Administration to release more data on ObamaCare site's progress

The Obama administration is expected to give a fuller picture Sunday of whether it met its self-imposed November 30 deadline to allow 50,000 people to access the federal healthcare exchange website simultaneously.
The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) have scheduled a press conference for 9 a.m. to discuss the progress of the site, Healthcare.gov.
Obama administration officials said Saturday that the site had "performed well" and that  upgrades overnight Friday had improved response times and reduced errors. The site was taken offline between 9 p.m. Friday and 8 a.m. Eastern time Saturday, in addition to its regular maintenance window, which falls between 1 a.m. and 5 a.m. Eastern time Sunday.
"With the scheduled upgrades last night and tonight, we're on track to meet our stated goal for the site to work for the vast majority of users," CMS spokesman Aaron Albright told Fox News earlier Saturday.
CMS spokeswoman Julie Bataille said the installation of new servers Friday night helped improved the response times and error rates, even with heavier-than-usual weekend traffic.
Though President Obama and other administration officials have tried to downplay the deadline, saying fixes are an ongoing effort, a lot is riding on the site’s performance this weekend, including upcoming elections as well as Americans’ confidence in the president and his signature health-care law, which depends on their participation to work.
The Washington Post reported hours before that the administration was prepared to announce Sunday that they have met deadlines for improving HealthCare.gov. However, technicians failed to reach the deadline to fix at least some of the glitches, according to the newspaper.
Official have repeatedly said in recent weeks that the site would after the deadline be able to accommodate the “vast majority” of online shoppers.
The White House says it's made numerous upgrades in both software and hardware over the last month, which also will allow the site to handle more than 800,000 visitors a day.
Still, in the days leading up to the deadline, the White House and the Department of Health and Human Services continued to scale back expectations, saying not to expect the site to be 100 percent glitch-free.
"If there are extraordinarily high spikes in traffic, which exceed the site's capacity, consumers will be put in a new, advanced queuing system that will give them an expected wait time, or allow them to be notified via when they can return to the site," Bataille said Monday.
Obama recently said he'd consider a "fix" to be successful if 80 percent of the people are able to navigate the site without a major problem.
The nation's largest health insurer trade group said significant problems remain.
Karen Ignagni, president and CEO of America's Health Insurance Plans, told the Associated Press that insurers have complained that enrollment data sent to them from the website include too much incorrect, duplicative, garbled or missing information. She said the problems must be cleared up to guarantee consumers the coverage they signed up for effective Jan. 1.
The first big test of the repaired website probably won't come for another couple of weeks, when an enrollment surge is expected as consumers rush to meet a Dec. 23 deadline so their coverage can kick in on the first of the year.
Avoiding a break in coverage is particularly important for millions of people whose current individual policies were canceled because they don't meet the standards of the health care law, as well as for a group of about 100,000 in an expiring federal program for high-risk patients.
Democrats and Republicans will be closely watching the site this weekend. With the midterm elections less than a year away, it's vital to Democrats that the site lives up to expectations the president set. Republicans have already suggested they'll launch coordinated attacks linking every congressional Democrat up for re-election to the Affordable Care Act.
In the House, the effort, based around dozens of votes to repeal the law, is about denying Democrats the 17-seat gain they would need to win back the majority. In the Senate, it's about gaining the six seats Republicans need to take control of that chamber.
It was announced earlier this week that Families USA, a self-proclaimed non-partisan organization, has been given a $1.1 million grant to establish a database of ObamaCare "success stories."
Families USA received the money from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation on Oct. 4. The grant is meant to help Families USA expand the database of “real people” sharing their stories of enrolling in ObamaCare.
News of the grant has been revealed in the same week that the White House announced two more delays related to the president's landmark health care reform law.
On Wednesday, it was announced that it would delay the launch of an online portal to the health insurance marketplace for small businesses until November 2015. Officials said that the decision to delay the launch had been taken because making repairs to the federal health exchange site, Healthcare.gov took priority.
The administration also announced that the launch of a Spanish-language sign-up tool would have to be postponed.
In recent weeks, the White House has also pushed back the enrollment deadline for individuals to December 23, given businesses with more than 50 workers until 2015 to provide required health insurance without paying a penalty, and moved the deadline date for individuals to avoid penalties for failing to get coverage back for six weeks.
There was also an announced schedule change in next year's open enrollment season. It will start on Nov. 15, 2014, a month later than originally scheduled, and finish on Jan. 15, 2015, about five weeks later than originally planned. Bailey Comment: "Do you think that a lot of visits to this site was to shop for insurance or just to see if the site works now"?

Obama surrenders again

Barack Obama is at it again.  He actually makes Jimmy Carter look like a courageous leader. 

What is going on?  What is Obama’s latest surrender?

In the South China Sea, China has unilaterally expanded what it refers to as an air defense zone over some islands that are claimed by China, Taiwan, Japan and possibly even other nations.

Japan responded by refusing to notify China if its airlines were going to overfly the islands in China’s new air defense zone.

What has Obama done?

From Reuters:

The United States advised its commercial airlines to notify Chinese authorities of flight plans when travelling through an air defense zone that Beijing established a week ago over the East China Sea, ratcheting up regional tensions.

 The United States said it expected U.S. carriers to operate in line with so-called notices to airmen issued by foreign countries, adding, however, that the decision did "not indicate U.S. government acceptance of China's requirements.

 The advice is in contrast with America's close ally Japan, where the two major airlines have agreed with the Japanese government to fly through the zone without notifying China.

 Beijing wants foreign aircraft passing through the zone - including passenger planes - to identify themselves to Chinese authorities.

 A U.S. administration official said China's action appeared to be a unilateral attempt to change the status quo in the East China Sea, which could "increase the risk of miscalculation, confrontation and accidents".

 "We urge the Chinese to exercise caution and restraint, and we are consulting with Japan and other affected parties throughout the region," the official said.

 The zone includes skies over islands at the heart of a tense territorial dispute between Japan and China and represents a historic challenge by the emerging new world power to the United States, which has dominated the region for decades.

What does a nation with a real leader do?  It tells the Chinese to go to hell. 

What does Obama do?  He surrenders early and often. 

But then again, Obama wants to see American power and prestige in the Pacific wane.  He wants to see America as not a superpower but just another minor nation state.  Obama will stand up to the Republicans but on the other hand the Republicans won’t fight back.

When it comes to standing up to a real dictatorship, like China’s, Obama surrenders faster than Jimmy Carter ever dreamed of doing.

2013 Nobel Peace Pies

Krauthammer: Everything administration says about ObamaCare a 'fudge'

Everything the administration says about ObamaCare is a "fudge," Charles Krauthammer told viewers Friday on “Special Report with Bret Baier.
His comments came as the administration worked to meet a self-imposed November 30 deadline to fix the HealthCare.gov website.
The syndicated columnist and Fox News contributor said, “Everything they tell you about ObamaCare, everyone knows is a fudge, or a hedge or a guess, or a prayer, or an outright deception.
"This is another one of those, you know, that's multiple choice, a, b, c, d, or e, you choose which one you want, but it's not the truth."
 Krauthammer said President Obama's promise earllier this month that the web site "is going to be working the way it is supposed to," was "simply another example of an administration that simply not only can't shoot straight, but can't talk straig

Dems worrying about re-election prospects distancing themselves from Obama over health law rollout

WASHINGTON –  A month after emerging from a government shutdown at the top of their game, many Democrats in Congress newly worried about the party's re-election prospects are for the first time distancing themselves from President Barack Obama after the disastrous rollout of his health care overhaul.
At issue, said several Obama allies, is a loss of trust in the president after only 106,000 people — instead of an anticipated half million — were able to buy insurance coverage the first month of the new "Obamacare" web sites. In addition, some 4.2 million Americans received notices from insurers that policies Obama had promised they could keep were being canceled.
"Folks are now, I think in talking to members, more cautious with regard to dealing with the president," said Maryland Rep. Elijah Cummings, the senior Democrat on the House Oversight Committee and one of the first leaders in his state to endorse Obama's presidential candidacy six year ago.
Cummings, the White House's biggest defender in a Republican-controlled committee whose agenda is waging war against the administration over Benghazi, the IRS scandal, a gun-tracking operation and now health care, said he still thinks Obama is operating with integrity. But he noted that not all his Democratic colleagues agree.
"They want to make sure that everything possible is being done to, number one, be transparent, (two) fix this website situation and, three, to restore trust," Cummings said.
Rep. William Lacy Clay, D-Mo., like Cummings, a prominent member of the Congressional Black Caucus who personally likes Obama, struggled to describe the state of play between congressional Democrats and the president.
"I am trying to think if you can call it a relationship at this point," he said.
Clay said the administration is now obligated to "fix it, fix all of it" after Obama apologized this month for both the insurance website problems and his earlier promises that people could keep their old polices. Otherwise, he said, "a wide brush will be used to paint us all as incompetent and ineffective."
Obama is now allowing insurance companies to reissue their canceled policies for another year. But "Obamacare's" problems have left Democrats vulnerable to an orchestrated assault by Republicans who six weeks ago were on the losing end of the government shutdown.
The political body language tells the story of the strain. Thirty-nine House Democrats in Obama's party defied the president's veto threat and voted for a GOP-sponsored bill to permit the sale of individual health coverage that falls short of requirements in the law.
"I think people want to have a little more transparency going forward with whoever is implementing the website and other elements," said Jeff Link, senior adviser to Iowa Rep. Bruce Braley, who is running for Senate and voted for both the original health care law and the GOP-sponsored House bill this month. "If demanding that kind of transparency means lack of trust," he added delicately, "then I think people probably would like to have had more transparency."
Across the Capitol, several swing-state Senate Democrats have signed onto legislation to further weaken the health care law. Sponsored by Louisiana Sen. Mary Landrieu, who's facing a tough re-election challenge, the bill would require insurance companies to permanently continue selling policies that the law deems substandard. Landrieu herself skipped an event with Obama earlier this month when he appeared at the Port of New Orleans. She said she had a long-standing engagement elsewhere in the state, which Obama lost last year by 17 points.
Repairing the relationship between Obama and his allies may be as complex as fixing the website and health care law. Much rests on rebuilding trust with the public, a solid majority of which now opposes "Obamacare," according to multiple polls. Both parties will be watching on Saturday to see whether the vast majority of those who try to sign up for policies on the website will succeed, as Obama has promised. Democrats have urged the administration to quit setting "red lines" like the Nov. 30 deadline, that carry the risk of being broken.
Nearly a year from the midterm election, Republicans in both chambers are launching a drive to link virtually every congressional Democrat to Obamacare. In the House, the effort, based around dozens of votes to repeal the law, is about denying Democrats the 17-seat gain they would need to win back the majority. In the Senate, it's about gaining the six seats Republicans need to take control of that chamber.
"So you're running on Obamacare," read a faux tip sheet from House Republicans to House Democrats that went out over the holiday week. "The best thing to do," it advises Democratic lawmakers in 28 districts, "is step in front of the cameras and explain to voters why government should run their health care."
Senate Republicans, meanwhile, showed notable discipline last week when they complained loudly about the Democrats' new limits on filibusters — then pivoted in as little as one sentence back to "Obamacare."
The filibuster limits, said Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell, can be chalked up to "broken promises, double standards and raw power — the same playbook that got us Obamacare."
Democratic leaders scoff at the notion that missed deadlines and other problems could threaten the party's prospects 11 months down the road. A similar budget-and-debt fight that sparked the shutdown and smacked Republicans last month looms early next year, they point out. There is time, they insist, for the law to begin working as intended and to help elevate the Democrats' political prospects.
"Yesterday's battles and today's battles and tomorrow's battles create different environments," said House Democratic campaign chief Steve Israel, D-N.Y. Independent voters, the keys to elections in the most competitive districts in the country, are pragmatic, he added. "They want the Affordable Care Act not to be repealed, but to be fixed. They don't want to go back, they want to go forward."

The Deal

Working but poor? Fear the dreaded coverage gap.

Q I’m a single, healthy, female non-smoker, age 26, living in Tennessee. According to the HealthCare.gov cost calculator, with a income of only $8,000 a year I won’t qualify for a subsidy to buy health insurance. How does that make any financial sense?  

A It doesn't! That is why the health reform law as originally written expanded Medicaid, the venerable government-run health insurance program for low-income families and disabled people, to cover everyone with an income below 133% of the federal poverty level, which includes you.
But in its 2012 ruling on the constitutionality of the new health care law, the U.S. Supreme Court gave states the option of not expanding Medicaid, and Tennessee was one of the several dozen states that decided against it.

However, the rest of the law was left untouched. Including, unfortunately, the income ranges that determine eligibility for financial help to lower the cost of premiums for private insurance. Because the original idea was to put all low-income households on Medicaid, the law confers subsidies only on households with incomes of between 100% and 400% of the federal poverty level. In states that aren't expanding Medicaid, this has created a "coverage gap" for people like you, who make too little to qualify for a subsidy but don’t fall into a category that’s already eligible for Medicaid. To fix this would require an act of Congress, which is unlikely given the current state of Washington politics.

So right now we are stuck with a two-tier system for the working poor. In states that are expanding Medicaid, they will enjoy free or nearly free health care. Bailey Comment: "Ain't nothing free".  In states that aren't, they will remain uninsured and unable to get subsidies to buy private insurance. For a painful contrast you only need to look next door to Kentucky, which is expanding Medicaid. They've already enrolled more than 45,000 new people into the program.
The sad and frustrating thing is that states can expand Medicaid whenever they want to. What's more, that the federal government is picking up 100% of the cost for the first two years, and 90% after that, so it's a bargain for states. According to this recent report in the New York Times, your governor is trying to get expansion done but the state legislature is balking.
You might want to get in touch with your elected representatives to ask them why they think it's a good idea for low-income working people like yourself to remain uninsured.
Got a question for our health insurance expert? Ask it here; be sure to include the state you live in. And if you can't get enough health insurance news here, follow me on Twitter @NancyMetcalf.

Health reform countdown: We are doing an article a day on the new health care law until Jan. 1, 2014, when it takes full effect. (Read the previous posts in the series.) To get health insurance advice tailored to your situation, use our Health Law Helper, below.