Holiday ObamaCare News Dump
The White House has delayed for one year the online O’Care exchange for small biz.
As everyone was closing up shop last Wednesday for the Thanksgiving holiday, the Obama administration was dumping more inconvenient news. Something tells us, however, that it wasn’t part of Obama’s suggested Thanksgiving table talking points.
The White House delayed for one year the online ObamaCare exchange for small businesses. (There goes our shopping list!) Perhaps Healthcare.gov – the individual exchange – has been such a handful that they haven’t even bothered to start building the site for small businesses. Since Oct. 1, small businesses have been able to use paper applications, but instead of the online option, HHS offers alternatives such as working with agents or brokers or buying directly through insurers. According to HHS, “We’ve concluded that we can best serve small employers by continuing this offline process while we concentrate on both creating a smoothly functioning online experience in the SHOP [Small Business Health Options Program] Marketplace, and adding key new features, including an employee choice option and premium aggregation services, by November 2014.” It seems like something else happens in 2014 – what was that again?
Ah, the mid-term elections, that’s right. Also delayed beyond those elections is the open enrollment period for ObamaCare. Sign-ups for the 2015 plan year won’t begin Oct. 15, 2014 as previously scheduled, but will happen beginning Nov. 15. The only possible purpose for such a delay would be to postpone the inevitable premium sticker shock until after the mid-terms. Unfortunately for Democrats, employer-provided plan prices will skyrocket next year and those results will be known well before the election.
The self-inflicted bad news gets worse for Democrats. Next year will feature numerous plans booting your favorite doctor. If you like your doctor… Oh well. On top of that, some 50 million to 100 million insurance policies, mainly employer provided, could be cancelled next fall. If you like your plan… Oh well.
Speaking of those cancellations, note the story of cancer patient Bill Elliot, who appeared on Fox News to describe the loss of his insurance due to ObamaCare. He planned to pay the penalty, er, tax and “let[…] nature take its course.” Shortly after that, he received notice that he is being audited by the IRS for the years 2003-2009, with an interview in April 2014 – if he lives that long. Coincidence?
