Obamacare Schadenfreude Still Rolling Along

A cool, gray, windless morning here. But we had the strangest storm last night.  On radar it looked like a straight line, streaming out of the Pittsburgh area, not moving laterally at all, which gave us several hours of light rain, and occasional rumbles of thunder.

After yesterday's respite, Obamacare Schadenfreude is still rolling along.

Remember how the original concept of Obamacare was that states would build their own websites and exchanges, and the federal option was for those red, recalcitrant states who refused to play ball?  It's many of the blue Obamaphilic states which seem to have problems constructing and running a website, even with free money as Massachusetts joins Oregon in tossing it's own expensive website to use the federal version

Massachusetts ditches RomneyCare health exchange

Bay State officials are taking steps this week to junk central parts of their dysfunctional health insurance exchange — the model for President Barack Obama’s health care law — and merge with the federal enrollment site HealthCare.gov.

The decision is part of an expensive plan that would occur alongside a parallel, last-ditch attempt to still build a working state system.
The state on Monday announced the hiring of hCentive, a Virginia-based contractor that helped construct the Kentucky and Colorado exchanges. The company would rush to build a viable state exchange in time for the next enrollment season, which begins Nov. 15.
. . .
Massachusetts is the second state to begin that transition. Late last month, Oregon opted to scrap its $200 million system and join the federal exchange.

It’s unclear what either option will cost Massachusetts or whether federal officials will cover that expense. Massachusetts has already spent $57 million on a system that never was able to enroll people with subsidies start to finish, and its failure has forced the state to enroll more than 160,000 residents in temporary Medicaid coverage — at an estimated $10 million-a-month cost.

 I'll bet we the federal taxpayers get stuck with the bill.

As we have been saying for some time, the individual mandate was just the tip of the Obamacare iceberg; the rest, in the form of the employer mandates of the is still yet to hit the hull. But we see it coming, and the ship can't turn fast enough. Employer mandate threatens 90,000 healthcare policies in Harry Reid's Nevada: Own a small business? Brace for Obamacare pain

Local insurance brokers are reporting spikes ranging from 35 percent to 120 percent on policies that renew from July to December. The increases are especially acute among employers with workforces made up of younger, healthier men. That’s because Obamacare prohibits offering lower rates to healthier groups. It also narrows the allowed premium gap between older and younger enrollees.
. . .
The changes put as many as 90,000 policies across Nevada at risk of cancellation or nonrenewal this fall, said Las Vegas insurance broker William Wright, president of Chamber Insurance and Benefits. That’s more than three times the 25,000 enrollees affected in October, when Obamacare-compliant plans first hit the market.

Some workers are at higher risk than others of losing company-sponsored coverage. Professional, white-collar companies such as law or engineering firms will bite the bullet and renew at higher prices because they need to compete for scarce skilled labor, Nolimal said.

But moderately skilled or low-skilled people making $8 to $14 an hour working for landscaping businesses, fire-prevention firms or fencing companies could lose work-based coverage because the plans cost so much relative to salaries.

Employees who keep their coverage might see leaner take-home pay, which could hurt the economy.

Irate Maine doctor writes his senator about Obamacare.  You have to follow the link the actual letter. But it's a doozy. But unfortunately, what the Dr. considers a bug is considered a feature by the actual authors and implementers of Obamacare.

Rep. Todd Rokita, R-Ind., posted this letter to his official House website on Friday without comment. Its author’s name is redacted, but it purports to be from an eye doctor in Maine to Sen. Angus King, I-Maine, regarding his frustrations over Obamacare.
Part of it everyone is familiar with — the high premiums and deductibles his patients face, employers dropping coverage due to increased costs, etc. This is actually the least interesting part to read. Several of his complaints are specifically from a doctor’s perspective, and these are far more illuminating. Among them: The extreme waste of time and added cost involved with the electronic medical record mandates, reduced and delayed government reimbursements for elderly and indigent patients, and the increased vulnerability of doctors who still bother taking government reimbursements to be targeted by “bounty hunters” seeking a payday based on some kind of potential compliance failure. This more interesting part begins at the bottom of page two.

And the program keep getting more unpopular, as the midterms approach:

Opposition to ObamaCare Now at All-Time High, GOP Owns Biggest Midterm Advantage in Over Two Decades  Hence, democrats are proposing to abolish the midterms...

Consider how in both 1994 and 2010 the left and the media (but I repeat myself) deluded themselves into thinking all was well and were left shell-shocked on election night. We hope they continue on the same path.

Views of the Affordable Care Act haven’t brightened, even after problems with the website were fixed and 8 million people signed up for insurance before the March 31 deadline. In the poll, 41% approve of the law, a record 55% disapprove of it.
Some say they’ve seen the law’s positive impact. Quentin Howell, 37, of Milledgeville, Ga., says he was diagnosed with “a touch of diabetes” two years ago; under the Affordable Care Act, insurance companies can’t deny him coverage because of his pre-existing condition. “This is a big issue for me,” he says.
Opposition to the Affordable Care Act continues to be more intense than support for it.
“Obamacare could be a breaking point for who gets my vote,” says Anthony Miniard, 50, of Lynchburg, Ohio. Once a reliable Republican, he became disenchanted with the party. But his opposition to the health care law could push him back to the GOP. He labels the law “a screw-up from Day One” and says, “I don’t know if I would vote for a Democrat that keeps Obamacare going.”

Guess Obama declaring the debate over hasn’t swayed anyone.

In fact is has some up in arms, literally. GOP Senate candidate ready to roll up on her Harley and double-tap the ACA

It’s Joni Ernst, whom you’ll remember from her last ad vowing to make Beltway types squeal just like the hogs she castrated as a kid. That spot put her on the map nationally. A few weeks later she was ahead in the GOP primary despite being outspent by her nearest rival, and a few weeks after that she landed Sarah Palin’s endorsement (“I haven’t been this excited about a candidate in quite a while”). Here she is in full Mama Grizzly mode, which has The Wire claiming that “Senate Candidate Joni Ernst’s Sarah Palin Schtick is Now Beyond Parody.” But she’s winking at the schtick, no? Both this spot and the castration ad seem firmly tongue-in-cheek to me; compare and contrast Joe Manchin’s famous commercial from the 2010 campaign, when he put a bullet in the cap-and-trade bill, with this one of Ernst taking target practice. The vibe in Manchin’s ad was somber to the point of being almost grim, all “I mean business.” The vibe in this one, thanks to the over-the-top music and Ernst’s cheeriness, is sunny while signaling that she’s a woman of the people. That’s no accident, either: If she makes it through the primary, the Democrat who’s waiting for her in the general is Bruce “Do we really want farmers in Congress?” Braley.

From the "Vodka Pundit, Stephen Green, a re-analysis of the enrollment data: Your ♡bamaCare!!! Fail of the Day

Enrollments — surprise! — aren’t what they need to be. David Hogberg has the numbers:

Sign-ups of the crucial 18-34-year-old cohort jumped from 25% in early March to 28% at the end of the enrollment period. That’s not a surprise given that young people are likely to be disporportionately represented among people who do things at the last minute. But the fact that over half of that age group chose their plan during the last month should worry ObamaCare supporters. People who are flakey enough to wait until the last minute are probably also flakey when it comes to paying premiums. Thus, that 28 percent number will decline and it will, of course, be no where near the 38 percent the Obama Administration says is needed to keep the risk pools stable. (FYI: The Kaiser Family Foundation says the low number of 18-34-year-olds doesn’t matter much. Seth Chandler says they are wrong.)
While the 18-34-year-old cohort has been dubbed the “young and healthy,” a more accurate moniker might be “young and somewhat healthy.” 68 percent of 18-34-year-olds on the federal exchanges chose a silver plan.

Those Silver plan purchases are the telling detail. If you’re young and healthy, you buy a catastrophic plan if you buy insurance at all. If you’re young and not-so-healthy, you pay up front for more comprehensive coverage. So it would seem that the Young Invincibles are still sitting out, and the Young Hacking Coughs are the ones signing up.

Given the generous subsidies and the higher payouts, it looks like the YHC’s might bust the budget and the exchanges.

I reluctantly disagree with the usually spot on Green. People have gotten used to the idea of health insurance as a maintenance plan, rather than protection against catastrophic cost.  Somebody out there is buying all those extended warranties on cell phones, microwave ovens and TVs.

Now, sing along with Festus!