Moe Lane

It just ain’t Barack Obama’s day.  Or week.  Or month. Or year…

The Internal Revenue Service is now facing a class action lawsuit over allegations that it improperly accessed and stole the health records of some 10 million Americans, including medical records of all California state judges.

According to a report by Courthousenews.com, an unnamed HIPAA-covered entity in California is suing the IRS, alleging that some 60 million medical records from 10 million patients were stolen by 15 IRS agents. The personal health information seized on March 11, 2011, included psychological counseling, gynecological counseling, sexual/drug treatment and other medical treatment data.

But, hey, trust them with Obamacare tax enforcement, right?

Right?

Moe Lane

PS: Don’t look at me: I voted for the other guy.

So this video of a report on the news that people’s health premiums may be going up significantly next year (the number quoted was 10%: that will be important in a moment) is going around.  It shows, in fact, Senator Chuck Schumer (D, NY) making what turned out to be a couple of fascinating comments along those lines:

Here’s the transcript of the relevant commentary from Sen Schumer:

“Our insurance department is empowered to protect families, and we’re going to watch them like a hawk to make sure that they do, because it they don’t these, these rates could go through the roof.”

 ”Is it because of Obamacare?”

 ”It’s in part because of Obamacare, but health care has been going up in double digits for years and years and years…”

Now that‘s interesting.  Not just because of the accidental admission by Schumer that Obamacare is going to raise your rates (which, by the way, President Obama promised wouldn’t happen): but also because I’m not exactly sure where the Senator got that double-digit thing.  (more…)

(Via Hot Air Headlines) I am weeping over this.  Really and truly: my eyes still burn with the angry residue of hot tears.

At Tuesday’s press conference, President Obama delivered an unfocused eight-minute defense of his central legislative accomplishment in office – the Affordable Care Act. In the face of intraparty criticism that implementation of his health care law will be a “train wreck,” new polls showing support for the law near all-time lows, and even the Democratic nominee in next week’s House special election calling the law “extremely problematic”– there’s plenty of evidence piling up to believe health care will be a political millstone for Democrats in 2014.

…No, wait, sorry.  The tears were actually from the Cheerio that I managed to somehow inhale earlier this evening, and then spent the next ten minutes trying to expel from my lungs.  The National Journal article is instead merely hysterical, in a distinctly anticipatory (not to say, predatory) sort of way.

My bad.

Moe Lane

I can’t believe that Harry Reid actually said this (bolding mine):

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) says he shares colleagues’ concerns that the Affordable Care Act could become a “train wreck” if it’s not implemented properly.

Reid warned that people will not be able to choose health insurance plans on government health exchanges if federal authorities lack the resources to set them up and educate the public.

The stress must be getting to him.

Moe Lane

PS: Yes, I’m sure that the Hill was paraphrasing whatever it was that Reid had actually said.  The real point is this: the Democrats are as scared as all get-out about how Obamacare is threatening to unfold on them.  As well they should be.

I’ve been meaning to highlight this passage from Walter Russell Mead…

One interesting thing about Ms. Dowd’s description of “hardball” political tactics is just how dainty and genteel her brass knuckle suggestions actually are. A speech, an appeal to reason: there is nothing here about lucrative contracts for political supporters, promises of sinecure jobs for politicians who lose their seats, a “blank check” for administrative backing on some obscure tax loophole that a particular politician could award to a favored client; there’s not even a delicate hint about grand jury investigations that can be stopped in their tracks or compromising photographs or wiretaps that need never see the light of day. Far be it from Ms Dowd to speak of or even hint at the kind of strategy that actual politicians think about when words like ‘hardball’ come to mind. Ms Dowd speaks of brass knuckles and then shows us a doily; at some level it speaks well of Ms. Dowd as a human being that even when she tries she seems unable to come up with an offer someone can’t refuse.

…largely to note that this is. perhaps, why I feel kind of sorry for MoDo, some days.  The woman’s just not suited for our modern punditocracy, which rewards people (particularly people on the Left) for their lack of scruples.  And I think that on some level she gets that.

But I only feel kind of sorry, because after all I am myself part of the problem.

Oh, my.

The Obama administration has already agreed to spend at least $23 million on public relations and marketing for ObamaCare. And now it says it’s about to spend $8 million more.

Somebody tell Barack Obama that this isn’t a video game. Sometimes it doesn’t matter how much money you spend: that power bar just ain’t going to fill up.

Via

Obamacare is the Iraq of the Obama administration. reason.com/blog/2013/04/2…

— Ben Domenech (@bdomenech) April 22, 2013

Moe Lane

PS: Free PR suggestion: have them stop calling it ‘Obamacare.’  Expensive PR suggestion: explaining how to do that.

Moratorium.

Don’t be surprised if many Democrats in Congress join with Republicans later this year in calling for a one-year moratorium on the implementation of Obamacare. There’s even a chance the Obama administration will join them if the behind-the-scenes chaos at HHS gets bad enough. That wouldn’t be the kind of bipartisanship deal the establishment media has been calling for lately, but it might just be one of the most popular moves Washington could make.

John Fund has his ear to the DC ground; if he’s hearing this being whispered in April, there’s an excellent chance that it will be muttered in June and shouted by August…

Megan McArdle makes a really good point, here:

Obamacare did very little to accomodate [multi-employer union healthcare] plans.  Perhaps that was due to be hashed out in the final bill, but of course, we didn’t get a final bill, because the election of Scott Brown threw everything into chaos.  Instead they hastily passed what was basically a draft bill, which had done virtually nothing about the MEPs.  The unions supported it anyway, undoubtedly because they were assured by the Obama administration that the problems would be fixed later.  From what I understand, they still haven’t been.

Bolding mine, because it shows the event that triggered every disastrous thing that happened to Democrats with regard to Obama. In 2009 Scott Brown was elected in Massachusetts, explicitly on the promise of being the forty-first vote against Obamacare (which would have stopped any future cloture votes cold).  This was the point where the Democrats should have shown moral courage and withdrawn the bill. Yes, they would have left a lot of political capital on the table. Yes, their base would have been infuriated at the ‘betrayal.’ Yes, I personally would have had a field day with that.  But the Democrats might have kept the House.  Compare the legislation of the 109th Congress to that of the 110th and 111th; there is a stark difference in not only what passes, but what even gets considered.  Because elections matter. (more…)

So, let’s review the problem that the United Union of Roofers, Waterproofers and Allied Workers is facing right now: they were one of the groups that enthusiastically went all out for passing Obamacare, and now they are discovering that…

• Their existing insurance plan?  The one that they liked?  Yeah, they’re not going to be allowed to keep it.
• The union might have to give up entirely an insurance plan that they offered their retirees.  Too expensive.
• Added fees to pay for coverage of people with preexisting conditions. And an excise tax on their gold-plated coverage plans.
• And – this is the piece de resistance – the union’s non-union competition apparently generally consists of companies that are too small to be subject to Obamacare’s mandatory coverage requirements. In other words, they’ll be competing with firms that have a built-in advantage when it comes to making bids.

Now, I know that some people are thinking right now Sucks to be them, then.  And that is unkind: after all, the United Union of Roofers, Waterproofers and Allied Workers is now actively calling for the repeal or complete reform of Obamacare, now that it’s been demonstrated to be shaping up to be an absolute disaster for the union.  We are not in the vengeance business (well, unless you’re a terrorist).  It is our duty as moral and ethical human beings to help out those who have truly learned their lessons.  So you shouldn’t shrug your shoulders, point, and laugh at their sudden realization that they messed up about Obamacare. (more…)

Completely missing from this article?

Plans to bend the health care cost curve are pretty plentiful in the nation’s capital. Lots of think tanks and coalitions have plans to cut billions (even trillions) in health care spending.

The Partnership for Sustainable Health Care argues it’s something different. The new alliance, which includes health plans, a hospital and consumer advocates, isn’t looking to bring fresh ideas to the debate. It recognizes this city has no shortage of think tank proposals.

Instead, the Partnership wants to start putting political muscle behind the ideas that already exist — and, after it does that pass legislation that would control health care costs in a way the Affordable Care Act doesn’t.

That’s right: any indication of how they expect to get Republicans to sign off on giving more funding* to Obamacare.  Spoiler warning: the Republicans won’t. (more…)

Well, we had to pass the bill before w… oh, never bloody mind.

At issue is a little-known loophole in President Obama’s landmark legislation that enables health insurers to extend existing policies for nearly all of 2014. This runs contrary to the widespread belief that all health insurance must immediately comply with new federal rules starting Jan. 1, when most provisions of the law take effect.

“Insurers are onto this, and the big question is how many will try to game the system,” said Timothy Stoltzfus Jost, a law professor and health policy expert at Washington and Lee University.

‘Loophole’ being defined creatively here, of course.  As is ‘game the system.’  Or perhaps not: if Obamacare teaches us anything, it’s that Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid are ear-bleedingly bad when it comes to constructing legislation.  There could be a clause in there that mandates that every child in America gets a pretty, pretty pony to sacrifice to Cthulhu in 2017 and we’d never know until a bureaucrat happens across the relevant clause. (more…)

Hi!  Are you a single person who lives in Vermont?  If you are, the intersection of those two particular circles of the Venn Diagram of Life means that you probably voted for Obama; and I just wanted to let you know: you’re about to get hit by a kinetic strike from orbit.  See, Vermont has worked out how much you’re going to have to pay next year if you buy your health coverage on the state exchange:

The state released proposed rates Monday. Examples show that a family of four with an annual income of $32,000 would pay $45 a month out of pocket. A single person making $40,000 would pay $317 a month.

(more…)