Obamacare Schadenfreude, 7/2/14

A hot, steamy day here, and things to do later, so I should get this one out quick:

Another Security Breach for Obamacare

A Romanian attacker hacked the Vermont health exchange’s development server last December, gaining access at least 15 times and going undetected for a month, according to records obtained by National Review Online.
CGI Group, the tech firm hired to build Vermont Health Connect, described the risk as “high” in a report about the attack. It also found possible evidence of sophisticated “counter-forensics activity performed by the attacker to cover his/her tracks.”

The report says that no private consumer information was stored on the hacked server, and that CGI Group had “verified that no additional servers [that may store private data] communicated with any of the identified attacker IP addresses.”

But Michael Gregg, the CEO of the cyber-security consulting firm Superior Solutions, says it’s possible the hacker went on to access other parts of Vermont Health Connect, covering his tracks and remaining undetected to this day.
. . .
The hacker gained access because the default password to the development server was never changed (in violation of guidelines laid out in the state’s official policy) and because access to the server was not restricted only to users who were known and approved.

But don't worry, you're personal information is safe in the hands of the government. Just ask Lois Lerner. They'll only give it to friendly liberal NGOs for political purposes.

2.6 Million "unresolved" problems remain in Obamacare enrollments:

In case anyone wonders, that comes to about a third of all the enrollments claimed by the White House in the initial open-enrollment period for ObamaCare. Three months later, significant data discrepancies exist, so much so that these consumers may not have health-insurance coverage at all, according to the HHS Inspector General:

The Obama administration has been struggling to clear up data discrepancies that could potentially jeopardize coverage for millions under the health overhaul, the government’s health care fraud watchdog reported Tuesday.
The Health and Human Services inspector general said the administration was not able to resolve 2.6 million so-called “inconsistencies” out of a total of 2.9 million such problems in the federal insurance exchange from October through December 2013.

What kind of "unresolved problems are we talking about here?"

Most of the issues dealt with citizenship and income information supplied by consumers that conflicted with what the federal government has on record, the report said.

If citizenship is an issue, some substantial number of those sign are probably illegal immigrants, and I'm sure the administration will be strongly pushing to allow them to continue on the dole. For the rest, many people are likely going to be surprised by an additional tax bill when their subsidies disappear, or turn out smaller than they expected, and that "affordable health care" turns out not to be so affordable after all.

Health-care exchanges are not properly ensuring applicants’ eligibility, probe finds

The new health insurance marketplaces run by the federal government and some states are not checking carefully enough that Americans who apply for health plans qualify for the coverage and federal subsidies to help pay for it, according to federal investigators.

A pair of reports, issued Tuesday by the Department Health and Human Services’ Office of Inspector General, conclude that “internal controls” for evaluating applications were not always effective at verifying people’s Social Security numbers, their citizenship, and whether they are eligible to buy health plans through the marketplaces because they cannot find affordable insurance elsewhere.

Guideline Calls Routine Pelvic Exams Unnecessary

Doctors should stop performing routine pelvic exams, a key component of regular physicals for women, an influential medical group said Monday.

There is no evidence that such pelvic exams are useful and plenty to suggest that the procedure provokes fear, anxiety and pain in many women, the American College of Physicians said in a new practice guideline for doctors.

The college’s guideline was published in the Annals of Internal Medicine and was accompanied by an article reviewing the scientific evidence. The recommendation applies only to routine checkups for healthy women, not to women who visit the doctor’s office with medical complaints or who are pregnant.

As noted by Instapundit; with Obamacare, we'll soon be seeing a lot more "routine" health checks eliminated in a drive to save the funds in health care for administrators salaries.

First Obamacare Casualty? Woman in class-action lawsuit against Xerox dies

The Las Vegas woman died Monday, less than two weeks after her family went public with details of how enrollment trouble through the Nevada Health Link insurance exchange kept her from getting treatment in January for an aggressive brain tumor.

Rolain was one of about 150 Nevadans suing Nevada Health Link contractor Xerox for enrollment mixups that left them without the health insurance they paid for.

Rolain is the first to die of complications from an illness that her family said went untreated for lack of coverage. But observers close to her case say she may not be the last, because others are in similarly urgent situations.

Catholic TV gets emergency stay after Hobby Lobby decision:

Late yesterday, the first fruits of the Hobby Lobby decision fell into the lap of EWTN, the Catholic satellite television station which has fought the HHS mandate into the appellate court. Today would have been the first day that EWTN would have to start paying ruinous fines for refusing to provide free contraception and sterilization in its health insurance coverage. Fortunately, the Eleventh Circuit granted a stay not long after the Supreme Court ruled in favor of Hobby Lobby:

In a resounding victory for religious freedom, today EWTN was granted last minute relief from the Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals, one day before the world’s largest religious media network would be forced to violate its deeply help religious convictions or pay crippling fines to the IRS on July 1.
After the district judge recently issued a disappointing ruling against the global Catholic media network, the Becket Fund for Religious Liberty filed an emergency appeal to the Eleventh Circuit. Pending that ruling, the Becket Fund urged the Supreme Court and the Eleventh Circuit to step in to protect EWTN from being forced to provide contraceptives and potentially life-terminating drugs and devices that violate its Catholic teachings. Thanks to the Eleventh Circuit’s decision today to grant temporary emergency relief to the Catholic network, EWTN can now freely practice what it preaches while it pursues its claims in court.

One imagines heads exploding among the left wing like power line transformers in an ice storm.