Oops: Republican Obamacare Amendment Expanded Abortion Access for GOP Staffers

—By Molly Redden

| Mon Dec. 9, 2013 3:00 AM GMT

"Crap." Pete Marovich/ZUMA

Nearly 9 in 10 health care plans that members of Congress and their staff must choose from include abortion coverage, a fact that has Rep. Chris Smith (R-N.J.) and right-wing media outlets raising hell.
But the only reason that congressional staffers have to choose from these plans at all is because a Republican amendment to Obamacare requires it. Thanks to this amendment, congressional staffers, who once had to pay for abortions out of pocket, can now buy insurance that covers abortions.
The bizarre story of how a conservative, anti-abortion Republican ended up expanding abortion access for congressional staff dates back to the initial fight over the Affordable Care Act in 2010. Here's how it happened: The Obamacare exchanges were expressly designed to provide insurance to the uninsured, so congressional staffers—who, like most Americans, already had insurance—were initially excluded. Republicans claimed that this amounted to Democrats "exempting" themselves and their staff from Obamacare, and Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) introduced an amendment that would force members of Congress and their staff to use the exchanges. Grassley's proposal was intended to embarrass Democrats. But Democrats called Grassley's bluff, and the law passed with his amendment.
But Grassley's measure forced congressional staff out of the Federal Health Benefits Program, which federal law prohibited from offering any abortion coverage. Under the the federal plan, any congressional employee who wanted an abortion had to pay for it out of pocket. Now that they're on the Obamacare exchanges, though, congressional employees will only pay out of pocket for abortion insurance. They'll be able to choose any of the 112 plans available via Washington, DC's health care exchange, only 9 of which do not cover abortion.

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Grassley's office did not respond to a request for comment.
Smith claimed to the Associated Press that this means Congress is spending taxpayer dollars on abortions. But as ThinkProgress' Tara Culp-Ressler detailed, the employer contributions congressional staff receive for health care—i.e., federal, taxpayer dollars—will not be used to pay for abortions. The Office of Personnel Management has bent over backward to ensure that when congressional staff purchase health care plans, they'll be paying for any abortion coverage with segregated personal funds.
And the cost of that abortion coverage will likely be much less than that of an actual abortion. A 2013 Guttmacher Institute study using 2009 data found that the average out-of-pocket price women paid for an abortion was $485.
So to recap: Republican fearmongering about an Obamacare exemption for congressional staffers that never existed has earned congressional staffers a big abortion discount.

Molly Redden

Reporter

Molly Redden is a reporter in Mother Jones' Washington bureau. She tweets at @mtredden. RSS | Twitter

Rick Santorum: Nelson Mandela Fought 'Great Injustice,' Just Like Republicans Are Battling Obamacare

The Huffington Post  |  By Paige Lavender
Posted: 12/06/2013 9:53 am EST

During an appearance on Fox News Thursday night, former Sen. Rick Santorum (R-Pa.) discussed the death of Nelson Mandela, saying the former South African president fought "great injustice" just like Republicans who are battling Obamacare.
"Nelson Mandela stood up against a great injustice and was willing to pay a huge price for that. That's the reason he's mourned today, because of that struggle that he performed," Santorum said. "But you're right, I mean, what he was advocating for was not necessarily the right answer, but he was fighting against some great injustice, and I would make the argument that we have a great injustice going on right now in this country with an ever-increasing size of government that is taking over and controlling people's lives, and Obamacare is front and center in that."
The statement, pointed out by Slate's Dave Weigel in a tweet Friday morning, came after Fox News host Bill O'Reilly claimed Mandela "was a great man, but he was a communist."
"I would never attack Nelson Mandela," O'Reilly said next.
Watch a clip of Santorum's remarks above.

Irritating Conservatives: Facts and Common Sense Thoughts Republicans Really Won’t Like

November 30, 2013 

By Allen Clifton 

 

Every once in a while I like to write an article listing a few facts Republicans really won’t like hearing.  For most, debating Republicans is a mind-numbing venture that should only be taken on by those who wish to punish themselves.
For me, I love presenting them with facts to see them try to ramble off whatever talking point they’ve been fed by Fox News and others within the right-wing media.
But it’s not just facts that Republicans seem immune to.  Common sense and logic seem to be two other traits conservatives seem completely devoid of.
So, in no particular order, here’s a few facts and common sense thoughts you can share with Republicans to drive them crazy.
Our Constitution and Health Care
In the late-1700′s, we didn’t have an organized military and required armed citizens to defend our outlying borders on a moments notice until help could arrive from the government.  The average life expectancy was also around 35 years old and a bad cut to the leg often meant amputation.  Could it possibly be that’s why the right to own guns is our Second Amendment but health care is mentioned absolutely no where?
Isn’t it a little asinine to completely base a modern society in 2013 on ideas written hundreds of years ago?  And don’t even give me “the Constitutional Amendment process.”  We will probably never see another Constitutional Amendment passed in our lifetimes.  The process for passing one, with a political environment saturated with big money and lobbyist influence, is simply not conducive to passing any kind of amendment to our Constitution.

Economic Improvement
Moving onto our economy.  We’ve gone from a point where we were losing hundreds of thousands of jobs per month to gaining hundreds of thousands.  In fact, there are some months where the headline, “Economy Only Adds 175k Jobs” is considered bad news because the numbers didn’t beat estimates.
For those who are mathematically challenged, gaining nearly 200,000 jobs as opposed to losing 200,000 jobs is actually a great way to define economic improvement.
If you really believe our economy hasn’t drastically improved under President Obama, you’re simply living in denial.
Oh, and we can still blame Bush for the areas of our economy that are slower to improve.  Cleaning up a mess is always much harder than creating one.  When we’re still having to fix problems caused prior to January 2009, those issues didn’t suddenly become President Obama’s fault simply because Bush’s time in office ran out.
And can you people be honest with yourselves for once?  If a Republican president came into office in 2009 and created nearly 8 million jobs, presided over record stock levels, killed Osama bin Ladin and reduced our year to year deficits by their largest margins since World War II — you’d be calling him a Republican hero.
Religion
I’m a Christian and I love my faith.  If you’re a Christian that’s great too.  Faith and religion can be wonderful things in our lives.  Well, our personal lives.  Keyword being personal.  
Religion is something that’s rarely a good topic to be discussed in public because it’s something that millions of people — many within the same faith, mind you — strongly disagree on.
Which is why a strict separation of church and state is vital for government.  If you want more religion in your life, go to church more often.  Don’t try to force it into our government where it has no place.
The Media
Conservatives are right about one thing: the media is often a joke.  But it’s the conservative media that’s by far the worst.  At least MSNBC openly admits they lean left.  Fox News tries to portray itself as “Fair and Balanced” while being neither.  Then some of your biggest “voices of conservative media” are some of the most reprehensible, paranoid and disgusting people in all of the media.  People like Rush Limbaugh, Glenn Beck and Ann Coulter.  People with next to no redeeming qualities whatsoever.
I love how facts often suddenly become “liberally biased” simply because they might not support your ideology.  Take climate change, for example.  It’s amazing how not too long ago climate change was pretty much an accepted fact — until some within your party decided that something supported by the vast majority of the global scientific community wasn’t as credible as the “science” done by right-wing think tanks like the Heritage Foundation.
And at least liberals get their news from a variety of sources.  You people only trust Fox News.  Why do you think their ratings are often higher than everyone else?  It isn’t because they’re better, it’s just because conservatives have been brainwashed not to trust anyone else.
Taxes
Whenever I talk about trickle-down economics I rarely get the sense that conservatives actually believe in it.  They do, however, seem to support the popular Republican economic theory because the “dirty America-hating liberals” oppose it.
I think it’s funny how basically every credible economic statistic since trickle-down economics was put into place in this country shows income inequality has never been greater or wider.  The rich are richer than ever before while the poor and middle class continue to fall further and further behind.
The promise of trickle-down economics is that the more the rich have, the better it will be for the rest of us.  Well, over 30 years since trickle-down economics was chosen as the scam to con millions of Americans plan usher in new economic prosperity — we’re still waiting for it to “trickle down.”
Honestly, how much richer do the top 2% need to get before we say, “You know what?  This is a load of crap.”
Then again, Fox News will never say that, so conservative voters will never believe it.

–

I’ll go ahead and cut if off there.  I think I might just make this a series because there are many more areas I would love to have covered, but the article would end up being thousands of words long.
So, maybe a “Part 2″ in the future?  I guess you’ll just have to keep an eye out and see.

Related Posts on Forward Progressives:

• Pope Francis Slams Trickle-Down Economics, Calls Out Republican Economic Policy
• 10 Questions Every Liberal Should Ask Every Republican
• If Republicans Would Just Get Out of the Way, Our Economy Would Be Much Better Off
• Satire Has Become Reality: Rush Limbaugh Attacks Pope Francis for Acting Like a Christian

Assembly Speaker Robin Vos (R-Rochester), Wisconsin Republican lawmakers are finally interested in seeking possibly helpful tweaks to "Obamacare,"

blogs (via Uppity Wisconsin)

Assembly Speaker Robin Vos (R-Rochester), was quoted in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel responding to reporters curious as to why Scott Walker and Wisconsin Republican lawmakers are finally interested in seeking possibly helpful tweaks to "Obamacare,"…

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Obama comes out fighting on health care

Obama comes out fighting on health care (via AFP)

US President Barack Obama on Tuesday tried to turn the focus away from the glitch-riven debut of his landmark health care law to its benefits, hoping to reverse a rough political run. "If I have got to fight another three years to make sure this law…

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Bill O'Reilly Tries to Sell His Roots as Working Class - Again

Home » Blogs » John Amato's blog

December 05, 2013 06:00 AM

Bill O'Reilly Tries to Sell His Roots as Working Class - Again

By John Amato 

Bill O'Reilly has been revving up the insanity during the implementation of Obamacare and Tuesday's Factor was no different. Heather beat me to his outrageous claims that millions and millions of people who need food stamps are druggies and drunks, and he had a Catholic priest on to say Jesus definitely wouldn't want a national health care plan.
He actually had guests on to debate that issue.
It's crazy, I know, but that's the state of Fox News. Another fallacy Bill O. brought to the table was that his parents were poor indeed when he was growing up. Over the years Bill O'Reilly has always tried to characterize his upbringing as that of a typical-poor working-class stiff, but nothing could be farther from the truth. While debating the stupid question of 'would Jesus support a nanny state,' he attacked poor people who needed government assistance like food stamps while saying his parents were poor too, but always managed to put food on the table.

O'Reilly: Some of the people who don't have enough to eat, it's their fault particularly with their children and this is where it really becomes dicey. If you’re an addict or a drug addict and you can’t hold a job, and you can’t support your children, […] then it's your fault you’re bringing the havoc. You’re asking people who may be struggling themselves to put food on the table to give their tax money to you, […] and then you’re going to buy booze and drugs with it...because there's no government regulation with it and that's my problem.
Duboise : most of the food goes to working families....
O'Reilly: My parents didn't make a lot of money and they were able to put food on the table and I'm just seeing a system that's creating dependence.

Back in the fifties and sixties, his father was an accountant who commuted to NYC everyday from Long Island and made up to 35,000.00 dollars a year as per Bill. If we adjust that to modern dollars, you'll see his father was making a roughly very good living indeed.

$35,000 in 1965 would be $255,100 in 2013.

BIll O'Reilly moved to Long Island in 1951 so if his father was making 20,000 dollars in 1965 then it would calculate out to 148K dollars of buying power in 2013.
Any person who needs to lie about his background is pretty sick to begin with. Sprinkle in a egomaniacal personality, and you have Bill.
Now let's define what 'working class" really means. Here's one definition.

The socioeconomic class consisting of people who work for wages, especially low wages, including unskilled and semiskilled laborers and their families.

The working class typifies people that do manual labor to survive. Working as an accountant is not considered manual labor, but a highly skilled job. Why the lie, BillO?
Is Bill O'Reilly dependent on making believe his family was poor?

Megyn Kelly Loses It Over Huge New Obamacare Problem: ‘That’s Your Money!’

She STILL doesn't get it's PRIVATE INSURANCE!!!

 Dec. 3, 2013 11:39pm Jason Howerton

The Obama administration is reportedly preparing to implement a “workaround” that instructs insurers to “estimate” the cost of health care plans and the government will determine the actual costs later, Reuters reports. This “workaround” is needed because the Obamacare payment system isn’t working properly.

“You’re touting this improved Healthcare.gov,” a befuddled Kelly began. “How does the system work without a payment mechanism? There is no cash register!”

Reuters has the “bombshell” report on the new “workaround”:

The administration is planning a “workaround” for payments, said Daniel Durham, vice president for policy and regulatory affairs at America’s Health Insurance Plans.

Health plans will estimate how much they are owed, and submit that estimate to the government. Once the system is built, the government and insurers can reconcile the payments made with the plan data to “true up” payments, he said.

“The intent is to make sure plans get paid on time, which is a good thing,” Durham told Reuters.

The fix puts an additional “burden” on insurance companies, already taxed by having to double-check faulty enrollment data from the HealthCare.gov system.

Kelly was shocked that the administration would “let the insurance companies estimate what they should get.”

“Then the feds are going to cut them a big check and figure out later what the real amounts are supposed to be! That’s your money!” she added. “Think about that for a moment. Think about that. We’re talking about one-sixth of the U.S. economy and this is the system that they have now settled on.”

Kelly went on to remind viewers that President Barack Obama on Tuesday assured the American people that Obamacare is “working and will continue working in the future.

 

Report: HealthCare.gov Enrollment Continues To Accelerate

 

AP Photo

Dylan Scott – December 5, 2013, 9:46 AM EST91

 

Enrollment on HealthCare.gov continued its upward swing this Tuesday, according to a report by the Washington Post.
Tuesday's enrollment was 27,000, the Post reported, citing "internal figures." As TPM reported Wednesday, enrollment on Sunday and Monday -- the first two days after the Obama administration declared the federal website fixed -- came in at 29,000.
That brings the three-day December total to roughly 56,000. Enrollment in all of October was less than 27,000 through HealthCare.gov.
Official November figures are expected to be released by the middle of December.

Report: States Opting Out Of Medicaid Expansion Will Lose Billions

Newscom

Dylan Scott – December 5, 2013, 12:01 AM EST2169

 

States not expanding Medicaid under Obamacare will be collectively lose more than $35 billion in federal funds in 2022 alone, according to a new report from the Commonwealth Fund.
Texas ($9.2 billion), Florida ($5 billion), Georgia ($2.9 billion), Virginia ($2.8 billion) and North Carolina ($2.6 billion) will be the biggest losers, according to the organization, which supports Obamacare. The study's projections of the budget impact nearly a decade out relied on estimates of Medicaid expansion eligibility and spending in 2022 from the Urban Institute to reach its conclusion.

The report covered 20 states, all with Republican governors and/or state legislatures that refused to expand Medicaid under the health care reform law after the U.S. Supreme Court made it optional in June. It did not include several states (such as Pennsylvania and New Hampshire) where expansion is not yet finalized, but state officials are working toward it.
“In states that elect not to expand Medicaid, millions of their most vulnerable residents will be unable to gain health insurance,” Commonwealth Fund President David Blumenthal said in a statement. “Those same states will be forgoing billions in federal funds while paying for other areas to provide expanded coverage. In light of these facts, it seems likely that non-expanding states will face increasing pressure over time to reconsider their decisions.”
Under Obamacare, the federal government covers 100 percent of the costs for the first three years and never less than 90 percent after that.
The Commonwealth Fund further explained the study's methodology as follows:

Federal funds that pay for state Medicaid programs are raised through federal general revenue collection—taxes paid by residents in all states—whether or not they participate in the program. Therefore, taxpayers in states not participating in the Medicaid expansion will bear a share of the overall cost, without benefitting from the program. Glied and Ma estimated the net loss of federal funds to states that do not expand Medicaid by using projected federal Medicaid spending in each state and calculating the federal Medicaid-related taxes paid by each state.

About The Author

Dylan Scott

Dylan Scott is a reporter for Talking Points Memo. He previously reported for Governing magazine in Washington, D.C., and the Las Vegas Sun. His work has been recognized with a 2013 American Society of Business Publication Editors award for Best Feature Series and a 2010 Associated Press Society of Ohio award for Best Investigative Reporting. He can be reached at dylan@talkingpointsmemo.com.

Bereft of real ideas, GOP resorts to same old Medicare lie

Bereft of real ideas, GOP resorts to same old Medicare lie

by Joan McCarter

attribution: REUTERS

How'd that work for these guys?

How bankrupt for ideas are Republicans leading into the 2014 midterms? Bankrupt enough to resurrect the big lie of 2012: That Obamacare is cutting $716 billion from Medicare and that's going to hurt seniors. This time around, it's $717 billion, but the aim is the same as always: Trying to scare seniors.

As President Obama and Democrats try to salvage the reputation of the Affordable Care Act, a national Republican group will hit 12 Democrats–all running in Senate elections next year–over changes to Medicare. The National Republican Senatorial Committee will highlight Wednesday the candidates' support for the federal health care law, better known as Obamacare, and what Republicans call $717 billion in cuts to the popular entitlement program that guarantees health insurance to seniors.

Here's the rich part: "But the NRSC will hammer the Democratic candidates in a news release for 'deceiving seniors (by) using their old and discredited MediScare playbook.'" Right. It's the Democrats who are trying to deceive and scare seniors when they point out Republicans tried to turn Medicare into a voucher system. It's the oldest trick in the political playbook. It failed in 2012, but Republicans must figure that it'll get them enough votes in the midterm elections to drag it out again. Never mind that the facts haven't changed. The $717 billion is money saved in the Medicare program by reducing federal payments to insurance companies, hospitals and other providers, not by cutting benefits. Never mind that it's been fact-checked to death as false. Never mind that Rep. Paul Ryan had the exact same cuts in his touted budget. Never mind reality. Because scaring seniors is always a reliable trick.

Originally posted to Joan McCarter on Wed Dec 04, 2013 at 08:13 AM PST.

Also republished by Daily Kos.

Visitors are pouring into Healthcare.gov so John Boehner peddles false Obamacare ‘horror story’

December 3, 2013

By Anomaly

John Boehner is upset over another Obamcare ‘horror’ story. It’s pure horror. It’s horribly horrible. It’s also pure fiction.To explain why Republicans are holding oversight hearings on Obamacare this week instead of doing their jobs,  the House Speaker linked to a story which is completely false.
Sunday morning, the New York Post (R-Murdoch) published a story about Cornelius Kelly, who was distraught to learn that the New York State health insurance plans could cover his wife and three older children, but that he would have to buy a separate plan for his 18-month-old daughter.
Not the children!

On Monday Fox News ran with the story and Kelly appeared on the network’s show to retell the horror of it all. Within hours, the story spread like wildfire.
Capital New York reports, “The problem is, Kelly appears to have been given some bad information. Family plans in New York cover the whole family. No baby has to wait until its second birthday to join a family plan, as the article described Kelly being told.”
“It was 100 percent false,” said Bill Schwarz, a spokesman for the state’s Department of Health. “Of course, everyone is covered in the family policy.”





Boehner is promoting the hashtag: #Trainwreck. The problem is that this ‘horror story’ has a wonderful ending.
Hey John, lookie!:

Admin officials expect http://t.co/aRzVnTALRd to hit 800k visitors today
— Jim Acosta (@JimAcostaCNN) December 2, 2013

The Fake Obamacare Site That Is Trying To Trick Californians

By Igor Volsky on December 3, 2013 at 11:57 am

Republican members of the California Assembly are distributing seemingly innocuous guides about the coverage options available under the Affordable Care Act that downplay the law’s benefits and misinform voters.
The flyers, which are being sent out at taxpayer expense, are also directing residents to “CoveringHealthCareCA.com,” a domain that closely resembles the official marketplace website for Covered California (CoveredCA.com) But rather than helping Californians enroll in coverage, this site appears to be the creation of the Republican party: it warns senior citizens about health care rationing and “provisions that have driven up insurance costs”. The site is designed to look like a non-partisan guide, but actually mirrors Republican talking points and criticisms of the law:

– IRS WILL SINGLE OUT CONSERVATIVES. “In light of the recent revelation of questionable processes at the IRS for approving the tax-exempt status of certain groups, several members of the State Legislature, led by Assemblyman Dan Logue, introduced Assembly Joint Resolution 23 to urge Congress and the President to remove any financial oversight responsibilities of the IRS with regard to the administration of the Affordable Care Act.”
– YOUNG PEOPLE ARE SCREWED. “Young invincibles or healthy adults visit the doctor very seldom and are money makers for insurers and medical groups that contract to provide them services. As low-cost additions to insurance pools, young adults would help dilute the expense of covering older, sicker people. Depending on how Congress requires insurers to price their policies, this group could even wind up paying disproportionately hefty premiums — effectively subsidizing coverage for the less healthy.”
– EMPLOYERS WILL STOP HIRING. “There are subsidies in the program for health insurance. However, there is an argument that the Affordable Care Act provides strong incentives for firms to avoid hiring workers from low-income households. … Many economists believe that the employer mandate contained in the federal law has resulted in many employers who currently have fewer than 50 employees from deciding not to hire new workers so that they are not subject to the new mandate or penalty provisions. News stories are beginning to confirm these concerns.”
– SENIORS WILL EXPERIENCE RATIONING. “For seniors that use Medicare’s prescription drug program, the Affordable Care Act gradually closes the “donut hole” until its complete elimination in 2020. To pay for other components of the Affordable Care Act such as expanding Medicaid and creating state health exchanges, Medicare providers will see rate cuts near $200 billion over the next decade. These cuts could potentially result in the exodus of doctors from the Medicare system and force Medicare recipients to find new providers, possibly facing longer wait times for care as that pool of doctors shrinks.”

Despite the GOP’s effort to dissuade Californians from purchasing coverage, however, nearly 80,000 people signed up for health insurance in the state’s new exchange as of late November, with approximately 2,7000 people enrolling daily.
A disclaimer on the site — which is situated next to a link to the Assembly Republican Caucus — notes that “The California State Assembly does not warrant or make any representations as to the quality, content, accuracy, or completeness of the information, text, graphics, links and other items contained on this server or any other server.” Indeed.
(HT: Crooks and Liars)

Republicans’ self-hatred swells: The GOP vs. its own base

Rick Santorum is unhappy that older people, who tend to vote Republican, are getting insurance via the ACA

Joan Walsh
Monday, Dec 2, 2013 03:00 PM -0700

 

Rick Santorum, Paul Ryan, Mitt Romney  

(Credit: AP/Jae C. Hong/Reuters/Yuri Gripas/AP/Jacquelyn Martin)

 

Does any modern political party besides the GOP hold a huge segment of its base in contempt? I’ve written a lot about how Republicans have failed to make inroads with Latinos, young voters or women since their 2012 defeat, but what’s really interesting is the way they continue to deride many of their older, white, working-class voters, too.
When Mitt Romney insulted “the 47 percent” of Americans who pay no federal income taxes, he failed to notice that the vast majority of them are white, most of them white seniors, the most reliably Republican voters in the country. A large portion of the people Paul Ryan describes as “takers” – vs. productive “makers” – are likewise older whites. And although Ryan and his party want to turn Medicare into a voucher program – run by exchanges, much like the Affordable Care Act – they tried to hide that fact during the 2012 race because it was hugely unpopular with their base.
The latest insult came from former senator and 2012 presidential runner-up Rick Santorum. On CNN’s “State of the Union” Sunday Santorum complained that the Affordable Care Act has meant that “sicker, older” people are getting health insurance (h/t Crooks and Liars.) Santorum told Candy Crowley and former Gov. Howard Dean:

Well, let me just add that one of the solutions that President Obama tried to accomplish was to let people keep their own insurance. It turns out that a lot of insurance companies are actually allowing that to happen, and that could cause even more problems for Obamacare, because that means fewer and fewer people getting into the exchanges. And the ones who, at least to date, it’s just facts Gov. Dean, the ones in the system are much older.
I talked to one insurance company today, a third of their enrollees are over sixty years of age. That is not how an insurance system would work, but those are the people signing up and the folks who can keep their plans because they’re more customized and lower cost, will now. And the folks who are going to get into these exchanges are going to be probably sicker, older, and as a result, premiums are even going to go higher.

First of all, it’s not clear Santorum is right about this. Some states are seeing unexpectedly high proportions of younger people sign up for coverage. In Kentucky, 41 percent have been under 35; in California, it’s 22 percent, which is proportionate to their share of the population. Still, the enrollment rate in California is highest for people over 55. That’s not surprising, or permanent: Based on the experience of Massachusetts, older people tend to sign up for coverage first; younger enrollees do it closer to the deadline.
But assuming that Santorum isn’t wrong (admittedly a leap), what is he saying? That people over 60 who don’t have coverage shouldn’t be able to get it? We know these people are white, and presumably – since they’re not eligible for Medicaid, which covers many of the poor and unemployed — they’re working people. But Santorum says “that’s not how an insurance system should work.”
Luckily Howard Dean was there to disagree. “I think it’s great that we’re insuring people who can’t get insurance that are over 55 and 60,” he told Santorum and Crowley. “That’s what this is supposed to do.”
Of course, if insurers are unhappy with their older customers, Rep. Alan Grayson has an answer: his “Medicare for All” bill, which would allow anyone who wanted to to sign up for Medicare instead of a private insurance plan. Back during the ACA debate many liberals wanted to see that option, but it was vetoed by insurance interests. Opening up Medicare to people 55 and older would help stabilize the program – although they’re the older edge of the ACA pool, they’d be younger and healthier subscribers in the Medicare pool – and provide an alternative for those priced out of or underserved by the private market.
Still, the big news this weekend was that the federal website that lets most people access insurance exchanges, Healthcare.gov, is mostly fixed. That’s why Santorum was reduced to railing against those takers in the GOP base. On Fox News Sunday, Chris Wallace attacked the ACA as “income redistribution.”
And, of course, Santorum insisted that the ACA’s troubles raised questions about “the president’s competence.” Dean wasn’t having that either.
“That’s right-wing talking points against this president,” Dean replied. “From day one, they’ve tried to undermine him as a human being … I lose my patience with this nonsense. I do believe that the fact are going to be determined by what happens on the ground. Three months from now, a lot more people are going to have health insurance, and a lot more people are going to be happy with all this.”

Joan Walsh is Salon's editor at large and the author of "What's the Matter With White People: Finding Our Way in the Next America." More Joan Walsh.

Report: Obamacare To Cost 'Billions Of Dollars Less Than Originally Projected'

 

AP Photo

Tom Kludt – December 3, 2013, 6:59 AM EST3338

 

Among the GOP's myriad criticisms of the Affordable Care Act, one of the loudest has centered around the law's price tag. But according to one report, Obamacare won't be as costly as expected.
The New York Times reported Tuesday that "the government is expected to spend billions of dollars less than originally projected on the law."

The adjusted estimate is a result of the law's Medicaid expansion and the subsidies for private insurance plans proving less costly than initially anticipated. According to the Times, economists say that the law has also benefitted from a weak economy over the last half-decade, during which time health spending has slowed dramatically.
It still remains unclear if Obamacare's cost-control mechanisms will work effectively when the economy improves and health spending rises once again.
Roughly 100,000 people signed up for insurance last month using the troubled online federal health exchange HealthCare.gov.

This post has been updated.

CA Assembly GOP Puts Up Fake California Health Exchange Site

Home » Blogs » karoli's blog

December 02, 2013 11:00 AM

CA Assembly GOP Puts Up Fake California Health Exchange Site

By karoli

California Republicans are desperate and shameless. In the past two weeks, GOP Assembly members have sent mailings out on what appears to be the state's dime to their constituents about health insurance. Only, they don't direct those people to CoveredCA.com to sign up. Instead, they send them to their own astroturf version with the url CoveringHealthCareCA.com.
On their version, there are links to negative articles and twisted messages intended to sour people on signing up for health insurance before they ever land at the official health exchange site.
For seniors, this message:

Seniors on Medicare may not see changes immediately to their benefits or coverage. Down the line, however, the erosion and accessibility of care may become a problem.
To pay for other components of the Affordable Care Act such as expanding Medicaid and creating state health exchanges, Medicare providers will see rate cuts nearing $200 billion over the next decade. These cuts could potentially result in the exodus of doctors from the Medicare system and force Medicare recipients to find new providers, possibly facing longer wait times for care as that pool of doctors shrinks.

Eek! Rationing!
Likewise, the tab for "young adults" says this:

Young adults will end up paying for much of federal health care reform by subsidizing the cost of sicker people, or by paying a tax penalty if they do not obtain health insurance under the provisions of the individual mandate, which requires all Californians to have coverage beginning in 2014.

If you click on the "Don't have health insurance" tab on the front page, you're taken to a page that puts all the focus on the penalty and none on the benefits. In fact, they have a "penalty calculator" on that page, rather than a premium calculator.
And of course, they also manage to twist what is actually available on the exchange:

Covered California: Covered California offers four qualified health plans similar to those available on the private market today. These plans comply with the Affordable Care Act.

Not so much, Assembly Republicans. There are four levels of coverage, but inside those levels, there are many, many plans available. So many it takes some time to figure out which one works the best.
What we have here are elected officials intentionally trying to make California's health exchange fail, and using taxpayer dollars to misinform taxpayers, using the standard fear and loathing tactics as their linchpin. While I expect nothing less from Republicans in general, it does gall me that they're using "official mailings" to misdirect constituents and Assembly resources to register and build the website.
Just more proof Republicans don't give a damn about anything but their own bad selves.

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Rick Santorum Insists That He Has The Right To Force His Religious Views Upon Women (VIDEO)

Author: Stephen D. Foster Jr. December 1, 2013 10:45 pm

In the wake of his massive failure as a movie-maker, Rick Santorum has returned to the political realm to argue that religious rights trump women’s health.

Rick Santorum says corporations should be able to deny women birth control.

During an appearance on CNN’s State Of The Union on Sunday, Santorum said that corporations that are owned by religious employers have the constitutional right to deny their female employees birth control coverage.
Santorum was defending Hobby Lobby in their effort to be exempt from Obamacare’s birth control coverage mandate. The Supreme Court recently made the decision to hear the case, even though it upheld the law last year. According to the former GOP Presidential candidate, since the company’s owners are Christian, they have every right to force their religious views upon women.
But Santorum’s anti-birth control and anti-women views didn’t go unchallenged. Former Vermont Governor Howard Dean pointed out that forcing religious views upon employees tramples their rights. He also correctly noted that everyone in the nation has to follow the law because it applies to everyone. In other words, if the law only applied to people of a certain religion, then it would be unconstitutional. But since that’s not the reality, Hobby Lobby has no case.

DEAN: “This is one country, we all have to live by a set of things that are passed in Washington and are agreed to by the court.”
SANTORUM: “The idea that the First Amendment stops after you walk out of church, that it doesn’t have anything to do with how you live the rest of your life, I don’t know very many people of faith that believes that their religion ends with just worship. It ends in how you practice and live that faith. And President Obama is saying, ‘No, once you step outside that church, I get to impose my values on you, your religious values don’t matter anymore, it’s my values that I can impose on you. I don’t think that’s what the First Amendment stands for. And I don’t think that’s what the court will say.”
DEAN: “It can’t enable you to force your religious views on other people.”

Here’s the video via Raw Story.



Rick Santorum is the poster boy for the anti-women crusade of the Republican Party. This is just the latest attack on women by Santorum. Throughout 2012, Santorum mercilessly demonstrated his anti-women reputation. In January of that year, Santorum said that women should be forced to give birth to their rapist’s baby because it’s a gift from God. As everyone should recall, an Indiana Tea Party senate candidate named Richard Mourdock also said that rape is a way in which God gives women gifts. He was ultimately rejected in favor of the Democratic candidate. Not even one month had gone by before Santorum falsely claimed that birth control is cheap and that women should buy their own instead of it being covered by insurance. It’s an interesting comment considering Santorum supports banning birth control outright across the country. How can women purchase their own birth control if it becomes illegal? These are just two of the many things Rick Santorum has said that prove how destructive an card-carrying member of the Christian Right would be if one were to become President. All women should have free access to birth control to prevent unwanted pregnancies. Birth control is a vital health need that is used by a great majority of women in America. Even 98% of Catholic women have used birth control at some point in their lives. Ironically, the outcry against the Obamacare birth control mandate has been spearheaded by the male leaders of the Catholic Church. There’s a good reason why birth control is now being covered by insurance policies beyond the fact that it’s a medically necessary drug. Prior to Obamacare, women had to cover their own birth control costs, which are expensive. Meanwhile, Viagra (erections) has been covered by insurance companies for years. Why should men have their reproductive medication covered but not women? It’s unfair to deny women the opportunity to protect themselves from getting an unwanted pregnancy while approving boner pills for guys who want to have sex with them. Birth control coverage even has a social effect that conservatives should applaud. By giving women greater and cheaper access to birth control, the number of abortions will drop because the number of unwanted pregnancies will plummet. Studies indicate that when women get free contraception, the abortion rate falls dramatically. Rick Santorum is ridiculously obsessed with women’s bodies. At some point, Rick Santorum and his fellow conservatives are going to have to make this connection. Republicans either want to ban birth control or reduce the number of abortions. They can’t do both. In fact, it’s impossible to do both. Banning abortion won’t stop women from having sex and it certainly won’t stop them from getting an abortion. And banning birth control would only lead to more unwanted pregnancies that lead to increased abortions. Allowing corporate bosses to deny women birth control is wrong and infringes upon the rights of employees. And allowing them to do so could give them the power to deny other treatments they disagree with. Employers should not be able to pick and choose what kind of medical care their employees can have. Conservatives constantly claim that they want to get government out of our private lives. Apparently, they’re totally fine with corporations invading them, and they want to abuse the First Amendment to let them do it.

SCOTUS Rules Against Liberty University Challenge to Affordable Care Act

December 2, 2013

By Anomaly

FreakOutNation

On Monday, the U.S. Supreme Court declined to hear another challenge to the Affordable Care Act. The court rejected a suit filed by Liberty University, a Christian college in Virginia, which had raised various objections to the law, including to the key provision that requires individuals to obtain health insurance, Reuters reports.
The Christian college was founded by evangelist Jerry Falwell.


TPM reports, “The justices’ decision upholds the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals’ May ruling in the case, which dismissed as invalid Liberty’s argument that the law violated the Constitution in requiring employers to offer health insurance.”
The court agreed last week to hear two new cases — including Hobby Lobby — in which employers have made religious objections to regulations under Obamacare that require employers to provide health insurance that includes contraception for women. That case will be heard this term and decided by the end of June.

GOP Scandal Dies as Republicans Are Reduced To Whining About the Back End of ACA Website

GOP Scandal Dies as Republicans Are Reduced To Whining About the Back End of ACA Website

By: Sarah Jones 

Sunday, December, 1st, 2013, 12:50 pm

CNN’s Joe Johns updated Candy Crowley on the White House’s progress report on Healthcare.gov, which they say can now handle approximately 50,000 users at a time. This didn’t stop Rick Santorum from announcing on CNN’s State of the Union that ObamaCare is still disastrous because the “back end” is garbage.
Watch a short clip here via CNN:
 

Demonstrating how in touch he is with average Americans who’ve been denied healthcare by insurance company death panels, Santorum said that while the website might work better, the main question is “Is Obama competent?”
But also, you can talk to “anybody” — well, Santorum talked to some people in the insurance industry, and while most of the front end may be looking good, Santorum said insurance companies will struggle to sign people up for plans. “The information coming out the back end to the insurance companies is still garbage. It’s undecipherable.” Listing off the “misinformation”, Santorum went into his favorite area of moral superiority, “There’s husbands labeled as wives…”
We have no idea upon whose information Santorum based his intel regarding what comes out of the “back end” of the website other than his claim that it was people in the insurance industry (known for their honesty and love for being regulated by ObamaCare), but this is a man who calls a years old law a bill out of a partisan grudge, so chances are high that he’s exaggerating for partisan purposes.
 
In case you’re wondering, the “back end” is a real thing, and not more projection from the GOP. If the front end is the interface between the user and the back end, the back end is where things go that the user can’t see, like programming, databases, scripts and other automated functions the server performs.
A very concerned Santorum said worst of all was you may think you have signed up, but you may not. Yes, this is from the party who wants to repeal the entire law, now pretending to be upset because not everyone is getting signed up. TRUST.
It shocks no one with a working brain cell that the ObamaCare website is getting better. The website was overwhelmed and underfunded, due to Republicans refusing to run state exchanges as planned and then refusing to fund an expansion to the federal site to handle the overflow. This is like building a tunnel meant for 50 cars and flooding it with 5,000 cars. There’s going to be a long traffic backup getting into that tunnel.
This is the anatomy of yet another “scandal” dying. The only difference here is that this one had actual issues, but they weren’t scandalous. They were predictable, they were not done deliberately, and they were always going to be fixed.
You can tell the scandal is dying because Rick Santorum had to be hauled out to concern troll about the “back end”.

GOP Scandal Dies as Republicans Are Reduced To Whining About the Back End of ACA Website was written by Sarah Jones for PoliticusUSA.

© PoliticusUSA, Sun, Dec 1st, 2013 — All Rights Reserved

Cartoon Claims Obamacare Means Men Will Get STDs From Women Who Can Now Afford Birth Control

The Huffington Post  |  By Paige Lavender

 

A cartoon is claiming men can thank Obamacare for getting sexually transmitted diseases from "women who now get free birth control."
The cartoon depicts an angry man next to a woman holding a pack of birth control pills, both with sores on their mouths. Under the words "thanks Obamacare!" are the hashtags #gotbrokencondom, #gotherpes, #gotpregnant and #gotchildsupport.
The cartoon was done by A.F. Branco, whose work is published at a website called Comically Incorrect.
The cartoon is a parody of an ad for Obamacare from DoYouGotInsurance.com called "Let's Get Physical," showing characters named "Susie" and "Nate" described as "hot to trot." In the ad, Susie gives a thumbs up while holding a pack of birth control pills.
See the cartoon below:

UPDATE -- 12:26 p.m.: Branco gave the following statement on the cartoon to HuffPost:

I'm not against birth control or nor do I feel that it is any of my business what people do sexually. However, I do feel that contraceptives are inexpensive and accessible enough that I shouldn't have to pay for them through my taxes. I also feel that my government shouldn't be promoting promiscuous sex as though condoms are the answer to all STDs and promiscuous behavior.

This post has been updated with a version of the cartoon sent to HuffPost by Branco.

Rick Perry Is Quietly Encouraging Texans to Sign Up for Obamacare

Rick Perry Is Quietly Encouraging Texans to Sign Up for Obamacare 

Published October 23, 2013 - 3:30pm

Katie Singh
Burnt Orange Report

Governor Rick Perry has always been one of the Affordable Care Act's most vocal opponents. He's called it a "monstrosity," a "stomach punch to the economy," and a "felony." But that hasn't stopped him from telling Texans to sign up for health coverage from the law.

That's right — Rick Perry's administration is encouraging Texans to enroll in the ACA's health insurance exchanges.

As the Texas Tribune reported last week, Texas will soon be shutting down its high-risk insurance pool for residents with pre-existing conditions, pushing them to seek coverage in the federal insurance marketplace created by the Affordable Care Act. According to the Tribune, "the state has deemed the high-risk pool obsolete, as the Affordable Care Act prohibits insurance companies participating in the federal marketplace...from denying coverage to Texans with pre-existing conditions." Governor Perry signed the bill abolishing the high-risk pool into law in June, and it will be shut down by the end of the year.

This is just the latest in a series of hypocritical moves by Governor Perry regarding the Affordable Care Act. Though he's called the law a "criminal act," Perry certainly has no problem accepting money from it. As we reported last month, Perry has accepted over $100 million in ACA grants, and was asking for even more to help expand a state program providing insurance to those with disabilities.

Perry's actions make it utterly impossible to take his position on the ACA seriously. The crux of his argument against the Affordable Care Act has been that it's better for states to control health policy than the federal government. But by accepting ACA grant money, and now by encouraging high-risk patients to enroll in insurance exchanges, Perry's actions have totally undermined his words. In accepting these parts of the ACA, he's essentially acknowledged that federal grants will enhance the state's existing health programs, and that the health exchanges will provide better coverage for people with pre-existing conditions than what the state has now.

Perry's actions confirm what policy experts have known since the law was passed — it's a step forward for Texans. Stacey Pogue of the Center for Public Policy Priorities told the Texas Tribune she "think[s] that people are going to have many more options and many better options in the marketplace than they do in the health pool today."

Texans in the high-risk pool currently pay twice the market rate for health coverage, but they will be able to find much cheaper options in the health insurance exchanges. The ACA's tax subsidies will also make coverage more affordable. In addition, the insurance plans available in the exchanges will expand the level of care people with pre-existing conditions can receive, "as they must cover 'essential health benefits,' some of which, such as maternity care, aren't [currently] covered in the pool."

So, the next time you hear Rick Perry call the Affordable Care Act an "attack on freedom" or some other hyperbole, remember that even he doesn't really think that. Perry's presidential ambitions mean he'll never admit it, but he's repeatedly accepted parts of the Affordable Care Act as good for Texas. In doing so, he's not only recognized that federal assistance can strengthen state programs, but he's also proven himself to be a Texas-sized hypocrite.