RETW Loc: Washington

I got this for my e-mail this morning.

Daily Events
John Hayward
Senior Writer

It does seem, Mr. Hayward is spot on.

The Administration is still furiously spinning ObamaCare's disastrous launch - which was, if anything, worse than most critics predicted. Who thought there would be zero successful applicants from several states, including HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius' home state of Kansas?

Is this truly acceptable performance from a system that cost billions to create, whose designers had three full years to implement it, with far better advance knowledge of the probable traffic load than private-sector endeavors handling far larger business volumes? It is difficult to survey the results of the first week without feeling that heads would be rolling after a rollout like this at a company like Apple, which President Obama is fond of invoking as a comparison.

But working for Big Government means never having to say you're sorry. You just have to suppress dissent, make a few angry speeches about the "settled law of the land," savage anyone who wants to shut your broken program down as an "extremist," and find a few success stories for the media to tout. A handful of front-page happy participants can outweigh a million ignored complaints. The important thing is to make the dissenters feel like they're isolated, or at least in the minority.

The funny thing about ObamaCare is that it's having a lot of trouble producing any success stories for friendly media to spotlight. The press went nuts when the White House pointed them to a single young man who managed to enroll at the exchanges... but they didn't tell the media he's an Obama volunteer with a history of political activism, and they didn't ask, until after the first wave of absurdly over-the-top coverage had splashed across websites and newspapers.

How can a government program spend this much money, when there were supposedly 30, 40, or 50 million uninsured Americans clamoring for ObamaCare coverage, and have this much trouble finding anyone who really likes it? No matter what you think of the overall wisdom of a massive government program, there should be a sizable number of targeted beneficiaries who applaud it. Their absence in this case is notable.

bottomdawg

Looks like the system is collapsing as it is being built

Bhmason

Obamacare Facebook Erupts with Citizen Sticker Shock

On Thursday, the government's official Obamacare Facebook page was riddled with people expressing sticker shock over the government's high cost premiums after struggling for hours to wade through the technical failures vexing Obamacare exchanges all across the country.

"I am so disappointed," wrote one woman. "These prices are outrageous and there are huge deductibles. No one can afford this!" The comment received 169 "likes."

"There is NO WAY I can afford it," said one commenter after using the Kaiser Subsidy Calculator. "Heck right now I couldn't afford an extra 10$ [sic] a month...and oh apparently I make to [sic] much at 8.55/hour to get subsidies."

Another person shared a link found on the federal government's main Obamacare page listing premium estimates for small business employers:




A single mother of two said she is in school and working full-time while living "75% below the poverty level." She said she was shocked to learn she did not qualify for a healthcare subsidy. "Are you F'ing kidding me????" she wrote on the government's Obamacare Facebook page. "Where the HELL am I supposed to get $3,000 more a year to pay for this 'bronze' health insurance plan!?!??? And I DO NOT EVEN WANT INSURANCE to begin with!! This is frightening," she wrote.

Amid scores of comments expressing frustration with technical failures, one woman said she is "just amazed you could even get to the point of seeing pricing" and that she had been trying to access the system for three days to no avail.

Obamacare sticker shock will not affect millions of low-income Americans; a New York Times analysis published on Wednesday found that Obamacare "will leave out two-thirds of the poor blacks and single mothers and more than half of the low-wage workers who do not have insurance, the very kinds of people that the program was intended to help."

Obamacare will cost taxpayers an estimated $2.6 trillion over the next 10 years.

http://www.breitbart.com/Big-Government/2013/10/03/Obamacare-Facebook-Erupts-With-Citizen-Sticker-Shock

faithistheword

I just hope stories like these will stiffen the Republican Legislators backbones, and finally do what the majority of their constituents want--DEFUND IT!!!

Bhmason

Obama activist who supposedly signed up the first day and was thrilled with the experience, is a liar.

Obamacare Stunner: Exchange Poster Boy Never Actually Enrolled in Obamacare but Claims ‘I Have Not Misled Anyone’

http://www.theblaze.com/stories/2013/10/04/obamacare-stunner-exchange-poster-boy-never-actually-enrolled-in-obamacare-but-claims-i-have-not-misled-anyone/

bottomdawg

Reminds me of a nursery rhyme: Humpty
dumpty sat on a wall...

VladimirPee

It doesn't take much common sense to understand the mathematic principles here or should I say basic arithmetic.

You cannot insure 30 Million Uninsured ( 41.7 Million after amnesty) and still expect premiums to decrease and families to save $2500 while adding all sorts of expensive requirements to policies. SOMEONE HAS TO PAY MORE

VladimirPee

This is why I oppose defunding at such an early stage. We need a few more months for people to actually see the disaster affect them and their family

Bhmason

Are you suggesting Little Barry lied to us? :shock:


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=15E7goj7Fmo

Molly

Gee.. 5 whole days in. It will take time. '

And republicans can stand as stiff as they want. They are in the minority and don't have that kind of power. The people in this country voted in a democrat for President and there is a democratic senate. Only the truly naive believe standing strong while you don't have that leg to stand on will work. The President and Senate will NOT.. please read carefully here... NOT defund or delay the ACA. It won't happen. And right or wrong, whether you agree with it or not, that is how the government is set up. This will all end with the ACA funded and not delayed. If you don't understand why that is then please learn how the government works. There are checks and balances for a reason.. so no one party can defeat the majority. Instead of whining like babies and twisting this into something its not, instead of trying to piecemeal band aids in place and referring to it as a slim down when real people are paying the price... they need to play by the rules and do their damn jobs to get this country back on track. There are plenty of places to cut funds.. the other two factions who have a say will never defund it or delay it.. so make the cuts and lets move on. Its like watching a petulant child. How can so many people really think this will ever work when the whole entire governmental process says it won't. I know it makes their base happy, but maybe we can return to whats going to move the country forward instead of governing by crisis and shutting things down.

VladimirPee

Molly
Honestly? I oppose defunding. I came to this decision last week after getting on a company conference call about our 2014 healthcare plan which was decimated by deductible and out of pocket hikes and costs increases. The worst I have ever seen. A few days later my nephew called me ( He is an Obama supporter) who works for a large advertising firm in Manhattan. He was frantic because his plan went to a consumer driven plan which is even worse.
From now through the end of November 70% of America who have employer provided insurance will see massive hikes in their premium or cuts in service. Or lose their insurance all together. Democrats OWN this mess. So remain confident for now but all polls show the GOP will win back Senate next year.

Molly

I agree with that Dennis.. if its going to fail it will have to be implemented to prove it. If it fails it fails, but if it succeeds then what? And for anyone who rates went up please don't whine about it if you haven't checked your exchanges. I know 4 people who already left their employer plans for the exchange plans they found that were more tailor made for them.

There will be stories of success and failure on both sides, but we won't know the outcome for many many months yet, perhaps years. So for every story you have that is a failure, I could easily produce one that is a success. But you won't defund or delay it. It would be in your greater interest, if you truly are against it, to let in go and let it fail if it will. If you do you then gain a large amount of political credit that you did what was needed for it to succeed, even though you staunchly opposed it, and it didn't. But this useless attempt to sabotage it is only making you look bad with all of those other Americans who do not want this shut down.

VladimirPee

Molly there is no magic. You CANNOT insure 30 Million uninsured (41.7 after amnesty) add many options like pre existing and have it cost LESS. Most of those on the exchange will be subsidized by everyone else. Good luck with that.

Molly

And MANY who get insurance won't need it. It covers the unexpected.. which doesn't happen all that often for many people (sadly I am not someone who escapes the unexpected...lol) and so their premiums pay for the others. Just like in the next year someone else's premium will pay for their care. Insurance companies hedge their bets, and PLENTY have joined in the market place

VladimirPee

Unfortunately that's not the case. We are seeing massive hikes for the non subsidized. And ACA spends 650 Billion additional from 2014-2019