67 percent say delay Obamacare, 53 percent would vote to repeal it

Americans remain unhappy with the health care law: Majorities say they wish it had never passed, would vote to repeal it if they could, and think implementation should be delayed until the kinks are worked out.  At the same time, a shrinking majority believes the law will survive.
That’s according to a year-end Fox News poll released Wednesday.
Click here for the poll results.
The number of voters who want implementation of the law delayed continues to grow. The new poll shows 67 percent think it should be postponed a year “until more details are ironed out.” That’s up four percentage points since last month -- and up 10 points since October.
Those favoring a delay also now include a majority of Democrats: 54 percent support delaying implementation. That’s up 10 points from 44 percent last month.
Overall, by a 54-38 percent margin, people wish the health care law had never passed and the 2009 system were still in place.
Similarly, 53 percent would vote to repeal the law if given the chance, while 41 percent would keep it.
Republicans (86 percent repeal) are 14 points more likely to want the health care law repealed than Democrats are to want to keep it (72 percent keep).
About one Democrat in five would vote to repeal the law (22 percent).
Sixty-one percent of voters believe the Obama administration knew ahead of time that not everyone would be able to keep their doctor. What’s more, almost everyone says it’s important to them to be able to choose their doctor (82 percent “very” and 13 percent “somewhat” important).
Most voters are troubled that a couple of the basic guarantees Americans were given before the health care law passed -- are now broken promises: 32 percent find it more troubling that people were told they could keep their health plan, while 15 percent think it was worse that the administration told people they could keep their doctor. Another 25 percent of voters say those are equally troubling. Just 27 percent finds neither of these is troubling.
President Obama’s job rating on health care remains extremely negative. By a wide 22-point margin voters are more likely to disapprove (59 percent) than approve (37 percent) of the job he’s doing. His current approval rating on health care is just one point above his record-low 36 percent approval in November.
Will Obamacare succeed? Voters aren’t convinced it will: 38 percent feel confident that enough people will sign up to make it successful, yet many more -- 60 percent -- don’t think that will happen.
The number thinking Obamacare will eventually be repealed or defunded is up: 40 percent feel that way, an increase of 13 points since October. On the other side, 54 percent believe it will remain the law of the land, down from 64 percent two months ago.
The Fox News poll is based on landline and cell phone interviews with 1,027 randomly chosen registered voters nationwide and was conducted under the joint direction of Anderson Robbins Research (D) and Shaw & Company Research (R) from December 14-16, 2013. The full poll has a margin of sampling error of plus or minus three percentage points.

Sen. Rubio, Strong Opponent Of Obamacare, On The Defensive After Signing Up Family

Confronted by a reporter and camera crew from the Miami Herald on Monday, Republican Senator Mario Rubio defended himself over having signed up his family for the new federal health care coverage.
“I don’t endorse Obamacare,” Rubio said, responding to a statement by the Democratic former Florida governor Charlie Crist, saying, “Rubio’s endorsement of Obamacare for his own family should end the rhetoric” against the Affordable Care Act.

“It’s an [employer] contribution. It’s available to every employee of the federal government.”

- Sen. Rubio, of the $10,000 Obamacare subsidy

Rubio pointed out that, under the law, congressmen are required to register. “I much rather would have a vibrant private market where individuals like myself and others can buy health insurance from any company that will sell it to us,” he added.
Rubio, who voted against Obamacare and has aspirations for the 2016 presidential campaign, is also under fire for having registered via the congressional exchange rather than his home state’s exchange, in the process accepting a $10,000 subsidy that many conservatives are rejecting as a “special deal.”
“It’s an [employer] contribution,” Rubio told the Herald. “It’s available to every employee of the federal government.”
Others have shied away from the subsidy to insulate themselves from political attacks that Congress enjoys a special perk under Obamacare.
So far, about 10 senators – the bulk of them Democrats facing difficult re-election campaigns in 2014 - and a handful of representatives have rejected or avoided receiving the annual subsidy.
The most recent elected official to decline the subsidy was Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, who issued a press release last week reading, “I don’t think members of Congress should get a special deal. Obamacare is being pushed on the American people and we should live under it just like everyone else.”

ObamaCare may hit smokers, obese

     A HEALTHCARE WORKERS union official says that people with conditions penalized by wellness programs, like smoking or obesity, may be forced by their employers to pay much more for their health insurance under ObamaCare.

GOP BUDGET CUTTER

Obama has yet to enroll in health insurance under Affordable Care Act

The White House said Monday that President Obama has yet to sign up for health insurance through a federal website created by his signature health care law.
“The president will purchase insurance on the exchanges,” White House Press Secretary Jay Carney told reporters. “When we have an update on that, we’ll provide it to you.”
Carney, who has been asked about the president's plans at least once since enrollment in ObamaCare started Oct. 1, pointed out the deadline is not until March 31.
Obama is not required to enroll through an online exchange like members of Congress and staffers who want to keep insurance through their employer, the federal government.
Republicans and other critics of ObamaCare were quick to criticize the president, considering enrollment is behind projections, largely because of glitches on the HealthCare.gov and some state-run exchanges.
"It must be a technical problem, because surely the president can afford the higher costs he’ll have to pay," said Brendan Buck, a spokesman for House Speaker John Boehner.

Thousands of ObamaCare web purchases not recorded, incorrect

The Obama administration acknowledged this weekend that the federal ObamaCare website failed to record insurance-policy purchases for as many as 15,000 Americans.
The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services on Saturday said the transactions were either not recorded or had errors and attributed the problem to “larger technical system issues.”
Agency spokeswoman Julie Bataille said the so-called “834 transaction forms” are processed by health insurance companies when consumers choose a policy on the site, which has been plagued by technical glitches since enrollment started in October.
“As the technical improvements to HealthCare.gov continue making a difference to consumers using the website, our attention remains on addressing issues with the more ‘back end’ parts of the system,” she said. “Our priority is working to make sure that every 834 form is accurate.”
The story was reported first by The Washington Post.
Bataille said the errors occurred from Oct. 1 to Dec. 5, such problems have been “significantly” reduced since last month and that officials are contacting every consumer who selected a plan on the site -- or marketplace -- to remind them to pay their premium and connect with their insurer.
Americans have until Dec. 23 to purchase insurance that kicks in Jan. 1.
The administration said it has fixed more than 70 software glitches over the past several weeks related to 834 forms.

ObamaCare enrollment effort moves to shoe stores, restaurants

  Bailey Comment: "They are getting tacky and desperate now".

District of Columbia officials are recruiting young residents this weekend to enroll in ObamaCare by showing up where they “party by night and shop by day.”
Officials on Saturday visited two Footlocker stores where Nike’s exclusive Air Jordan 12 “Taxi” sneakers were going on sale. And they are scheduled to visit two Denny’s restaurants from 2 a.m. to 4 p.m. Sunday.
“My motto is ‘Get them health care while you get them Jordans,” DC Health Links representative Vanessa Brooks told Fox News outside a Footlocker in the city’s downtown.
“Get some health care to go along with them taxis, OK?” Brooks told those at the store. “You got to have it. And you need it.”
The Obama administration and other supporters of the Affordable Care Act have worked hard since enrollment started in October to connect with young people, knowing their participation will help cover the cost of the elderly and others who need more medical care.
However, problems with the federal ObamaCare website and the 14 state-run sites appear to have made the tech-savvy generation wary of the entire program, combined with members’ general feeling they won’t get sick or injured, which has prompted Brooks and other D.C. Health Link officials to call them “young invincibles.”
Brooks and other so-called “assisters” plan to make contact this weekend with hundreds of young D.C. residents and encourage them to make appointments to enroll in insurance plans.
In California, the state with the largest uninsured population, most of those who have applied have been older people with health problems. In Kentucky, nearly three of four enrollees last month were over 35. In Washington state, about 23 percent of enrollees have been 18 to 34.
And in Ohio, groups helping with enrollment described many of those coming to them as older residents who lost their jobs and health coverage during the recession.
At the Denny's restaurants, the assisters will set up shop to provide information, answer questions and enroll residents.
Eligible residents have until March 31, 2014, to buy an insurance policy through the exchanges. Those who enroll before December 23 will be covered starting January 1, 2014.
On Wednesday, the Department of Health and Human Services said signups increased in November after an abysmal October in which the federal site and some state-run sites crashed as the result of too much volume.
Enrollment statistics from the agency this week showed 364,682 people have signed up for private coverage as of Nov. 30 under the federal health law. Though that's more than three times the October total, it's less than one-third of the 1.2 million people that officials had originally projected would enroll nationwide by the end of November.
Crunch time is now for Obama's health care law, as consumers face the December enrollment deadline if they want to have coverage by next year.
Yet HealthCare.gov, the revamped federal website serving 36 states, continues to have issues. Just Tuesday there was an extended maintenance outage. And some states running their own web sites are also having problems.
That's created stress and uncertainty not only for the uninsured but also for consumers seeking to avoid an interruption in coverage in January. Those trying to preserve coverage include some or many of the more than 4 million people whose individual plans were canceled because they didn't measure up under the law, as well as hundreds of thousands in federal and state programs for people with serious health problems, from cancer to heart disease to AIDS.
Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius told the House Energy and Commerce on Wednesday that the signup trend is turning positive.
"I don't think there is any question that the flawed launch of the website put a damper on people's enthusiasm," she said. "Having said that, we are seeing very, very positive trends. We are seeing lots of people re-engage."
Sebelius also said another 1.9 million people have made it through the enrollment process, but have not yet picked a plan. Consumers must pay their premiums by Dec. 31 for coverage to take effect at the beginning of the year.

Presidential Approval Rating

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Townhall.com PollTracker Average

• Disapprove: 55%
• Approve: 40%