Friday, January 31, 2014

Better Late Than Never Obamacare Schadenfreude

We had places to go and people to see this morning, so this morning's Obamacare Schadenfreud roundup was delayed.  However, we're back now, and there's no reason not to.  However, first, the now customary weather report.  Clear blue sky here (except for the road salt haze while driving) , and temperatures here crept above the freezing mark for most of the day.  Hoping for 40s and maybe even low 50s tomorrow and Sunday.  Wohoo!

A TV crew recorded the scene as workers at a small business were informed what changes Obamacare was going to make in their coverage.



"I don't know how President Obama thinks he's helping us."

Silly girl, he doesn't. He's all helping people without jobs, and the only way to do that is take the money from people with them.

Up in the great state of Washington, children with Obamacare insurance were denied coverage for some grave diseases thanks to Obamacare:
"Administrators at Seattle Children's today said they predicted this would happen, and it's even worse than they expected," says the local news anchor. "Patients being denied specialty treatment at the hospital by insurance providers on the Washington health benefits exchange. Children's filed request on behalf of 125 of their patients. Of those, they say they got only 20 responses, eight of which were denials. Dr. Sandy Melzer says all this comes after reassurances of certain unique specialty cases would still be covered."

Dr. Sandy Melzer says, "Well, some of the patients who were denied are ones who clearly would fall into that unique category. A two-year-old with new significant neck mass that was being evaluated for infection or malignancy, an older child with a chronic severe medical condition requiring multidisciplinary care here, a baby that had a skull abnormality."

The anchor explains, "Children's went ahead and treated those cases anyway, but Dr. Melzer said they can't afford to keep doing that it way."
About 20% of people who signed up for Obamacare on the exchanges have not yet paid for their insurance, and are thus not really enrolled yet:
Around one in five people who picked health insurance policies on the state and federal exchanges last year haven't paid their first month's premiums, according to insurers polled by CNNMoney. These folks will likely see their policy selection canceled and they'll be left uninsured.

Some 2.1 million people signed up for a plan in time for their coverage to start January 1, according to the Obama administration. But with the payment deadlines stretching until January 31 at the latest, anywhere between 12% and 30% of those folks still haven't paid up, insurers say.
My guess is that they're waiting for another round of Calvinball rule making; hoping that the Preznit will change it to something they don't have to pay for.

Currently only about about 50% of the uninsured say they intend to get insurance through the Obamacare exchanges, while about 40% say they will not.  My guess is that of the 50% who do, half will actually find a round tuit.

Hey, remember that silly video that Richard Simmons made for the California Obamacare exchanges? It only cost the State of Incoherence California $1,370,000 to make.
People in California can’t even reach someone on the phone to complain about the ObamaCare trainwreck and these morons spent over a million dollars to produce this horror show of a video? What the hell is wrong with these people?
A California senator is seeking to audit the state’s ObamaCare exchange after a Watchdog.org storyrevealed that $1.37 million was spent on a campaign featuring an eight-hour web stream starring a gyrating Richard Simmons.

The Jan. 16 event — now immortalized on YouTube — showed celebrity fitness trainer Simmons writhing on the ground to an MC’s chant of “Get Covered, hashtag, uh-huh,” a reference to Covered California, the state exchange. At one point, he snuggles up to a contortionist following a dance-off.

Covered California faces a $78 million deficit during the next fiscal year due to cutbacks in federal funding.
At least I don't pay California taxes anymore, but most of our families do.  But then, the Maryland exchange may just be even more of a basket case.

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