This narrow minded idiot was actually awarded a Pulitzer Prize.
Wow! It must be pretty easy to get one.
Below is the rest of the story.
Conservative Blogger
Sunday, May 4, 2014
New ObamaCare Numbers: 8M Enrollees with 28% Being Young Individuals
The department announced 8,019,763 people have selected plans on both state and federal exchanges through April 19. This includes enrollment activity after the formal end of open enrollment on March 31 that was extended for those who had continued issues signing up or life circumstances that caused them to enroll late.
The latest enrollment numbers didn’t differ much from President Obama’s April 17 announcement that 8 million people had signed up for coverage, but the report did provide a clearer picture of just who signed up.
The demographic breakdown shows that 2.2 million (28%) of the enrollees were young people, ages 18-34. That number increases to 2.7 million when including those ages 0 to 34.
HHS also announced that more than 4.8 million people had enrolled in Medicaid and the Children’s Health Insurance Plan (CHIP) through the end of March 2014.
The original goal for the first enrollment period was 7 million people with 2.7 million of them being young and healthy enrollees between 18 and 34. Young people are needed to offset the costs of insuring older and less healthy people on exchanges, who can no longer be charged more for their care, under the Affordable Care Act.
The report also shows that 2.6 million enrollees have signed up on state-based marketplaces and 5.4 million on the federally-facilitated exchange. Of the 8 million, 54% are male and 46% are female. In addition, 85% had selected a plan with financial assistance.
Under the ACA, every individual in the country has to have insurance by the end of open enrollment period, which passed on March 31, or they will face a fine of $95 a year or 1% of their annual income for failing to comply.
Questions Remain About Payments
The enrollment figures include everyone who has selected a plan on the exchanges. The insurance industry typically defines someone as enrolled once they made their first month’s premium payment. It is not yet clear how many people have made that payment, although the House Energy and Commerce Committee’s Oversight and Investigations Subcommittee is reporting that on the federal marketplace, only 67% had made their first month’s premium payments through April 15.
The subcommittee sent letters to every insurer participating on the federal exchange, Healthcare.gov, requesting payment information.
HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius had reported in late March that between 80% and 90% of enrollees had made their premium payments. HHS is pushing back against the subcommittee’s report.
“These claims are based on only about half of the approximately 300 issuers in the Federally-facilitated Marketplace and they do not match up with public comments from insurance companies themselves, most of which indicate that 80 to 90 percent of enrollees have paid their premium. Additionally, given the significant surge in enrollments at the end of March, it stands to reason that not all enrollees would have paid by the date of this so-called report since many people’s bills were not even due yet,” HHS spokesperson Erin Shields Britt said in an email statement to FOXBusiness.com.
Yevgeniy Feyman, a fellow at the Manhattan Institute, says the likelihood of payment increases with age, which isn’t a good sign since young people’s participation is important.
“The investigation found that only 25% had paid between the ages of 18 and 34,” Feyman says. “It is not good to see that. But on the other hand, this is only through April 15, so we don’t have information on the surge that may have happened after that date.”
That being said, Feyman argues payment data may not be the best “talking point” to use against ObamaCare.
“This will work itself out,” he says. “This could be problematic for Democrats to deal with, but not harmful to the law itself.”
Analysts are already projecting double-digit increases in premium costs for 2015, which are priced in, but it’s based on risk pool composition and not payment data, Feyman points out. If and when the public is privy to payment data, it will be at a politically-beneficial time, he says, as this could impact democrats during the midterm elections.
“Eventually they have to release this data,” Feyman says. “For months they were claiming they didn’t have it, and there is no reason to keep it hidden.”
Obama mocks health care website's flawed launch at correspondents' dinner
(Bailey) This guy thinks that wasting your money and ruining your country is a big joke.
WASHINGTON – Little was sacred when President Barack Obama tossed out playful but pointed jokes Saturday night -- not even his own health care plan.
"We rolled out healthcare.gov. That could have gone better," Obama said in remarks at the annual White House Correspondents' Association dinner. "In 2008 my slogan was `Yes we can.' In 2013 my slogan was `Control-alt-delete."'
One the plus side, the president said, "they did turn the launch of healthcare.gov into one of the year's biggest movies." On a screen flashed the poster for "Frozen."
When a video Obama introduced failed to play properly, he asked, "Does anybody know how to fix this?" To laughter, Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius stepped up and said: "I got this. I see it all the time." In the wake of the problems with the website, Sebelius has announced she is stepping down.
The annual dinner has become a tradition in the nation's capital, promising a black-tie evening of humor and celebrity gazing. The event once again attracted an array of journalists, government officials, politicians and media personalities as the association raised money for college scholarships. The featured entertainer was comic actor Joel McHale, the star of the NBC series "Community."
In his own stand-up routine, Obama didn't waste any time turning his barbed jokes toward the news media.
"MSNBC is here," he said. "They're a little overwhelmed. They've never seen an audience this big before."
Noting that he had traveled to Asia recently, Obama said: "The lengths we have to go to to get CNN coverage these days. I think they're still searching for their table."
The president saved his sharpest jabs for another cable news network. "The Koch brothers bought a table here tonight, but as usual they used a shadowy right-wing organization as a front. Hello, Fox News!"
He added: "Let's face it, Fox. You'll miss me when I'm gone. It will be harder to convince the American people that Hillary was born in Kenya."
Republicans didn't escape untouched. "Washington seems more dysfunctional than ever," Obama said. "Gridlock has gotten so bad in this town you have to wonder: What'd we do to piss off Chris Christie so bad?"
The correspondents' association, which represents the White House press corps, celebrated its 100th anniversary.
Journalists were honored for their coverage of the presidency and national issues:
--Glenn Thrush of Politico and Brianna Keilar of CNN won the Aldo Beckman Award, which recognizes excellence in the coverage of the presidency.
--Peter Baker of The New York Times and Peter Maer of CBS News won the Merriman Smith Award for deadline coverage.
--Megan Twohey of Reuters and a partnership between The Center for Public Integrity's Chris Hamby and ABC News' Matthew Mosk and Brian Ross won the Edgar A. Poe Award for coverage of issues of national significance.
--George E. Condon Jr. of National Journal received the first President's Award for exceptional service to the organization.
The organization also honored the late Harry McAlpin, the first black reporter to attend a presidential news conference, by establishing a scholarship in his name. McAlpin had been denied membership to the WHCA while covering the Roosevelt and Truman administrations because of his race.
Saturday, May 3, 2014
Rutgers Students Stage Sit-In To Protest Condoleezza Rice Commencement Speech
This is what's destroying America. Soon only view will be the leftist view.
Rice declines Rutgers commencement invite; says it has become a distraction
Commencement should be a time of joyous celebration for the graduates and their families. Rutgers' invitation to me to speak has become a distraction for the university community at this very special time,” the former secretary of state under President George W. Bush said in the statement.
"I understand and embrace the purpose of the commencement ceremony and I am simply unwilling to detract from it in any way."- Condoleezza Rice"I am honored to have served my country. I have defended America's belief in free speech and the exchange of ideas. These values are essential to the health of our democracy. But that is not what is at issue here. As a professor for thirty years at Stanford University and as (its) former Provost and Chief academic officer, I understand and embrace the purpose of the commencement ceremony and I am simply unwilling to detract from it in any way."
On Monday, roughly 50 Rutgers University students staged a sit-in at a school administration building in New Brunswick to protest the school's invitation to Rice to appear at the university's commencement.
The school's Board of Governors voted to pay $35,000 for her appearance at the May 18 ceremony. She was going to be awarded an honorary degree.
But several faculty members and students wanted the invitation rescinded because of Rice's role in the Iraq War. Rutgers' New Brunswick Faculty Council passed a resolution in March calling on the university's board of governors to rescind the invitation.
Photos and videos of Monday's protest posted to Twitter showed students lining a staircase leading to University President Robert Barchi's office, The Star-Ledger reported.
Some students held up signs reading, "No honors for war criminals," "War criminals out" and "RU 4 Humanity?" the report said.
The sit-in was one of the largest in Rutgers' history, according to The Daily Targum, a student newspaper. Police reportedly responded to the site of the protest after a glass door was broken and a student cut their hand.
Barchi and other school leaders had resisted the calls to "disinvite" Rice, saying the university welcomes open discourse on controversial topics.
"We cannot protect free speech or academic freedom by denying others the right to an opposing view, or by excluding those with whom we may disagree. Free speech and academic freedom cannot be determined by any group. They cannot insist on consensus or popularity," Barchi said in a letter to campus last month.
The Associated Press contributed to this report
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