GOP-led House votes to repeal ObamaCare - Bill to undo Obama immigration actions, fund DHS fails in Senate test vote

WASHINGTON –  The House voted Tuesday to repeal the Affordable Care Act, getting Republicans on record in favor of overturning the law for the first time since the party took control of Congress.

The bill passed on a 239-186 vote. 

President Obama already has threatened to veto the legislation — and like past bills to repeal ObamaCare, it is unlikely to go far under the current administration, despite Republicans now controlling the Senate and having a bigger majority in the House.

But the vote serves as an opening shot in the 114th Congress’ efforts to chip away at the law. Several lawmakers have introduced bills to change or undo parts of the Affordable Care Act, and some could garner bipartisan support. 

“We need health care reform that makes the system more responsive to patients, families and doctors — reforms that preserve and protect the doctor-patient relationship. Right now, ObamaCare is moving our health care system in the exact opposite direction where the American people are paying more and getting less,” Rep. Tom Price, R-Ga., said in a statement after the vote. “In the House of Representatives, we are saying we need to get rid of this law that’s not working and focus on solutions that will embrace the principles of affordability, accessibility, quality, innovation, choices, and responsiveness.” 

Prior to the vote, Obama questioned the logic behind it.

“So my understanding is the House scheduled yet another vote today to take health care away from folks around this table,” Obama said during a meeting with 10 people who have written him letters about how the ACA has helped them.

He added, “I’ve asked this question before. Why is it that this would be at the top of their agenda? It was maybe plausible to be against the Affordable Care Act before it was implemented. But now it has been implemented and it is working.”

The House has voted more than 50 times in the past two years to repeal all or parts of the law.

The legislation would go next to the Republican-controlled Senate.

While some say the vote is a symbolic gesture, the push to repeal ObamaCare comes as the Supreme Court weighs the King v. Burwell case, which challenges the legality of some subsidies offered through the president’s signature health care law. If the Supreme Court upholds a lower court’s verdict, it could severely undermine the law and fuel GOP efforts to at least change it. 

Republicans, as their next major step, are planning to draft legislation offering an alternative to the ACA. The bill approved Tuesday also directs House committees to begin work on an alternative plan, in case the Supreme Court rules against the law. 

The Associated Press contributed to this report. 

View the original article here

GOP-led House votes to repeal ObamaCare - Bill to undo Obama immigration actions, fund DHS fails in Senate test vote

Maryland delays effort to recoup $55M for failed ObamaCare site - VIDEO: ObamaCare reportedly fading as midterm issue - Full Coverage: Midterm elections

FILE: Oct. 2, 2013: A man looks over the Affordable Care Act signup page on the HealthCare.gov website in New York. (REUTERS)

Maryland officials reportedly have agreed to delay court action seeking $55 million from the primary contractor for the state’s problematic ObamaCare website.

Officials from Maryland’s health care exchange in April fired the contractor, Noridian Healthcare Solutions, and vowed to seek court actions to recoup the money.

Both sides have struck a temporary deal so state officials can focus on the second year of ObamaCare enrollment that starts Nov. 15, according to The Baltimore Sun.  

A spokeswoman for Democratic Gov. Martin O’Malley told The Sun that officials are still “evaluating claims that we may pursue in litigation.”

The first ObamaCare enrollment, on Oct. 1, 2013, got off to a disastrous start, marked by an overwhelming public response that crashed the federal site, HealthCare.gov, and several state-run sites.

President Obama, angry and “frustrated” by the start of arguably his biggest legislative accomplishment, made sure the software problems were essentially fixed after the first several weeks by hiring industry experts to work around the clock to write better computer code and fix software bugs.

But at least two state-run sites — Maryland and Oregon’s — had to scrap their failed, multi-million dollar, online projects.

Oregon has moved online customers to the federal site after software bugs and other technical problems kept the state from fully enrolling a single customer online.

The problems and transition is estimated to cost state and federal taxpayers at least an additional $85 million — including $50 million to manually enroll thousands of customers and $35 million to Deloitte Consulting to salvage the faulty technology.

Maryland officials have decided to replace their technology, instead of fixing the system or like Oregon joining the federal exchange system.

They have hired Deloitte Consulting, which has successfully run the Connecticut exchange. The effort is expected to cost $43 million.

The decision also comes just weeks before Election Day for Democratic nominee for governor Lt. Gov. Anthony Brown, who was O’Malley’s point man for ObamaCare.

Maryland and contractor Noridian have blamed each other and subcontractors, including IBM, for the problems.

The decision to delay action also came amid an ongoing inspector general’s probe, which was requested in February by Maryland GOP Rep. Andy Harris.

“Millions of dollars were wasted because of a lack of oversight by Lieutenant Governor Brown, and now the state must try to recoup some of the money he allowed to be sent to companies who couldn’t deliver,” Harris told The Sun. “The federal investigation should provide critical information about how taxpayer dollars were wasted and whether fraud occurred.”

Justin Schall, Brown’s campaign manager, said: “It’s disappointing that congressman Harris would mislead the people of Maryland and play political games with a federal investigation.”

Thirty-six states are part of the federal exchange, and there are 14 state-run sites.

The president crafted the legislation to help an estimated 30 million uninsured Americans get coverage.

The administration reached its goal of enrolling 6 million people by its self-imposed March 31 deadline. And right now, 7.3 million people have enrolled in marketplace plans, paid their premiums and have access to insurance, according to the Department of Health and Human Services.

View the original article here

Maryland delays effort to recoup $55M for failed ObamaCare site - VIDEO: ObamaCare reportedly fading as midterm issue - Full Coverage: Midterm elections

More than a dozen states plan to cancel health care policies not in compliance with ObamaCare - OPINION: ObamaCare is gift that keeps on giving - VIDEO: Many ObamaCare cancellations expected

More than a dozen states plan to cancel health care policies not in compliance with ObamaCare in the coming weeks, affecting thousands of people just before the midterm elections.

“It looks like several hundred thousand people across the country will receive notices in the coming days and weeks,” said Jim Capretta of the Ethics and Public Policy Center.

The policies are being canceled because states that initially granted a reprieve at the request of President Obama are no longer willing to do so.

In coming weeks, 13 states and the District of Columbia plan to cancel such policies, which generally fall out of compliance with the Affordable Care Act because they don’t offer the level of coverage the law requires.

Virginia will be hardest hit, with 250,000 policies expected to be canceled.

And because federal law requires a 60-day notice of any plan changes, voters will be notified no later than November 1, right before the Nov. 4 midterms.

Many of those forced out of their current plans and into ObamaCare may not be able to keep their doctors. They also could face higher deductibles and out-of-pocket expenses, making ObamaCare an election issue on the eve of voting.

Obama had originally unequivocally promised that underhis health care plan, everyone could keep their doctors and plans.

In 2009, he told the American Medical Association, “If you like your doctor, you will be able to keep your doctor. Period.If you like your health care plan, you will be able to keep your health care plan. Period.No one will take it away. No matter what.”

The president later was forced to admit that any plan without the additional benefits required under ObamaCare faced cancellation.

But that unleashed a nasty political backlash, forcing him to back down and call for states and insurers to extend those policies forthree more years.

Some said he didn’t have much choice. “There were some five or six million people who were at stake here and the federal exchange was in no condition to even process a few hundred thousand people much less millions,” said Joe Antos of the American Enterprise Institute.

Many states flatly refused to extend and now comes the new round of states that plan to cancel policies.

Jim Angle currently serves as chief national correspondent for Fox News Channel (FNC). He joined FNC in 1996 as a senior White House correspondent.

View the original article here

More than a dozen states plan to cancel health care policies not in compliance with ObamaCare - OPINION: ObamaCare is gift that keeps on giving - VIDEO: Many ObamaCare cancellations expected

ROCKY HISTORY ObamaCare firm beset with problems gets more tax $$

The federal government is giving an ObamaCare insurance navigator Seedco, which has a reported history of fraud, $1.4 million to operate in Tennessee this fiscal year. 

Last year, Seedco received $1.2 million for the same services in Tennessee. 

As reported, the federal government sued Seedco on the grounds it faked at least 1,400 of 6,500 job placements under a $22.2 million federally funded contract with New York City. 

Seedco, according to National Review, had to settle that lawsuit. 

Meanwhile, state Comptroller Justin Wilson reported last year certain Memphis residents participating in the Temporary Assistance For Needy Families program falsified paperwork and wrongly received almost $30,000 in taxpayer money through a Seedco subcontractor. 

Alicia Hartinger, spokeswoman for the federal Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, which oversees the navigator program, said Friday the $1.4 million is for a 12-month cycle.
Seedco, Hartinger added, had to compete for the money against other potential navigators, although she didn’t say how many. 

Hartinger downplayed concerns about Seedco’s past problems. 

Click for more from Watchdog.org.

View the original article here

ROCKY HISTORY ObamaCare firm beset with problems gets more tax $$

Analysts warn of dangers in ObamaCare automatic re-enrollment - VIDEO: Automatic re-enrollment could spell trouble

After the rocky rollout last fall of the ObamaCare website, the administration wants to re-enroll those already in the system in hopes of avoiding another technological embarrassment.

But analysts warn that just blindly re-enrolling could mean trouble for consumers.

“This notion of just sit back and re-enroll is really misleading and I think could cause a lot of harm to people,” said Bob Laszewski of Health Policy and Strategy Associates.

“The automatic renewal, it’s easy, it will keep people getting ObamaCare,” added Rosemary Gibson of the Hastings Center. “But you have to trust but verify. You have to go look. You just can’t be on automatic pilot for health insurance.”

That’s because of the way subsidies are determined. They’re pegged to the cost of the second lowest silver level plan, but that cost is likely to change and with it, the subsidy a consumer would get.

“Everyone’s going to have differences in their subsidies,” Laszewski said. “The vast majority really probably need to change plans in order to continue with the same out of pocket premium. And they’re not going to know if their premium has changed unless they go in and re-enroll.”

Said Gibson, “What’s the different costs and what are the different benefits? Have they upgraded the benefits? Or, have they dropped providers in this case of health care, out of the network?”

Jim Capretta of the Ethics and Public Policy Center noted that “a lot of people aren’t even clear yet whether their physician or the services they typically need will be covered by the plans they’ve been given through the exchanges. So if they’re automatically enrolled in perhaps a subpar plan for their needs, that doesn’t really help them going into 2015.”

In addition, there is always the question of which doctors and hospitals are included in any given plan.

Health economist John Goodman explained, “And those networks leave out the best doctors, they leave out the best hospitals, a lot of those plans charge you extra if you need an expensive drug for your cancer treatment, for example.”  

Jim Angle currently serves as chief national correspondent for Fox News Channel (FNC). He joined FNC in 1996 as a senior White House correspondent.

View the original article here

Analysts warn of dangers in ObamaCare automatic re-enrollment - VIDEO: Automatic re-enrollment could spell trouble