STUMP » Articles » Obamacare Watch: 1 April 2014 -- Obamacare's Fools » 1 April 2014, 05:59

And there are plenty of them.

Where shall we begin? First, the politician who claims there’s no such thing as Obamacare

WALLACE: Two points if I may, sir. One, then why is Harry Reid saying he’s not going to allow a vote on the fixes? And, two, speak directly and briefly, because we’re about to run out of time, to Senator Barrasso’s comment about the fact that a lot of doctors, a lot of hospitals are being excluded by what ObamaCare is offering.

KING: Now that’s something — you know, there is no such thing as ObamaCare. You can’t sign up for ObamaCare. You’re signing up for an Anthem (ph) policy or an Aetna policy, or a WellPoint policy. It is private insurance. And private insurance companies have been doing closed networks for years. I do think there is a problem if John Barrasso wants to join me in co-sponsoring a bill to have more transparency, so people can know exactly who is covered and who is not covered by the various policy options, I’m all for it. But, you know, I think this thing of you can’t keep your doctor, that’s — and there is a problem in New Hampshire because there is only one carrier on the exchange. I think that is the only state in the country like that. I looked up — I played a game and looked up John’s situation. If you’re in Laramie, Wyoming and you make $50,000, you have two kids, mom, dad, two kids, there are 16 different policy options you have ranging in premium from $67 a month to $800 a month. There are a lot of choices out there.

You know what is meant when people say “Obamacare”, you doofus. It’s shorthand for all the stuff out there. And no, there are not necessarily a lot of choices out there beyond New Hampshire. In many places there’s only one Obamacare choice (other than Medicaid).

Mind you, in some of these places, there used to be a lot more choices. But because of all the requirements, many insurers withdrew from the market.

Up next is Nancy Pelosi

Nancy Pelosi ✔ NancyPelosi Follow “At least 9.5 million previously uninsured people have gained coverage” thanks to #ACA—latimes: http://goo.gl/G3L7uL #GetCoveredNow
11:05 AM – 31 Mar 2014

Okay, let’s see. there can be some previously uncovered people who are now on Medicaid, and indeed they are counting those people

The Los Angeles Times, citing studies and information the Obama administration most certainly knows about but won’t release, reports that 9.5 million previously uninsured people now have health coverage because of Obamacare. Look for that 9.5 million, or perhaps a rounded-up 10 million, to be come the talking point for Obamacare supporters in coming days.

The Times says the numbers break down like this: 4.5 million previously uninsured people are now on Medicaid; 3 million previously uninsured young people are now covered because of a provision that allows them to stay on their parents’ policies until age 26; and 2 million previously uninsured people have purchased coverage on the Obamacare exchanges. In all, it is “the largest expansion in health coverage in America in half a century,” according to the Times.

As Byron York writes, if you take all those numbers at face value (and I don’t…I’m no fool), then the administration is claiming that far more people are being covered due just to one of the minor provisions of Obamacare (extension of being on family coverage until age 26) than what was supposed to be the core of Obamacare (i.e., the individual insurance market for all). And that much more people are covered simply due to Medicaid expansion.

And it is not clear that they’re netting out the people who were previously insured but are now uninsured thanks to Obamacare kicking them off their prior coverage.

No, I take that back. It’s entirely clear that they have no intention of netting out that number.

Seriously. Two million people?

Two million people out of 318 million people in total population? That gets you to only 1% of the population if you’re generous and round up.

You disrupted everybody for the sake of the 1%?

=just staring at Pelosi for a moment=

I will not call these next people fools. Maybe some of them embraced the dream that was Obamacare, before they realized it was their nightmare. But many of them never asked for this crap.

But Harry Reid is definitely a fool.

“Despite all that good news, there’s plenty of horror stories being told. All are untrue, but they’re being told all over America.”
–Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.), remarks on the floor of the Senate, Feb. 26, 2014

“I can’t say that every one of the Koch brothers’ ads are a lie, but I’ll say this: Mr. President, the vast, vast majority of them are.”
–Reid, a few hours later

And more hits from Reid

Harry Reid: I don’t recall accusing Republicans of lying about ObamaCare horror stories

…..
Hard to believe he could forget saying on the Senate floor that all ObamaCare horror stories — all of them — are a GOP/Koch brothers fairy tale designed to besmirch the stellar reputation of the Affordable Care Act. Those remarks got heavy coverage in conservative media, and even got picked up at WaPo. You don’t toss a grenade that powerful without choosing your target carefully. Or do you? Someone needs to ask this guy if he’s heard any unusual stories about Mitt Romney’s taxes. If he blanks on it, we’re onto something.

Imagine how upset he’ll be when he finds out that even a few younger people have had trouble figuring out how Healthcare.gov works.

And more

Yes, some 63-year-old women can’t handle things well on the internet. But I’m willing to bet that 63-year-old woman would have no problem whatsoever downloading Divergent onto her kindle in a couple seconds.

And I bet far more people visit Amazon at any given moment than ever visited healthcare.gov at once.

The healthcare.gov website still doesn’t work properly. It crashed yesterday which was supposedly the last day for sign-ups, but everybody knows you’ll still be able to try. For an indefinite period.

I decided to check the site this morning what the website looks like. At the top it says that open enrollment is over for 2014, but hey, what’s this link

Coverage options outside Open Enrollment
Open Enrollment for 2014 coverage is over. But you may still have options to get health coverage, including:

Buying a private health plan through the Marketplace — only if you qualify for a special enrollment period
Applying for Medicaid and the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP) — you can do this any time, all year
2 options: Apply with a special enrollment period or apply for Medicaid and CHIP

Special enrollment periods. Outside Open Enrollment you can enroll in a private health insurance plan through the Marketplace only if you have a special enrollment period.

To qualify for a special enrollment period, one of the following must apply to you:

You have a qualifying life event like getting married, having a baby, moving to a new area, or losing other health coverage.

You have a complex situation related to applying for coverage in the Health Insurance Marketplace. Learn more about these special circumstances.

Learn more about both ways to qualify for a special enrollment period.

If you think you qualify for a special enrollment period, start your Marketplace application now. The Marketplace will tell you if you qualify.

What’s all this special stuff?

You can qualify for a special enrollment period if either of the following applies to you:

You have a qualifying life event like having a baby, getting married, or losing other coverage. Learn more about special enrollment periods and other coverage options outside Open Enrollment.

You have other complicated situations, as described on this page.

Other complicated cases that may qualify for a special enrollment period
Below are cases and examples that may also qualify you for a special enrollment period.

Exceptional circumstance

You faced a serious medical condition or natural disaster that kept you from enrolling. For example:

An unexpected hospitalization or temporary cognitive disability
A natural disaster, such as an earthquake, massive flooding, or hurricane
A planned Marketplace system outage, such as Social Security Administration system outage
Misinformation or misrepresentation

Misconduct by a non-Marketplace enrollment assister (like an insurance company, navigator, certified application counselor, or agent or broker) resulted in you:

Not getting enrolled in a plan
Being enrolled in the wrong plan
Not getting the premium tax credit or cost-sharing reduction you were eligible for
Enrollment error

Your application may have been rejected by the insurance company’s system because of errors in reading the data, or some of the data was missing or inaccurate.

System errors related to immigration status

An error in the processing of applications or system caused you to get an incorrect immigration eligibility result when you tried to apply for coverage.

Display errors on HealthCare.gov

Incorrect plan data was displayed at the time that you selected your health plan, such as benefit or cost-sharing information. This includes issues where some consumers were allowed to enroll in plans offered in a different area, or enroll in plans that don’t allow certain categories of family relationships to enroll together.

Medicaid/Marketplace transfers

If you applied for Medicaid through your state, or were sent to Medicaid from the Marketplace, but you weren’t eligible for Medicaid.
Your state transferred your information to the Marketplace but you didn’t get an answer about your eligibility and/or didn’t get enrolled before March 31.
Error messages

Your application was stopped due to specific error messages. For example, you received a “data sources down” error message or another error message that didn’t allow you to enroll.

Unresolved casework

You’re working with a caseworker on an enrollment issue that didn’t get resolved before March 31.

Victims of domestic abuse

You’re a victim of domestic abuse and weren’t previously allowed to enroll and receive advance payments of the premium tax credit separately from your spouse. You’ll be able to do so now.

Other system errors

Other system errors that kept you from enrolling, as determined by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services

Really. None of this can be verified. Just state that there were errors. They already gave you options above to claim when you call or apply for an extension.

And if that doesn’t work, you can have the fun of filling out these appeal forms.

Aren’t you happy on this Obamacare Fools’ Day?

Therefore, OBAMACARE MUST BE DESTROYED.