The Obama administration has decided to front-load bad ObamaCare news, including another delay in the law’s implementation that would allow insurers to sell policies that do not meet the Essential Health Benefit Standards.
The Obama administration is making the decision to front-load bad ObamaCare news in order to avoid negative press in the height of the midterm elections. In fact, they may just delay implementing the law until they believe they have thoroughly avoided being held accountable at the polls.
In the soon-to-be latest instance of lawlessness, Obama is preparing to announce another new delay in the implementation of ObamaCare, which would allow insurers to continue offering health plans that do not meet the Essential Health Benefit Standards.
Those requirements, which are responsible for Americans receiving cancellation notices, force people to purchase plans that are far more costly than pre-ObamaCare coverage because it offers coverage Americans do not need in order to subsidize others.
President Obama, under political pressure over widespread health plan cancellations, particularly by Democratic senators in red states they are having a difficult time defending, single-handedly changed the law back in November to allow Americans to keep their current insurance policies for another year, even if their plans didn’t meet the minimum standards, i.e. men buying birth control coverage and seniors paying for prenatal care.
The latest delay, which the administration has decided to announce as early as next week, would again allow insurers to continue selling insurance plans that would otherwise be illegal under the law.
While we have confirmed the extension, it remains unclear how long the latest lawless extension will be, though one official said it is possible that it will last until of the end of Obama’s second term, and even beyond the 2016 presidential election to protect Hillary Clinton running for president.
The extension, they hope, will trick the American people into voting again for Democratic candidates in the midterm elections by avoiding another wave of health policy cancellations expected this fall. The small business mandate, for instance, which was expected to kick in right before the elections, will eventually cause the cancellations of millions of Americans’ policies.
“I don’t see how they could have a bunch of these announcements going out in September,” a health insurance industry consultant told The Hill. “Not when they’re trying to defend the Senate and keep their losses at a minimum in the House. This is not something to have out there right before the election.”
According to the model used at PeoplesPunditDaily.com to assign races to our 2014 Senate Map Predictions, Republicans are currently projected to win at least 6 to 9 seats, with the potential to gain 7 – 13.
The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services Administrator Marilyn Tavenner confirmed Tuesday that the total number of new Medicaid enrollments under ObamaCare is not as high as some have suggested. Though some officials have touted that more than 8 million have signed on, Tavenner acknowledged that between 2.5 million and 3 million are actually new enrollments due to ObamaCare, but the number doesn’t include those who have yet to pay.
In other words, the administration is counting those who have simply placed a policy into the shopping cart after exploring options.
Meanwhile, insurers are not happy with the administration’s unilateral, lawless changes to the law since its disastrous rollout back in October 2013. One industry executive told The Hill the changing deadlines make it difficult to price health plans.
“These stops and starts make it very difficult because we set rates based on predictive modeling,” the executive said. “When you change the rules, it has a detrimental impact on your ability to calculate your risk pool and your prices.”
