.

[Spendulus]

....I was fortunate to still continue with my noncompliant plan for another year. No matter what the news says. My plan was a good one-the ACA plan was terrible and a lot more expensive that the one I currently have.

Affirm the dictates of the would be fascist dictator when they benefit you, contrary to his constitutional powers, as do others, soon that power is firmly cemented in place.

See what happens then.

Much easier to read history, lol...

[Wilikon]

Obama Considering 3 Year Extension of His Decree Allowing People To Keep Their Health Plans Cancelled Because of Obamacare…



The Obama administration is considering an extension of the president’s decision to let people keep their individual insurance policies even if they are not compliant with the health care overhaul, according to two top industry officials.

Avalere Health CEO Dan Mendelson said Thursday that the administration may let policyholders keep that coverage for an additional three years, stressing that no decision has been made. Policymakers are waiting to see what rate hikes health insurers plan for the insurance exchanges that are key to the overhaul’s coverage expansions.

“The administration is entertaining a range of options to ensure that this individual market has stability to it and that would be one thing that they could do,” he said.

Avalere Health is a market analysis firm, but Mendelson said his company was not advising the administration on exchange policy. He said he has had informal discussions with administration officials about the extension, but he didn’t identify them.

http://bigstory.ap.org/article/admin-said-be-eyeing-insurance-extension

I really hope this is true. I was fortunate to still continue with my noncompliant plan for another year. No matter what the news says. My plan was a good one-the ACA plan was terrible and a lot more expensive that the one I currently have.

He wants this planet Mars size potato not to hurt his democrats (as is in his pocket democrats, as is cultists to the glory of the Big O democrats) for re/elections. So what happen in 2016? Yeah, let's push this back to 2017. Random year for sure.

The old system is no more. Your old plan is no more. Your old health network is no more. To implement obamacare the industry needed to upgrade and change everything to get ready for that massive new law. The fact obama (just by himself) is changing the law proves we are bailing out the health insurance industry. They will need to rebuilt the old system while the monster is on maintenance. Everything in parallel, payed by you, by us.

But most will not care. As long as the Prince is keeping the Locusts at bay (locusts that he fed and released on the people himself), this Stockholm Syndrome you call "hope to get my old plan back" should make you and the rest of you... happy.

[Wilikon]

The director of Colorado’s health exchange has been placed on administrative leave after the state discovered she had been indicted for stealing from a non-profit, the Denver Post reports:

[Christa Ann] McClure, 51, pleaded not guilty Feb. 6 in federal District Court in Montana to eight counts of theft and fraud from a nonprofit housing agency in Billings.

She was indicted Jan. 16 and notified her current Denver employer, the state-sponsored health exchange, on Monday, a few days after the story broke in Montana media, Connect for Health spokesman Ben Davis said in a telephone interview.

Connect for Health performed a criminal background check and checked references before hiring McClure in March, Davis said.

“She was completely clean,” he said. Her position as executive director of Housing Montana of Billings, he said, made her well-qualified for her post as Connect for Health’s director of partner engagement — she was liaison with state and federal partners, such as Medicaid officials. The job pays $130,000 a year.

… McClure, who has not been convicted of any charges, should have informed Connect for Health much earlier of the accusations she was facing, Davis said.

McClure was released pending trial, now scheduled for June. Each of the counts in the indictment against her carry potential penalties of five, 10 or 20 years in prison and a fine of $250,000.

The 12-page indictment alleges that, while serving as executive director of the federally funded Housing Montana, McClure, between 2008 and 2010, paid herself “significant sums” for consulting services, although she was already on the payroll as a full-time employee.

She also made payments to her family and used federal money for personal travel, to pay family bills and to buy consulting services, the indictment alleges.

She also is accused of charging homeowners for a $750 warranty that did not exist, converting a laptop for personal use, inflating the hours she was to be compensated and writing herself a $21,000 check to which she was not entitled.

The indictment did not specify the total amount she allegedly embezzled.

http://www.nationalreview.com/corner/371043/colorado-health-exchange-director-indicted-fraud-theft-jillian-kay-melchior

[Wilikon]

The specific regulation is on page 124 of this PDF from the Federal Register. It stipulates that the full exemption for the mandate applies if “the employer does not reduce the size of its workforce or the overall hours of service of its employees in order to satisfy the workforce size condition”–that is, if it doesn’t fire workers to get below 100:

A reduction in workforce size or overall hours of service for bona fide business reasons will not be considered to have been made in order to satisfy the workforce size condition. For example, reductions of workforce size or overall hours of service because of business activity such as the sale of a division, changes in the economic marketplace in which the employer operates, terminations of employment for poor performance, or other similar changes unrelated to eligibility for the transition relief provided in this section XV.D.6 are for bona fide business reasons and will not affect eligibility for that transition relief.Legal or regulatory changes that affect the cost of labor would fall into the category of “changes in the economic marketplace in which the employer operates.” So it would be more precise to say that employers may cut back employment for any bona fide business reason except to take advantage of the ObamaCare mandate delay.

The administration thus acknowledges that its policy creates a perverse incentive and orders employers not to act upon it. But that can’t be enforced. A business will take into account all relevant factors, including the additional costs imposed by ObamaCare, in making decisions about hiring and firing, including whether to terminate employees for poor performance, sell a division, etc. In practice, the new rule is a ban–under threat of criminal liability–on acknowledging the perverse incentive. Call it OmertàCare, a government-imposed conspiracy of silence.

http://online.wsj.com/news/articles/SB10001424052702304888404579378833508471324?mod=WSJ_Opinion_MIDDLETopOpinion

[Wilikon]

Mass Obamacare Exchange Chief Breaks Down In Tears Describing Train Wreck Website, Says There Are 50,000 Applications Sitting In A Pile…


The head of the state’s beleaguered health insurance marketplace, which was once a national model, broke down in tears Thursday, as she described how demoralizing it has been for her staff to struggle with a broken website that has left an unknown number of people without coverage.

Jean Yang, the executive director of the Massachusetts Health Connector, wept at a board meeting, where it was disclosed that 50,000 applications for health insurance are sitting in a pile, and have yet to be entered into a computer system.

Each one of those applications requires two hours to process, adding to a mountain of work facing Connector staff as they scramble to prevent people from losing insurance, officials said.

“These people came here to lead and innovate, and instead they’re doing manual workarounds, and they are embarrassed to tell friends and family that they work for the Health Connector,” Yang said at the board meeting. [...]

The state’s health insurance website was working smoothly until October, when it was revamped to comply with the more complicated requirements of the federal health care law. Since then, it has been bedeviled by error messages and is often very sluggish or crashes entirely, officials said. That prompted the state to resort to old-fashioned paper applications, and to put many people in to temporary health plans. But an unknown number of others may be uninsured because of the paperwork backlog.

http://www.bostonglobe.com/metro/2014/02/13/facing-application-backlog-insurance-marketplace-chief-breaks-down-tears/7kvMWfZMczLqsNKQOTE69I/story.html

[Spendulus]

Mass Obamacare Exchange Chief Breaks Down In Tears Describing Train Wreck Website, Says There Are 50,000 Applications Sitting In A Pile…


The head of the state’s beleaguered health insurance marketplace, which was once a national model, broke down in tears Thursday, as she described how demoralizing it has been for her staff to struggle with a broken website that has left an unknown number of people without coverage.....

Socialism at it's finest.  Giant fuckups that seriously impact and hurt people in their personal lives, some bureaucrats "breaks down in tears" and that's supposed to make things okay.

[Wilikon]

(Translation: Obama Considering Extending Taxpayer-Funded Bailout For Insurance Companies Under Obamacare Beyond 2016…)



The Obama Administration may extend beyond 2016 a federal reimbursement program for health insurance companies that lose money by participating in the newly created health care exchanges.

Industry insiders told the Washington Examiner a plan to extend the Affordable Care Act’s “risk corridors” are under discussion, but that administration officials have not made a final decision.

The risk corridor program was written into the 2,700-page health care bill to help the insurance companies offset losses if they enroll too few healthy customers and sign up too many people with high health care costs.

Risk corridors are aimed at keeping premiums from skyrocketing by requiring the government to “share in the risk associated with the new marketplace,” according to the health care lobbying group America’s Health Insurance Plans (AHIP).

Insurance companies pay into a pool to cover losses for companies that fare poorly but the federal government must step in if there is widespread loss, which some say could happen due to the lack of participation on the health care exchanges from young and healthy individuals.

http://washingtonexaminer.com/obamacare-changes-may-include-extension-of-risk-corridors/article/2544116

[Spendulus]

Socialism at it's finest.  Giant fuckups that seriously impact and hurt people in their personal lives, some bureaucrats "breaks down in tears" and that's supposed to make things okay.

This very American mess is not socialism, by any means. A small step towards socialism would be if y'all quit being selfish pricks and spent 10% what you currently spend on bombing Pakistan on free healthcare for your poorest, not this faux-market insurance bullshit. And spend the other 90% on education while you're at it.

Seriously, 'socialism' doesn't mean 'any aspect of society under government control' any more than everything outside of government control is inherently libertarian - it's not that black and white, and you sound like a child who does not know what these words mean.

I think my comment was valid in the specific context in which I used it.  Requoting that context:

Mass Obamacare Exchange Chief Breaks Down In Tears Describing Train Wreck Website, Says There Are 50,000 Applications Sitting In A Pile…

The head of the state’s beleaguered health insurance marketplace, which was once a national model, broke down in tears Thursday, as she described how demoralizing it has been for her staff to struggle with a broken website that has left an unknown number of people without coverage.....

She "breaks down in tears" as a government controller, the implication being that is the end of the remorse or punishment.  In private industry she would have been jailed.  Many, many examples of this where the government person does not even get reprimanded let alone fired.

How is that not an example of socialism "at it's finest"?

[Wilikon]

Socialism at it's finest.  Giant fuckups that seriously impact and hurt people in their personal lives, some bureaucrats "breaks down in tears" and that's supposed to make things okay.

This very American mess is not socialism, by any means. A small step towards socialism would be if y'all quit being selfish pricks and spent 10% what you currently spend on bombing Pakistan on free healthcare for your poorest, not this faux-market insurance bullshit. And spend the other 90% on education while you're at it.

Seriously, 'socialism' doesn't mean 'any aspect of society under government control' any more than everything outside of government control is inherently libertarian - it's not that black and white, and you sound like a child who does not know what these words mean.

Socialism is selfishness by definition. No matter how bad the USA is believed to be, the country still leads over your country in aid and donations in the world, year after year.

Capitalism is not perfect. Socialism is pure evil.

[Wilikon]

Add this to the list of things to freak you out: Healthcare organizations of all kinds are being routinely attacked and compromised by increasingly sophisticated cyberattacks.

A new study set to be officially released Wednesday found that networks and Internet-connected devices in places such as hospitals, insurance companies and pharmaceutical companies are under siege and in many cases have been infiltrated without their knowledge.

The study was conducted by Norse, a Silicon Valley cybersecurity firm, and SANS, a security research institute. In the report, the groups found from September 2012 to October 2013 that 375 healthcare organizations in the U.S. had been compromised, and in many cases are still compromised because they have not yet detected the attacks.

In addition to getting access to patient files and information, the attackers managed to infiltrate devices such as radiology imaging software, conferencing systems, printers, firewalls, Web cameras and mail servers.

"What's concerning to us is the sheer lack of basic blocking and tackling within these organizations," said Sam Glines, chief executive of Norse. "Firewalls were on default settings. They used very simple passwords for devices. In some cases, an organization used the same password for everything.

"A decent percentage of these firms could have been eliminated from the data set if basic network and security protocol had been followed," he added.

The surge in attacks comes as hospitals and doctors across the country are using more and more medical devices that are connected to the Internet in some fashion. It's part of the broader trend known as the "Internet of Things" in which a growing range of devices are being fitted with sensors and Internet connections.

In addition, more patient information is being placed online, in part through the growing network of federal and state health insurance exchanges.

"The pace at which technology has allowed our devices to be connected for ease of use has allowed for a larger attack surface," Glines said. "More vigilance is required."

But as the report found, there are often not enough security measures taken to protect these connected devices.

As a result, patient information and privacy can be compromised.

But another troubling aspect is that once attackers gain access to these devices, they can use them to launch attacks on other devices.

Indeed, the report tracked the origin of some of the malicious traffic coming out of medical sites that had been hacked:

"The findings of this study indicate that 7% of traffic was coming from radiology imaging software, another 7% of malicious traffic originated from video conferencing systems, and another 3% came from digital video systems that are most likely used for consults and remote procedures."

In following the trails of this malicious traffic, Norse found detailed information about the layouts of hospitals and specifications of various lifesaving equipment.

Glines said the vulnerability can be addressed in many cases. But still, he's worried that healthcare providers may not move quickly enough.

"It's going to accelerate as we have more and more connected devices," Glines said. "With more healthcare information coming online, it becomes more valuable and therefore a richer target. We expect to see an uptick of breaches related to healthcare. It’s sort of a perfect storm."

http://www.latimes.com/business/technology/la-fi-tn-study-epidemic-of-cyberattacks-have-compromised-healthcare-orgs-20140218,0,4761289.story#axzz2tiW03nec

[Wilikon]

So far more people have died under the "Freedom of Socialism" than any other types of "ism" since the Cenozoic Era...
Socialism needs Class conflict to exist forever for it to have a purpose. Socialism needs a layer of rich people so the socialist believers can point their fingers toward them, while needing a layer of forever poor people to tell them whom to blame. The entrepreneurs and the middle class need to be annihilated because this layer gives hope to the poor people layer. Maintaining this Class conflict is the number one priority of socialism, thus socialism is selfish by definition.

[MoonShadow]

Are you even going to try to substantiate that claim? Stop being so fundamentalist - both socialism and (classic) capitalism are political philosophies designed to increase people's quality of life.

This is provablely not true.  Karl Marx is credited with inventing the term "capitalism" and providing the basic definition, "Private ownership of the means of production".  While this traditional form of property rights trends towards a particular line of political thought, even Marx didn't mark capitalism as a political philosophy.  That was one of the core problems with it that he stated, as it wasn't really a political plan, and instead simply a default state of a society.  He viewed this default state to be less than optimal, and that applying some social enginnering to the economic system would result in reduced poverty.  However, Karl Marx was far from an economic theorist, and completely missed the most important issues.  First off, defining capitalism and socialism as he did doesn't alter the nature of the society; for there were publicly owned corporations within England during the Industrial Revolution (the society that he based his observations upon) and we've seen that private possession (the more important distinction) of the means of production (capital) cannot be designed out of any society, even an ideal socialist one.  A corporation is, by design, a socialist business hierarchy, since the means of production is owned collectively by the shareholders, yet the shareholders do not have possession of the means of production, the employees of the corporation do.  While the shareholders can also be employees, even being a member of both 'classes' of people does not entitle an individual to make any business decision alone about any particular piece of corporate property.  The root meaning of "ownership" is that the "owner" of that property gets to decide what is done with said property; be it land plowed up to plant corn or built upon, a car that can be rented out or not, or a toy that can be thrown away; whoever can make that decision is the owner.  In practice, a corporation has no owner, and only the regulation that pertains to that industry has the ultimate say about what becomes of the corporate property.  So in the end, corporations, as products of the state, are also owned by the state.  Rail against the corporate "capitalism" that you see all around you, but the fact is that what you see isn't capitalism even as Karl Marx defined it, it's just another accidental form of socialism.

[Hazir]

I'm not from US, but all I heard about Obama is that he is socialist trying to please people by forcing on them laws they do not want. Obamacare is prime example of that.

[Wilikon]

I'm not from US, but all I heard about Obama is that he is socialist trying to please people by forcing on them laws they do not want. Obamacare is prime example of that.

There was lots of rooms for improvements for the US healthcare. I believe he wanted his name to be much more than just "the first black US president". The story about his mom suffering, dying at the hospital.. Or was it his grand mother? All of that touching, creating a frame for his story about how this is what needed to be done, no matter what, etc.

Well now do you know how many people got fired because of the frustration, the mistakes of implementing obamacare? None. The company that built the website positioned itself as being the best solution to fix the very website they could not built. How much money did it cost to built this monster? How come no one seems to care about cost any more? I am not even going to mention how a Harvard law US president believes he can act as a dictator regarding what laws should be pushed away or not, delayed or not. He is telling all future presidents how to act like him and, of course, how to dissolve all of his executive decisions.

Now we all know what's in it.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1Mw3DqpfR14

[Spendulus]

I'm not from US, but all I heard about Obama is that he is socialist trying to please people by forcing on them laws they do not want. Obamacare is prime example of that.

There was lots of rooms for improvements for the US healthcare. I believe he wanted his name to be much more than just "the first black US president". The story about his mom suffering, dying at the hospital.. Or was it his grand mother? All of that touching, creating a frame for his story about how this is what needed to be done, no matter what, etc.

Well now do you know how many people got fired because of the frustration, the mistakes of implementing obamacare? None. The company that built the website positioned itself as being the best solution to fix the very website they could not built. How much money did it cost to built this monster? How come no one seems to care about cost any more? I am not even going to mention how a Harvard law US president believes he can act as a dictator regarding what laws should be pushed away or not, delayed or not. He is telling all future presidents how to act like him and, of course, how to dissolve all of his executive decisions.

Now we all know what's in it.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1Mw3DqpfR14

I find the concept of an Obama Presidential Library interesting, because the records would have to all be off limits, and the public areas filled with lies.

[MoonShadow]

I'm not from US, but all I heard about Obama is that he is socialist trying to please people by forcing on them laws they do not want. Obamacare is prime example of that.

There was lots of rooms for improvements for the US healthcare. I believe he wanted his name to be much more than just "the first black US president". The story about his mom suffering, dying at the hospital.. Or was it his grand mother? All of that touching, creating a frame for his story about how this is what needed to be done, no matter what, etc.

Well now do you know how many people got fired because of the frustration, the mistakes of implementing obamacare? None. The company that built the website positioned itself as being the best solution to fix the very website they could not built. How much money did it cost to built this monster? How come no one seems to care about cost any more? I am not even going to mention how a Harvard law US president believes he can act as a dictator regarding what laws should be pushed away or not, delayed or not. He is telling all future presidents how to act like him and, of course, how to dissolve all of his executive decisions.

Now we all know what's in it.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1Mw3DqpfR14

I find the concept of an Obama Presidential Library interesting, because the records would have to all be off limits, and the public areas filled with lies.

Don't you mean that the reference section would be classified and the rest of the library would just be fiction?

[Spendulus]

I'm not from US, but all I heard about Obama is that he is socialist trying to please people by forcing on them laws they do not want. Obamacare is prime example of that.

There was lots of rooms for improvements for the US healthcare. I believe he wanted his name to be much more than just "the first black US president". The story about his mom suffering, dying at the hospital.. Or was it his grand mother? All of that touching, creating a frame for his story about how this is what needed to be done, no matter what, etc.

Well now do you know how many people got fired because of the frustration, the mistakes of implementing obamacare? None. The company that built the website positioned itself as being the best solution to fix the very website they could not built. How much money did it cost to built this monster? How come no one seems to care about cost any more? I am not even going to mention how a Harvard law US president believes he can act as a dictator regarding what laws should be pushed away or not, delayed or not. He is telling all future presidents how to act like him and, of course, how to dissolve all of his executive decisions.

Now we all know what's in it.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1Mw3DqpfR14

I find the concept of an Obama Presidential Library interesting, because the records would have to all be off limits, and the public areas filled with lies.

Don't you mean that the reference section would be classified and the rest of the library would just be fiction?

Aisle 4:  Bengazi:  The Youtube Video
Aisle 6:  You can keep your doctor.
Aisle 7:  The average family's bills will go down $2500.
Aisle 38:  You didn't build it.
Aisle 147:  Zimmerman and Me
Aisle 886:  Backing Al Queda in the Middle East
Aisle 1,942:  Fast and Furious

[Wilikon]

I'm not from US, but all I heard about Obama is that he is socialist trying to please people by forcing on them laws they do not want. Obamacare is prime example of that.

There was lots of rooms for improvements for the US healthcare. I believe he wanted his name to be much more than just "the first black US president". The story about his mom suffering, dying at the hospital.. Or was it his grand mother? All of that touching, creating a frame for his story about how this is what needed to be done, no matter what, etc.

Well now do you know how many people got fired because of the frustration, the mistakes of implementing obamacare? None. The company that built the website positioned itself as being the best solution to fix the very website they could not built. How much money did it cost to built this monster? How come no one seems to care about cost any more? I am not even going to mention how a Harvard law US president believes he can act as a dictator regarding what laws should be pushed away or not, delayed or not. He is telling all future presidents how to act like him and, of course, how to dissolve all of his executive decisions.

Now we all know what's in it.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1Mw3DqpfR14

I find the concept of an Obama Presidential Library interesting, because the records would have to all be off limits, and the public areas filled with lies.

Don't you mean that the reference section would be classified and the rest of the library would just be fiction?

Aisle 4:  Bengazi:  The Youtube Video
Aisle 6:  You can keep your doctor.
Aisle 7:  The average family's bills will go down $2500.
Aisle 38:  You didn't build it.
Aisle 147:  Zimmerman and Me
Aisle 886:  Backing Al Queda in the Middle East
Aisle 1,942:  Fast and Furious

Aisle 101: The 57th State
Aisle 420: Cocaine is a hell of a drug
Aisle 69: Reggie Love

[Wilikon]

http://youtu.be/4o2G3XM-mJg

http://youtu.be/qtt39C4lQOI

[OlliBrandt80]

I think Obamacare is a step in the right direction but still some problems. There's no system that has no problems  the question is about how to solve the problems