Obama Admin. Plunders Medicaid and Medicare

The Democratic Party is the federal mafia.  Barack Obama has installed progressive capos at the head of federal bureaucracies and is plundering the U.S. treasury.  The latest shakedown happened at the Department of Human and Health Services and Centers for Medicaid and Medicare.  Secretary Sylvia Burwell diverted billions of taxpayer monies from programs designed to help the poor and elderly to insurance companies that conspired with the Obama administration to force citizens to buy their product.

At issue for lawmakers on the House Energy and Commerce Committee is whether the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services violated the Affordable Care Act by diverting $3.5 billion intended for the U.S. Treasury to insurance companies.

“[Earlier this month], the administration announced that they would be using billions of taxpayer dollars to make payments to insurance companies under the Obamacare reinsurance program,” Rep. Joe Pitts, R-Penn., said Wednesday during a hearing with Department of Health and Human Services Secretary Sylvia Mathews Burwell.

“The announcement that the administration made represents an illegal wealth transfer from hardworking taxpayers to insurers,” he continued, “and this law is very clear—$5 billion of reinsurance fees must be returned to the taxpayers.

Experts have pointed out that with the absence of payments to the U.S. Treasury in 2014 and 2015, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services owes the U.S. Treasury $3.5 billion in payments from the transitional reinsurance program—$2 billion for 2014, and $1.5 billion for 2015.

Laws?  Progressives don’t need stinking laws.

Source:

http://dailysignal.com/2016/02/24/lawmakers-obama-administration-illegally-diverted-billions-intended-for-u-s-treasury-to-insurers/

Obamacare's Federal/Big Insurance Utopian Dreams

A couple of months ago, I hypothesized about a possible collusion between the federal government and prominent health insurance companies.  I stated they would find a way to incorporate a Federal Reserve like system that would sanction and protect companies like Blue Cross and Blue Shield, while they in turn ceded power to the federal government.  It looks like my hypothesis is coming true.

The Progressives have an additional bonus.  They are realizing their Marxist dreams:  from each according to his abilities, to each according to his needs.  Carolina Journal reported the following:

Devon Herrick, senior fellow and health economist at the Dallas, Texas-based National Center for Policy Analysis, said his organization expects major restructuring of the health insurance market over the next decade, and lots of employers to start dropping coverage nationally due to Medicaid expansion and subsidized health exchanges.

“We predict a lot of firms will find a way to get out of providing coverage,” Herrick said.

“I suspect that we will see employers taking a wait-and-see approach,” Allen countered, with none wanting to be the first to drop its insurance coverage benefit even though it would be cheaper to pay the Obamacare tax penalty for not providing insurance than to pay the employer share of insurance premiums.

“I think a lot of people are carefully watching what employers do, and especially what the larger employers do,” Allen said.

“All the products on the exchanges have to be qualified health plans,” and insurance carriers are required to provide the same “scope of coverage,” he said.

“We’ll be offering a full choice,” he said, “to make sure consumers get the products they want. They’ll look a lot like our products look today.”

Blue Cross would slot buyers into different medal levels descending from platinum and gold to silver and bronze. The higher levels would have richer coverage and higher costs, Allen said. “Bronze covers less of the total cost than, say, a platinum does.”

As a general rule of thumb, Blue Cross would offer “the same set of products to folks regardless of their income level,” Allen said. “So a bronze plan will be the same for someone at 20 percent of the federal poverty level as someone at 400 percent of the federal poverty level.”

The difference would be in awarding higher subsidies to lower-income individuals to offset premium costs.

“Obviously lower-income gets a bigger subsidy. Folks making less than 250 percent of the federal poverty level get a richer option if they choose a silver plan,” Allen said. “The plan has less out-of-pocket costs for the customer.”

So basically, the rich will pay more for health insurance while at the same time subsidizing the care of others who can’t afford the Obamacare premiums.  Who knew utopia was a federal government program away?

Source:  http://www.carolinajournal.com/exclusives/display_exclusive.html?id=10087

Joe Biden Admits Feds Intent on Insurance Industry

Joe Biden once again reveals the true intent of the democrats: control the insurance industry. At least at the end of this clip, he followed the talking points that was outlined in the infamous CBO memo by the democrats.

If these yahoos really wanted to address the high cost of insurance premiums, they might want to start with regulatory burdens imposed by both federal and state governments. But that would be an admission that the government is part of the problem and not the solution.