A Dribble of Obamacare Schadenfreude

With the election taking all the oxygen, there's not much news on Obamacare coming out, but bad news continues to dribble out:

According the Government Accounting Office (GAO) auditors,  CMS Was ‘Passive’ in Preventing Fraud in Administering Obamacare.

The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services was “passive” in its approach to identifying and preventing fraud in administering Obamacare, according to testimony from the Government Accountability Office.

According to the report, the agency must verify an individual’s application information to determine he or she is eligible for health care coverage. The individual must be lawfully present in the United States and may not be incarcerated unless they are awaiting a disposition of charges.

The agency detects application “inconsistencies” when an individual’s personal information is not correctly matched against the data from other federal agencies such as the IRS, the Social Security Administration, and the Department of Homeland Security.

But why bother to check IDs if the whole goal is to get the entire Western Hemisphere under Obamacare: Chelsea Clinton reveals her mom thinks it is ‘important’ to extend Obamacare to illegal aliens. A country might survive open borders or a welfare state, but not both.

And speaking of welfare, how about some of the corporate variety: Obamacare Insurers Could Get Billions From Government Fund

A $5 billion lawsuit filed by a nonprofit insurer against the Obama administration for a program implemented under Obamacare is raising questions about the use of a fund available for settlements with the government and whether Congress can, and should, intervene.

According to legal experts, if the Obama administration decided to settle its class action lawsuit with Health Republic Insurance of Oregon, one of 23 co-ops started under Obamacare, and other insurers for all or part of the $5 billion it’s seeking, the money would come from the Judgment Fund, an indefinite appropriation created by Congress and administered by the Department of Treasury.

"Sue and settle" is an established method for the Obama Administration to get policies that are not written into the law in place.

Obamacare’s tax-time torment

“Where is my 1095-A? This is what it must be like dealing with a government agency in a third world country.”

That was the lament on Twitter of just one poor citizen this week trying to get his tax records in order. Nationwide, hard-working Americans are struggling to meet the April 18 IRS filing deadline. Standing in the way: the bumbling Obamacare bureaucracy.

In Minnesota, an estimated 18,000 people who were on health insurance plans last year offered through MNsure, the state Obamacare health insurance exchange, still haven’t received their 1095-A form. It’s the “health insurance marketplace statement” required to file accurate tax returns and claim the premium tax credit.

Twin Cities officials blame “technical bugs” and promise they’ll be sending more of the documents out next week. But it’s small consolation to farmers in Minnesota who were required to file their taxes by March 1.

“This is the second year in a row MNsure has been late sending my 1095-A form and it’s cost me extra money when I have to file for an extension on my tax filings,” farmer Robert Marg of Winona County, Minnesota, told his local TV station.

In Hawaii, the paper-pushers sent out their 1095-A forms on time — but the documents are worthless to thousands of taxpayers enrolled in the state’s now-defunct Obamacare exchange, the Hawaii Health Connector. According to the Pacific Business News, “approximately 80 percent of the forms sent out to taxpayers” contain errors, including address problems.

We're from the government, and we're here to collect a paycheck. Help yourselves, plebes.