Obamacare Schadenfreude for the Birds

Tropical Winter Storm Titan passed pretty much as expected.  As recounted yesterday, it was snowing hard and getting colder as I wrote yesterday's Schadenfreude post.  It continued to snow and cool until late afternoon, depositing something on the order of 4-5 inches of crystalline global warming, and allowing us to see the sun briefly before it set.  

We noticed that during the snow, the birds at the feeder were going crazy; we haven't seen so many, so many types, and such a flurry of activity all winter.  In addition to our usual assortment of Cardinals, Titmice, Chickadees, Purple Finches, Carolina Wrens, White Throated Sparrow, Mourning Doves, and Nuthatches we were visited by a mixed flock of Redwinged Blackbirds, Grackles, some Goldfinches, and something we haven't gotten a real good look at, let alone a decent photo of, which may be a Fox or Song Sparrow.  Curiously, the squirrels stayed away.

This morning, it's still cold, about 18 F. and the feeder is still more active than usual, if not quite as frantic as yesterday.  And the squirrels are back.

The Administration continues to scramble to minimize damage to the democratic brand by putting out feelers that the may alter the rules yet again (I have no clue how many rule changes they've made up to to this point, but it was approaching 30 more than a week ago).  This time, the administration is planning to yet again extend the damage to some healthcare plans until after the mid-term elections:

The Obama administration is set to announce another major delay in implementing the Affordable Care Act, easing election pressure on Democrats.

As early as this week, according to two sources, the White House will announce a new directive allowing insurers to continue offering health plans that do not meet ObamaCare’s minimum coverage requirements.

Prolonging the “keep your plan” fix will avoid another wave of health policy cancellations otherwise expected this fall.

The cancellations would have created a firestorm for Democratic candidates in the last, crucial weeks before Election Day.

A firestorm they richly deserve.

We have noted before how the Congress and their upper aides were forced into Obamacare, courtesy of a Republican amendment, but it turns out, once they retire, they get to go back into the much friendlier federal healthcare system, thanks to a rule promulgated by the OPM.

For most Americans, there is no escape from ObamaCare. One subset of Americans, however, do have an escape hatch — and surprise, surprise, it’s the same subset of Americans who forced ObamaCare onto everyone else. Officeholders on Capitol Hill and their staffs can opt back into the previous Congressional health-care system by retiring:

This year, members of Congress and thousands of their staffers are finally signing up for health insurance provided by an ObamaCare exchange, fulfilling their commitment to live under the same system that millions of other Americans will use.
But unlike those millions of Americans, members and staff have a way to opt out of ObamaCare — retirement.
Under a rule issued by the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) late last year, members and staff who retire will be able to revert back to health coverage under the Federal Employees Health Benefits Program (FEHBP). That’s the same coverage that thousands of other federal workers can use when they retire. . .

The kicker? OPM decided that forcing these retirees to stay in ObamaCare would give themmore options than other retirees, and that just wouldn’t be fair. At the same time, though, OPM didn’t seem to take fairness into great consideration on their legal argument. While the law mandates that members of Congress and their staffers get treated like all other Americans, OPM reasoned, the law never stated that they had to get the same treatment once they retired from those positions.

But not everyone gets the benefit of favorable treatment under Obamacare: Obamacare cuts home healthcare for millions of seniors

President Obama’s mendacious political promise, “If you like your health care plan, you can keep it,” continues to cast a long and disturbing shadow of doubt and confusion over millions of Americans who have lost coverage as a result of Obamacare. As 2014 unfolds, the most vulnerable senior citizens — those who receive home health care services — are about to learn they are out of luck. Obamacare opens a trap door under them, leaving this elderly population in freefall — with many citizens losing access to home health care.

Add another compelling reason to reverse Obamacare. Whether by accident or intention, the “Affordable Care Act” empirically strips America’s oldest and poorest cohort, all part of the World War II generation, of this basic coverage. Here is how.

On Jan. 1, Medicare’s home health care services, formerly serving 3.5 million elderly beneficiaries across the country, were cut under Obamacare. The cut deleted exactly 14 percent, or an estimated $22 billion, from these lowest-income Americans over four years. News of the forthcoming cut only trickled out the Friday before Thanksgiving, yet another stunning attempt by the Obama White House to reduce Medicare benefits without attracting notice.

On the other hand, other groups seem to benefit from the law even as it's benefits are explicitly denied them: Oregon Obamacare Enrolls 4000 Illegal Immigrants

Nearly 4,000 applicants for a state programthat provides undocumented immigrants with pregnancy services were instead enrolled in full Oregon Health Plan coverage, contrary tofederal law, thanks to problems with the Cover Oregon health insurance exchange.

State officials say they discovered the problem several weeks ago and are correcting it.

The pregnancy program goof, however, is just one of many little-known problems that Oregon Health Plan members, providers, care groups and state officials have wrestled with as Oregon’s system for enrolling people undergoes chaotic change.

Since one of the principal operating assumptions of Obamacare is that once a benefit or subsidy is granted, it's important to keep that person in system, my guess is that they will find some way around the law.  Another executive order, perhaps?

But have no fear, says Jay Carney, at least the California Obamacare system is functioning (sort of):

Apparently Carney’s bar for “working pretty well” is incredibly low. Maybe Carney forgot California’s online exchange was shut down for five days last week due to software problems, or the lingering problems consumers encounter when trying to sign up for Covered California.

California has also faced problems enrolling enough Latinos. Latinos comprise 50% of the uninsured population in California, but only accounted for 21% of signups through mid-February.

As noted in Wombat-Socho's "In The Mailbox, 03.03.14", Megan McArdle thinks that there is some value added by having different states fail different ways in the construction of their Obamacare programs: Busted State Obamacare Sites Have a Silver Lining

. . . In fact, this suggests that, arguably, the law didn’t go far enough. The federal government could have given states more freedom to experiment: with minimum coverage requirements, with pricing, even with not having an electronic exchange at all. While “having a website just like Kayak where you can buy insurance” certainly sounds great, it’s hardly necessary. Massachusetts signed people up for years using paper applications for anyone who needed a subsidy. That’s what Oregon resorted to when their exchange broke. More freedom to experiment, rather than less, might have given us more options -- and fewer failures at the outset. . . 

Dammit Megan, don't make me think, at least not this early in the morning.