LTC8K6

Mar 28 2014, 10:17 AM

According to CNN, 48M people are uninsured.

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http://cnsnews.com/news/article/terence-p-jeffrey/doj-free-exercise-clause-does-not-protect-kosher-meat-companies
DOJ: Free Exercise Clause Does Not Protect Kosher Meat Companies

....The administration has conceded in court that the regulation does force the Greens to act against their Christian faith. However, the administration argues that because the Greens operate their business through a corporation, they have no First Amendment right to practice their Christianity while doing business....

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http://www.breitbart.com/InstaBlog/2014/03/28/Ezekiel-Emanuel-on-Employer-Based-Insurance-Let-the-Dumping-Begin

Ezekiel Emanuel on Employer-Based Insurance: Let the Dumping Begin

Ezekiel Emanuel believes that ten years from now employer-based insurance will be a thing of the past. By 2025 he believes less than 20 percent of Americans will get their coverage from an employer.

Emanuel is one of the architects of the Affordable Care Act. Recently he published a book titled "Reinventing American Health Care" in which he argues that fairly soon "a few big, blue-chip companies will announce their intention to stop providing health insurance." Once it begins other companies will follow, dropping people by the millions onto the new health exchanges.

Emanuel gave an interview to the NY Times this week in which he described the major obstacle right now: negative public perception about the exchanges.

• 
  
• Q. What will cause employers to stop offering insurance?
  A. Why does an employer do it now, when there’s no mandate, no requirement? Because it needs to attract workers, and workers have no real other options. The individual market is not enough of an alternative. The first and most important, essential, requirement is that the exchanges work well, become a positively branded experience, and give people a lot of choice — choice that they like.

If perception of the exchanges becomes more positive, then employers can present dropping employer-sponsored coverage as a positive rather than a negative, i.e. you get to choose your own plan instead of you're on your own.

The other big obstacle to dumping employees right now is that money spent on insurance is tax deductible whereas paying a fine for not offering insurance is not. But Emanuel thinks, "there may be ways of their employer not providing them insurance but providing them a way to get insurance that allows them to keep the tax exclusion." In other words, companies might be able to keep the tax cut and lose the responsibility for picking health plans.

There is some agreement that another major disruption, especially an unexpected one like this, would create further political problems for Democrats. Jonathan Gruber, a promoter of the ACA, told the NY Times last week "It would be a big, big problem politically."

Avik Roy, an analyst who offers a more conservative take on Obamacare, agrees with Gruber that dumping by big employers would create a political opportunity. However, Roy believes it might be one Republicans should pass up. He told the Times, "It’s a better world where people shop on their own."

From the employee's perspective, dumping people onto the exchanges would be a huge mess, though some of those folks would get subsidies which could reduce their costs. From the perspective of the government, there's the potential that adding lots of subsidy eligible employees (think restaurant and retail workers) could make the cost of the law balloon unpredictably.

In short, if Emanuel is right, employee dumping could turn out to be a win for businesses, a lose for taxpayers and a mixed bag for employees, some of whom benefit and some who face higher costs. But politically speaking, the issue will likely be a loser for Democrats over the next few years.

Baldo

Mar 28 2014, 04:54 PM

Insurance Companies as We Know Them Are About to Die And here's what's going to replace them
BY EZEKIEL J. EMANUEL

snip

...Then they will cut out the insurance company middle man

chatham

Mar 29 2014, 07:32 AM

Democrats should be dropping like flies now….

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2591304/Obama-sucked-Romney-Former-Sen-Bob-Kerrey-DEMOCRAT-uncorks-Nebraska-sized-tornado-president-slamming-Obamacare-lies-saying-hes-not-saving-Social-Security.html

Obama 'sucked less than Romney': Former Sen. Bob Kerrey, a DEMOCRAT, uncorks a Nebraska-sized tornado on the president, slamming him for health care lies and saying he's not up to saving Social Security

Kerrey, a two-term Senator in the '80s and '90s, is disappointed in the president for risking the health of the U.S. economy over Obamacare
'He had to know he was misleading the audience,' he said of Obama's infamous 'If you like your health care plan' deception
Explains that an even bigger lie Democrats tell is that 'everybody' can get 'high-quality, affordable health care'
Obama, he says, lacks the courage to bring Democrats and Republicans together to save U.S. entitlement programs from bankruptcy
'If he was up to it, he would have done it,' Kerrey tells MailOnline


Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2591304/Obama-sucked-Romney-Former-Sen-Bob-Kerrey-DEMOCRAT-uncorks-Nebraska-sized-tornado-president-slamming-Obamacare-lies-saying-hes-not-saving-Social-Security.html#ixzz2xM2DUCYo
Follow us: @MailOnline on Twitter | DailyMail on Facebook

Quote:

 

http://www.breitbart.com/Big-Government/2014/03/28/Poll--Obama-health-law-fails-to-gain-support

OBAMACARE TANKS IN POLL AS DEADLINE LOOMS

...In April of 2010, soon after the law passed, 50 percent of Americans said they were opposed to it, while 39 percent were in favor. Ten percent were on the fence.

Now, just 26 percent say they are in favor, a drop of 13 percentage points. Forty-three percent say they are opposed, a drop of 7 percentage points since that poll four years ago. But the number who neither support nor oppose the law has tripled, to 30 percent.

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http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/plum-line/wp/2014/03/26/morning-plum-is-obamacare-repeal-fatigue-setting-in-2/

Morning Plum: Is Obamacare repeal fatigue setting in?

Will Obamacare deliver Republicans the Senate in elections seven months away, or will the health law recede as an issue, while other factors (candidates, the economy, the terrible map for Dems) come to the fore?

Today’s new Kaiser Family Foundation tracking poll — the gold standard in health care polling — offers clues as to why the latter may be more likely. Key findings:

– Views of the ACA remain unfavorable, but the gap is narrowing. The new poll finds that in March, 38 percent viewed the law favorably, versus 46 percent who saw it unfavorably. That’s a substantial narrowing from the 34-50 spread during the dark days of January, and a return almost to where opinion was in September (39-43), before the rollout disaster began.

– Support for repeal continues to shrink. Only 18 percent want to repeal the law and not replace it, while all of 11 percent want to repeal and replace it with a GOP alternative — a grand total of 29 percent. Meanwhile, 49 percent want to keep the law and improve it, and another 10 percent want to keep it as is — a total of 59 percent.

Among indys, that keep/improve versus repeal/replace spread is 52-31. Republicans are all alone here, with their spread at 31-58.

That overall keep-versus-repeal spread has improved for the law since February (when it was 56-31), and even more so since December and October, suggesting a clear trend.

– Crucially, a majority, 53 percent, say they are tired about hearing about the law and want to move on to other issues. Only 42 percent think the Obamacare debate should continue. A majority of independents has had enough (51-45). Even 47 percent of Republicans are done with it.

– Most of the ACA’s individual provisions are wildly popular. Virtually every one of them — the Medicaid expansion; the preexisting conditions piece; subsidies for low income people’s coverage – has overwhelming majority support, and all of those are even backed by a majority of Republicans. The big exception: The individual mandate. (Caveat: This is only one poll. But the numbers on repeal and the individual provisions are similar to other poll findings.)

All this, even as Americans for Prosperity has spent $30 million in ads bludgeoning Obamacare in key states. Obviously what matters is opinion in those states, but the point is, eventually you could see fatigue over the debate set in there, too.

So here’s how Obamacare might recede as an issue. Republican candidates who know repeal alone is untenable make nice noises about the law’s popular overall goals. (See GOP Senate candidates Thom Tillis in North Carolina and Terri Land in Michigan; Scott Brown won’t say whether he opposes New Hampshire’s Medicaid expansion.) Yet when pressed on how they would accomplish those goals, they equivocate, it becomes clear they don’t have answers, leading people (who don’t want to return to the old system) to conclude Obamacare is the only feasible set of solutions. Meanwhile, people tire of the debate and want candidates to move on already.

To be clear, this doesn’t mean Republicans don’t have an even chance or better of taking the Senate. They do. But that may be largely because Dems are defending seven seats in red states, and because of Obama’s low approval ratings (which could reflect the economy). Nate Silver has noted that, even if the law is a liability for Dems, it’s “hard to tell where Obamacare’s unpopularity ends and Obama’s overall unpopularity begins.” Bottom line: We just don’t know whether overall “disapproval” of the law will matter that much. Dig deeper into public opinion and it looks plausible it won’t be a decisive factor – even if Republicans do take the Senate.