Obamacare Schadenfreude Keeps Chugging Aong

It just won't go away. Here's the latest.

Obamacare. Hmmm. Say, wasn't that going to save everybody a ton of money? What, you say, Get Ready for Huge Obamacare Premium Hikes in 2017? Get out! But at least it slowed the rise in prices? AHIP warns Obamacare premiums going up more than in previous years. Oh, but we got universal coverage out of it didn't we; that was worth the price of paying more. No? Obamacare Won’t Lead to Universal Coverage. Well, but you can get the insurance you want, right? UnitedHealth Group to exit Obamacare exchanges in all but a ‘handful’ of states. That's like only half of 57 states isn't it? But we can set aside before tax money in Health Services Accounts (HSAs) to offset the increasing costs, right? HSAs on the Obamacare Exchange Chopping Block.

But as we’ve discussed at length, few options, higher costs — they’re a feature, not a bug.

Why it's almost like they're taking away anything good to force us into their plans.

People can't afford to buy plans they don't need from insurers who can't afford to keep selling them, because of the Affordable Care Act.

That Means It's Working™

And the death spiral takes another spin: Your ♡bamaCare!!! Fail of the Day

Given the billions wasted, the people shut out of their previous choices, the growth-and jobs-snuffing taxes, and all the rest, there's really no satisfaction in being proven right.

Maybe at least we'll learn to be a more-effective opposition to the next wave of collectivism.

I don't know about that. Venezuela shows that formerly prosperous societies follow the socialist death spiral a long way before any sanity reasserts itself. Venezuela's government has imposed a two-day working week for public sector workers as a temporary measure to help it overcome a serious energy crisis. Venezuela, with the worlds largest proven oil reserves, has run out of energy. It has also run out of other people's money, right about the same time. This Is The End: Venezuela Runs Out Of Money To Print New Money. But I like the idea of cutting the Federal government 3/5s to save energy!

Bottom line:  ObamaCare is based on flawed economic analysis, bad assumptions, and with wishful thinking. It’s the equivalent of King Canute ordering the tide not to rise.

However, there is a major difference. King Canute didn’t expect the tide to obey him; he was making a point to his courtiers concerning the limits of his authority.  The imbeciles that brought us ObamaCare actually expected basic economics to change on command.

Somebody should investigate this, right? Feds Blow Off House Subpoena For Obamacare Co-Op Docs

Federal health officials refuse to give Congress hundreds of subpoenaed documents on Obamacare’s failed co-ops so that people will continue enrolling in the deeply troubled program, a congressional leader said Tuesday.

Twelve of the 23 co-ops created in 2011 under Obamacare at a cost of $2.4 billion have failed, and another eight of the remaining 11 are likely to go under this year. But the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) won’t hand over documents subpoenaed months ago by the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform.
. . .
The co-ops have already cost taxpayers billions, leaving many enrollees “scrambling” to find new health insurance, he added. More than 800,000 customers have lost coverage through the failures nationwide, and many more are expected to lose coverage in 2016.

Federal health officials are also denying medical reimbursements to doctors and hospitals that have served patients insured by failed co-ops, a DCNF investigation found.

Federal reports have documented personal information security concerns, website failures and poor eligibility screening processes plaguing Obamacare exchanges and co-ops.

Magic 8-Ball says "No": Is the GOP really about to unveil a replacement for Obamacare?

Remember back in the days following the 2014 midterms when the GOP was still talking about not only repealing Obamacare, but providing a viable replacement for it which made sense for the country? Good times, my friends. Of course, once the primary kicked into gear last spring most of those conversations seemed to fall by the wayside. But it’s back in the news this week because at least one lawmaker is hinting that Republicans may be within weeks of releasing just such a proposal. (The Hill)

A group of senior House Republicans is promising to deliver proof that the party is making headway in its six-year struggle to replace ObamaCare.
“Give us a little time, another month or so,” House Energy and Commerce Committee Chairman Fred Upton (R-Mich.) told reporters this week. “I think we’ll be pretty close to a Republican alternative.”

Unfortunately, not even Congressman Upton’s Republican colleagues seems to be buying this story.
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Both the Republicans and the Democrats have good reason not to be the first ones to move on the issue. If liberals begin touting it as a success and pushing to “preserve and build on” it, the GOP can cite all the factors I mentioned above in response. But if the Republicans run on repealing it, the Dems have a built-in talking point. Technically there are a few million people who now have coverage who didn’t have it before. It may be pretty lousy coverage which doesn’t do all that much for them, but it’s there. So any talk of repeal will be touted in the media as an effort to “take it away” from poor people. While deceptive to a degree, it’s a powerful totem in the election wars.

It would be different if the GOP had a simple, easy to understand plan which would replace Obamacare, but that doesn’t seem to exist. In a perfect world, Republicans could point to how much we’ve already invested in this scheme and show that we could have simply allocated money to buy all those people insurance plans on the traditional market for less money, but that’s a non-starter. Democrats would oppose it because it would signal an admission that Obamacare had failed. Conservatives would refuse it just because of the price tag and a lack of any way to fund it without continuing to drive up the debt.

No, at this point it’s probably better for both parties to treat Obamacare like the toad at the garden party and simply ignore it until after November.

And then, there's the veto problem.