Friday, April 18, 2014

‘This thing is working’? Widows of Alabama county workers dropped from health plans

As President Obama touts rising enrollment in ObamaCare and declares "this thing is working," one Alabama county has reported another negative side effect from the law -- widows of county workers getting dropped from their insurance. 
A report by Huntsville-based WHNT said that more than a dozen widows of retired Madison County employees lost their coverage earlier this year. 
They originally had been covered under the county's self-insured plan. But, according to WHNT, officials learned that it would have been too expensive to keep providing that coverage and comply with the Affordable Care Act's coverage mandates. 
The county instead joined a statewide network that dozens of county governments already are in. That plan, though, does not offer coverage to husbands and wives when their government employee spouses die. 
WHNT reported that one county commissioner is trying to restore the insurance for widows of county workers, though it's unclear whether he'll be successful. 
"What I'm trying to do is get this coverage back to them," Madison County Commissioner Roger Jones said. "A lot of these people are on fixed incomes. Some of them are living on Social Security and very little else, and health insurance is very important to them." 
The widows reportedly still get 18 months of Cobra coverage once their old insurance expires. 
The Madison County case comes as the Obama administration aggressively steps up its defense of the law and its performance. At a surprise press conference on Thursday, Obama reported that 8 million people have signed up on the federal and state insurance exchanges. 
"This thing is working," Obama said, adding: "The repeal debate is and should be over." 
The 8 million figure is a marked improvement over sign-up figures in late 2013, when the exchange websites were emerging from the disastrous launch in October. Still, the administration has not broken down the numbers to get at the heart of how many people really have obtained coverage under the law. 
Many people were dropped from their old insurance policies last year, and then went into the exchanges. The administration has not said how many of the 8 million were previously insured, and how many were previously uninsured -- those figures would help paint a picture of the net gain in coverage. 
The administration also has not said how many of the 8 million have paid their first month's premium, and technically are enrolled. 
Republicans bristled at the president's tone in the White House briefing room Thursday afternoon. While the president cites the millions gaining coverage and new protections under the law, Republicans note that many also have lost their old policies despite being told they wouldn't. 
"While the President repeatedly pats himself on the back over the number of people that were forced to sign up for his insurance scheme, millions of Americans are experiencing real and significant repercussions," Sen. John Barrasso, R-Wyo., said in a statement. "The President has now taken to mocking those that point out the negative consequences. The impacts are very real. 
"It's clear that the President remains totally focused on coverage instead of care. He is either ignoring reports from across the country -- or he isn't hearing them. Either way, he is out of touch with Americans who have lost their doctor, had their insurance cancelled and watched their premiums spike all because of this failing law."

Lois Lerner


Chairman of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee Rep. Darrell Issa (D-CA) listens to his staff member during the Committee hearing on "Examining the IRS (Internal Revenue Service) Response to the Targeting Scandal" on Capitol Hill in Washington March 26, 2014. REUTERS/Yuri Gripas (UNITED STATES - Tags: POLITICS BUSINESS) - RTR3IO8U  

Oversight member on Lois Lerner coordination with DOJ: ‘Now I see why IRS is scared to give up emails’


Key members of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform expressed outrage at revelations made in newly released emails showing ex-IRS official Lois Lerner coordinating with the Department of Justice on prosecuting nonprofit groups.
One committee member said the emails prove why the IRS is “scared to give up the rest of Lois Lerner’s emails.” IRS commissioner John Koskinen was recently threatened with contempt for stonewalling the committee’s investigation. Koskinen claimed in a hearing that it could take years to provide the documents requested by Oversight.
“The release of new documents underscores the political nature of IRS Tea Party targeting and the extent to which supposed apolitical officials took direction from elected Democrats,” Oversight chairman Rep. Darrell Issa said in a statement. “These e-mails are part of an overwhelming body of evidence that political pressure from prominent Democrats led to the targeting of Americans for their political beliefs.”
“Now I see why the IRS is scared to give up the rest of Lois Lerner’s emails,” said Oversight Economic Growth subcommittee chairman Rep. Jim Jordan.
“Not only do these e-mails further prove the coordination among the IRS, the Federal Election Commission (FEC), the Justice Department and committee Democrats to target conservatives, they also show that had our committee not requested the Inspector General’s investigation when we did, Eric Holder’s politicized Justice Department would likely have been leveling trumped up criminal charges against Tea Party groups to intimidate them from exercising their Constitutional rights,” Jordan said.
The emails were obtained through a lawsuit filed by the watchdog group Judicial Watch, and were not provided to Oversight, which voted to hold Lerner in contempt of Congress. Lerner’s contempt charge currently awaits a full House floor vote.
“I got a call today from Richard Pilger Director Elections Crimes Branch at DOJ … He wanted to know who at IRS the DOJ folks could talk to about [Rhode Island Democratic Sen. Sheldon] Whitehouse idea at the hearing that DOJ could piece together false statement cases about applicants who ‘lied’ on their 1024s — saying they werent planning on doing political activity, and then turning around and making large visible political expenditures,” Lerner wrote in a May 8, 2013 email to a colleague, just days before the IRS scandal broke.
“DOJ is feeling like it needs to respond, but want to talk to the right folks at IRS to see whether there are impediments from our side and what, if any damage this might do to IRS programs. I told him that sounded like we might need several folks from IRS …,” Lerner wrote.

Read more: http://dailycaller.com/2014/04/16/oversight-member-on-lois-lerner-coordination-with-doj-now-i-see-why-irs-is-scared-to-give-up-emails/#ixzz2zF3yJOh6

Todd's American Dispatch / Facebook removes my post about Nevada rancher Cliven Bundy

  • Courtesy of the author
Your friendly neighborhood columnist has once again run afoul of Facebook’s elusive community standards. 
Now before you call up the preacher and put me on the church prayer list – let me assure the posting was neither unseemly nor ungentlemanly. 
This time I was censored for writing something about Rancher Cliven Bundy.
I reached out to Facebook to find out which part of the message violated their standards. Never heard back.
I realized I had landed in the Facebook gulag when I tried to post our daily Bible verse.  However, I was unable to post anything because Facebook had taken great offense to something I had written.
“We removed something your page posted,” Facebook told me in a rather unpleasant message. “We removed the post below because it doesn’t follow the Facebook Community Standards.”
Now before you call up the preacher and put me on the church prayer list – let me assure the posting was neither unseemly nor ungentlemanly.
Nevertheless, it caused great consternation and angst among Facebook’s left-wing censors.
The following is the egregious text:
“Rancher Bundy should’ve told the feds that those were Mexican cows – who came across the border illegally to seek better grazing opportunities. It was an act of love.”
Thousands of you posted comments and many more shared that message. It’s now gone — blotted out by anonymous redactors.
I reached out to Facebook to find out which part of the message violated their standards. Never heard back. I suspect I should’ve used the term “illegal alien cows.”
It’s not the first time my postings have been bleeped by the Facebook Purge Police. Heck, I’m a serial offender. I’ve been banished, blocked and censored for writing about Chick-fil-A, God, the Bible, Paula Deen, Cracker Barrel rocking chairs, sweet tea, Jesus, the Gaither Vocal Band, the Gideons, the National Rifle Association and June Bugs.
Facebook never told me what was more offensive – the plump juicy chicken breasts or the June Bugs.
For the record, Facebook has the right to censor — it’s their company. And while they may censor conservative and Christian postings, Facebook is quite welcoming and affirming to leftwing diatribes against Republicans, religion and the Tea Party. I just wish the folks at Facebook were a bit more tolerant — and diverse.
So, there you have it, kind readers. Your friendly neighborhood columnist has become that neighbor – the one who mows his grass at midnight, the one who has a Buick up on blocks in the driveway — the rabble-rouser.
Todd Starnes is host of Fox News & Commentary, heard on hundreds of radio stations. Sign up for his American Dispatch newsletter, be sure to join his Facebook page, and follow him on Twitter. His latest book is "God Less America”.

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