has happened. What’s more, the Democrats’ united stand against them has turned into a retreat — and is primed to become a rout — as they amend Obamacare’s disastrous rollout, President Barack Obama apologizes for his failures, and electorally vulnerable Democrats break ranks and flee. Hell, even the polls that D.C.’s Republican pundits shrieked, wept and clawed over show the Grand Old Party has bounced back while the Democrats have fallen behind. Because,...

House Democratic leaders, in a bid to keep frustrated rank-and-file members from supporting a Republican bill to remedy the White House’s broken “if you like it, you can keep it” promise, are mobilizing around a new legislative fix. As Democrats huddled in a closed-door caucus meeting Thursday afternoon with Obama administrative officials, leaders decided they would go to the House floor on Friday with a new plan to counter the bill sponsored by Energy and Commerce Chairman Fred Upton, R-Mich., a House Democratic leadership aide confirmed to CQ Roll Call. Upton’s bill would allow insurers to revive existing health plans...

(CNN) - Sen. Ted Cruz argued Thursday that people are starting to understand why he and other conservative activists embraced a strategy that tried to derail Obamacare this year but instead resulted in last month's government shutdown. Speaking at the Aspen Institute's Washington Ideas Forum in Washington, the Texas Republican said the troubled rollout of HealthCare.gov and revelations of people losing their health care insurance have led to changed feelings about his strategy. "A few weeks ago there were lots of people - particularly in Washington - that were saying, 'Why are you guys fighting so hard on this?' And...

A deeply frustrated President Barack Obama moved to quell a growing revolt in his party Thursday morning, announcing an administrative fix that would let health insurance companies extend existing policies for a year. The announcement by Obama — at the top of what became an unscheduled, nearly hourlong press conference — came as Democrats in both chambers are eyeing legislative fixes that would go much further and require insurers to extend such coverage. At times introspective and contrite, but also defiant and determined, Obama acknowledged that he needs to “win back some credibility” after “we fumbled the rollout” of the...

[Big SNIP] Here's how Robert Laszewksi, an insurance consultant, put it in a note to clients earlier this morning: This means that the insurance companies have 32 days to reprogram their computer systems for policies, rates, and eligibility, send notices to the policyholders via US Mail, send a very complex letter that describes just what the differences are between specific policies and Obamacare compliant plans, ask the consumer for their decision — and give them a reasonable time to make that decision — and then enter those decisions back into their systems without creating massive billing, claim payment, and provider...

<p>"Facing dissent from his own party and growing pressure from anxious Congressional Democrats, President Obama on Thursday is preparing to offer an administrative fix to a central element of his signature health care law, allowing Americans who are losing their health insurance coverage because of the Affordable Care Act to retain it.</p>

WASHINGTON–President Barack Obama will offer a fix for people facing health insurance policy cancellations as a result of his Obamacare health care law today at 11:35 a.m. ET. Earlier Thursday, House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi D-Calif., Obama will take action for people whose health insurance policies were cancelled as a result of his Obamacare health care law while House Democrats are also working on a plan. “The president will offer a proposal today is my understanding and we have our own proposal which we think is really good. But we’ll see. And it has to be done in the next...

Well, at least now we know the real reason that one-sixth of the economy had to be turned upside down. In the latest bit of brilliance from ProgressNowColoroado, Susie, a young woman "hot to trot," says "Thanks, Obamacare!" for birth control that is so easy to get that "all I have to worry about is getting him between the covers.".... [snip] .....But when the outrage and laughter inspired by the exposure of Obama's Big Lie subsides, the question remains: Now what do we do? Obamacare is in crisis. Will we let it go to waste? There seems to be a...

Furious congressional Democrats on Wednesday expressed exasperation with the White House for its bumbling implementation of ObamaCare. The recent deluge of bad news on the rollout of the Affordable Care Act has sparked widespread anxiety among Democrats, who are trying to win back the House and retain control of the Senate. Democratic leaders are straining to keep their members from turning against elements of ObamaCare amid pressure from angry constituents. They have pressed the White House to propose solutions to help assuage the anxieties of lawmakers deluged by complaints over canceled insurance policies. Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) said President Obama...

The news about the President's signature legislative accomplishment continues to get worse. A new poll by YouGov finds that more people trust Fox News for information about the so-called "Affordable Care Act" than trust President Obama: As you can see, almost twice as many people trust Fox than the President. Notice, too, how little CBS, CNN, NBC, Administration officials, and Democrats in Congress are trusted. Maybe it's because such folk were all behind the President pushing this program before it crashed before our very eyes. Please also notice that only local TV news sources and Fox are actually more trusted...