Happy New Year! Obamacare’s Only Going To Get Worse

HHS Head Kathleen Sebelius thinks it’s going to be a great year for the “Affordable” Care Act….because she kinda has to

(Fox News) Sebelius acknowledged there could continue to be hiccups going into 2014. “There always are,” she said. “People change plans every year.”

But she predicted a relatively smooth transition and said she doesn’t see more delays in the future.

Perhaps she should have talked to Justice Sonia Sotomayor

Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor late Tuesday halted a birth control mandate in ObamaCare for a Catholic group, one day before parts of the health care law are set to go into effect.

In her order, Sotomayor said the government is temporarily prevented from enforcing contraceptive coverage requirements against the Denver-based group, Little Sisters of the Poor Home for the Aged, and must respond by 10 a.m. Friday.

Because a group of nuns needed a contraception mandate. This sets an interesting mandate: the Constitution requires that everyone be treated the same under the law. It also states that the federal government shall not pass any law that restricts freedom of religion. If Sotomayor is willing to give an emergency injunction for this group, shouldn’t all the other groups who object be given the same injunction?

Then you have the big tax on insurers kicking in this year. The White House is now stating that the 7 million signups by March 31 was never their goal. But they won’t say what the new goal is.

Oh, and then there’s the notion that only 50% (at best) of signups in 17 non-federally run states have actually paid (I’m giving you the Hot Air link since the Wall Street Journal article is behind a paywall)

Normally, insurers require payment for coverage before the coverage begins. They count an enrollment as complete only when the first month’s premium has been received from a customer. As of Monday, however, only about half of enrollees billed for plans offered by more than 100 insurers in 17 states had paid their first month’s premium, said Mark Waterstraat, chief strategy officer at Benaissance, a third-party billing firm that works for those insurers…

Yet Team Obama expects the insurance companies to cover the people who haven’t paid as of yet.

There are all sorts of taxes that will kick in this new year because of Obamacare. Then we have the huge number of companies with 50+ employees which will start doing all sorts of fun things, like moving employees to part time, hiring replacement employees at part time hours, and dropping their health insurance offerings. Some that will continue offering insurance will be offering plans that are much more costly, especially for the deductible, this year or for 2015. I can tell you that the plan at my company is changing. Open enrollment starts near the end of January. And the company will be hold 3 separate 45 minute forums on the plans, something they’ve never done before. I’m expecting my deductible, currently $400, to skyrocket to $6,600, which is the normal deductible for the lowest cost Exchange plan in Wake County, NC.

Let’s also not forget the huge number of lawsuits pending against Obamacare in various forms. You have the contraception mandate ones, but another massive one regards subsidies for those who obtain insurance through the federal exchanges. The Law as written only allows subsidies for those in states with state run exchanges.

So Happy 2014, Obamacare: now that the rubber is actually meeting the road, things will work as well as a compact car driving over a backwoods dirt road after a 9.1 earthquake.

Crossed at Right Wing News.

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