HEADLINES

Saturday, September 11, 2010

White House Tells Insurance Industry: SHUT UP About Obamacare-Caused Rate Hikes Or Else


 
My family began to understand some of the unknown effects of Obamacare a few weeks ago when my wife showed me a letter from our health insurance company informing us that our premiums were going up more than usual because of the progressive health care bill. Other insurance companies have followed suit with letters to their clients. The progressive White House, not a big fan of the First Amendment is now telling the insurance industry to shut up or else!

Starting on September 23, 2010 insurance companies are force to include new benefits because of Obamacare that increase costs including:
  • Prohibition on lifetime limits  
  • Restrictions on annual limits 
  • No Co-Pay on coverage of preventive services 
  • Extension of dependent coverage up to age 26  
  • New internal and external appeals processes 
  • New rules regarding coverage for emergency services 
  • Prohibition on pre-existing condition exclusions for children
Based on their track record, the White House probably doesn't realize for an insurance company to remain solvent, when costs go up they need to find a way to pay for it.


According to the Wall Street Journal,
Aetna, one of the nation's largest health insurers, said the extra benefits forced it to seek rate increases for new individual plans of 5.4% to 7.4% in California and 5.5% to 6.8% in Nevada after Sept. 23. Similar steps are planned across the country, according to Aetna.

Regence BlueCross BlueShield of Oregon said the cost of providing additional benefits under the health law will account on average for 3.4 percentage points of a 17.1% premium rise for a small-employer health plan. It asked regulators last month to approve the increase.

In Wisconsin and North Carolina, Celtic Insurance Co. says half of the 18% increase it is seeking comes from complying with health-law mandates.
The report says that most of these rate increases apply to policies issued to individuals and small businesses, the very people Democrats claimed would be most helped by ObamaCare. It also says that "about 9% of Americans buy coverage through the individual market, according to the Census Bureau, and roughly one-fifth of people who get coverage through their employer work at companies with 50 or fewer employees, according to the Kaiser Family Foundation."

But the White House wants the insurance companies silenced, HHS Secretary Sebelius sent a letter to the AHIP an insurance industry advocacy group. The letter written in a threatening tone said in part:
Given the importance of the new protections and the facts about their impact on costs, I ask for your help in stopping misinformation and scare tactics about the Affordable Care Act. Moreover, I want AHIP's members to be put on notice: the Administration, in partnership with states, will not tolerate unjustified rate hikes in the name of consumer protections.

Already, my Department has provided 46 states with resources to strengthen the review and transparency of proposed premiums. Later this fall, we will issue a regulation that will require state or federal review of all potentially unreasonable rate increases filed by health insurers, with the justification for increases posted publicly for consumers and employers. We will also keep track of insurers with a record of unjustified rate increases: those plans may be excluded from health insurance Exchanges in 2014. Simply stated, we will not stand idly by as insurers blame their premium hikes and increased profits on the requirement that they provide consumers with basic protections.

Someone should tell the Sebelius that the same exact thing happened with Obamacare's model, RomneyCare. The Journal also reported that Massachusetts, which enacted universal insurance coverage several years ago, also has seen steadily rising insurance premiums since then.
I suppose that's just another benefit of Obamacare, along with higher insurance costs and making access to certain medical services more difficult, Obamacare has given the White House an excuse to threaten the first amendment rights of the insurance industry.
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Thanks Barack… US Debt Is More Than All Money In the World

Thanks Barack.
The US now owes more money than all of the money in the world combined.
Kevin D. Williamson at National Review Online reported:

I have argued that the real national debt is about $130 trillion. Let's say I'm being pessimistic. Forbes, in a 2008 article, came up with a lower number: $70 trillion. Let's say the sunny optimists at Forbes got it right and I got it wrong.

For perspective: At the time that 2008 article was written, the entire supply of money in the world ("broad money," i.e., global M3, meaning cash, consumer-account deposits, checkable accounts, CDs, long-term deposits, travelers' checks, money-market funds, the whole enchilada) was estimated to be just under $60 trillion. Which is to say: The optimistic view is that our outstanding obligations amount to more than all of the money in the world.

Global GDP in 2008? Also about $60 trillion. Meaning that the optimistic view is that our federal obligations outpace the entire annual economic output of human civilization.

So, John Boehner wants to roll spending back to where it was in the last year of the Bush administration. Okay, great. Nice start.

The Obama-Pelosi economic plan resulted in a cumulative 7.5 million jobs deficit. By every objective measure the democrat's Trillion dollar stimulus bomb was a complete disaster.

Barack Obama and Nancy Pelosi tripled the national deficit last year by nearly a trillion dollars – something unheard of in our nation's history.

After an unheard of record deficit last year of $1.4 Trillion the economy is on track to experience a $1.3 Trillion deficit this year.

Instead of focusing on the economy the past two years the radicals in Washington beat up on business and rammed through an unpopular nationalized health care entitlement program.








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Figures… Former Commie-TRUTHER Green Czar Van Jones Was Behind the “Turn 9-11 into Community Service

Today, in his weekly address Barack Obama marked 9-11 as a day of community service and soup kitchens.

SISU discovered who was behind this effort–
Commie and TRUTHER Van Jones.

On Aug. 4, 2009, the White House offered a glimpse into its plans to desecrate 9/11 for political advantage. Commie-TRUTHER Van Jones appeared in a 33-minute video posted on the official blog of the White House and spoke about the left's plans to remake the tragedy into a day of community service.

SISU reported:

The president signed into law a measure in April that designated Sept. 11 as a National Day of Service … The plan is to turn a "day of fear" that helps Republicans into a day of activism … that helps the left …

On Aug. 4, the White House offered a glimpse into its plans to desecrate 9/11 for political advantage. [The now disgraced Van] Jones appeared in a largely ignored 33-minute video posted on the official blog of the White House to discuss the administration's plan to flush 9/11 down the memory hole just as it has tried to do by rechristening the Global War on Terror the "Overseas Contingency Operations."

"The first milestone for Green the Block will be on our National Day of Service, September 11, 2009, where we will organize Green the Block service events around the country in coordination with the President's initiative, United We Serve," said Rev. Lennox Yearwood, Jr. of the Hip Hop Caucus. Click on image for "Open for Questions: Green the Block with [Under-the-Bus former Green Czar] Van Jones August 4, 2009."








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U.S. Backs $1B Loan to Mexico for Oil Drilling Despite Obama Moratorium

Despite President Obama's moratorium on U.S. deepwater drilling in the Gulf of Mexico, the U.S. Export-Import Bank intends to guarantee $1 billion in loans to PEMEX, the Mexican state oil company, to bolster the company's oil drilling in the region.








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