Evel Republicans push again to delay ACA

[gary m]

Oops, wrong party

WASHINGTON, D.C. -- The White House is making plans to delay the deadline for Americans to sign up for health coverage under the Affordable Care Act, according to NBC News.

NBC reports the deadline for every American to purchase health insurance may slide back as far as six weeks.

The White House has taken some heat over glitches in HealthCare.gov, which have hindered many citizens' attempts to enroll for insurance under the Affordable Care Act.

wrong again...

With the rocky launch of the "Obamacare" insurance exchanges entering its fourth week, additional Democrats came forward, some urging the president to extend the open-enrollment period for buying health insurance through the program beyond the existing March 31 deadline.
One Democrat, Senator Joe Manchin of West Virginia, said he would join a Republican effort to delay the so-called "individual mandate," that requires people to buy insurance or face a tax penalty.
...
White House officials said on Wednesday that enrollment requirements were being changed so that consumers could sign up for health insurance right up to the March 31 deadline and avoid penalties. Some people previously needed to be signed around Feb. 15 to meet the end of March deadline.
A White House official said that pushing back the sign-up requirement was not related to glitches with Healthcare.gov, but was simply an effort to eliminate confusion over the two deadlines.
...
Democratic Senator Mark Pryor of Arkansas, who faces a tough re-election race next year, said he agreed with fellow Democrat Jeanne Shaheen of New Hampshire that the open enrollment period to sign up for insurance should be extended beyond March 31, 2014.
Representative James Clyburn of South Carolina, the third-ranking House Democrat, criticized the website for forcing consumers to provide private information before deciding what kind of health insurance plan they want to buy.
"I've talked to too many people who tell me before they ever get around to figuring out what it is they want to buy, they're having to answer questions that they don't feel they should be answering," Clyburn said.

Third time's a charm... not

In a speech on the House floor Wednesday, Rep. John Barrow, a Blue Dog Democrat from Georgia, called on the president to delay implementation of the law’s individual mandate, which is set to be enforced Jan. 1.
...
Sen. Jeanne Shaheen, D-N.H., asked President Obama to extend the open enrollment period beyond the current date of March 31, 2014, until the website glitches are fixed, arguing that the problems have dampened people’s ability to sign up for the exchanges.
...
Sen. Mark Pryor, D-Ark., who like Shaheen is up for re-election in 2014, announced his support for the New Hampshire senator’s call to extend open enrollment in the exchanges and asked the administration to clarify how it would enforce the individual mandate.

...

Still, House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, who staked her speakership on the controversial vote, said the website’s glitches are “disappointing,” but she rejected calls from fellow Democrats to delay the law’s implementation.
“Of course the situation right now is unacceptable, it’s unfortunate, but we did not work very hard and many of us dedicate our public service to a website. It was to an initiative for affordable, quality health care,” Pelosi, D-Calif., said. “What we want to do is fix it and go forward with it, not make policies that are predicated on its not working.”

Good old Nancy. Always looking out for the little guy in good old Democrat fashion.

[Gingersnap]

Still, House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, who staked her speakership on the controversial vote, said the website’s glitches are “disappointing,” but she rejected calls from fellow Democrats to delay the law’s implementation.

“Of course the situation right now is unacceptable, it’s unfortunate, but we did not work very hard and many of us dedicate our public service to a website. It was to an initiative for affordable, quality health care,” Pelosi, D-Calif., said. “What we want to do is fix it and go forward with it, not make policies that are predicated on its not working.”

You didn't dedicate your careers to a website. I'm glad that's cleared up. Did you dedicate your career to crafting law? Because that's my issue - how you voted into being a huge law that you did not read and don't understand.

[Billy Jingo]

Delaying the Individual Mandate and extending the sign up deadline are two entirely different things.

[phillygirl]

You didn't dedicate your careers to a website. I'm glad that's cleared up. Did you dedicate your career to crafting law? Because that's my issue - how you voted into being a huge law that you did not read and don't understand.

A website determining legal issues is not new in Pennsylvania. Our child support is "controlled" by a computer system called PASCES. "Why is this person not being brought in to court for contempt?" "Because PASCES says so". "Why can't I see the other party's pay information?" "Because the IRS has a lot of rules about who can see income information". That's just great, but there's this little thing called the constitution, due process, etc. People in my county hate when I mention the constitution, it's a pesky little thing.

[gary m]

Delaying the Individual Mandate and extending the sign up deadline are two entirely different things.

I understand that. Being this is a government run program I am understandably somewhat confused on how this is supposed to work.

From what I have read, beginning 1 January 2014, I must be covered by ACA approved insurance if I am not among the special or waivered classes.
I have until 15 February 2015 to sign up through the exchanges (or otherwise obtain insurance)to meet the 31 March 2015 enrollment deadline if I currently do not have insurance and am not among the special or waivered classes.
Proposals are being submitted to extend the sign up period by a to be determined amount without delaying the Mandate and others are are being submitted to extend both the sign up period and the Mandate implementation date.

If they extend the sign up without extending the Mandate date it looks like there are 2 choices.
1) Illegally (according to the current Mandate date) go without insurance until I can get in via the exchanges.
2) Buy a short term policy that will give me coverage from 1 January 2014 until the Feds release Healthcare.gov 2.0 Service Pack 16 HotFix 12 which works until someone changes their keyboard to Cyrillic at which point 3 nuclear power plant go into emergency shutdown when their name is entered as Achmed.

If they fuck it up long enough without extending the IM deadline, people can go the whole year without insurance which makes them libel for fines for no coverage (unless you are among the special or waivered classes) and the subsequent windfall profit for the IRS next tax year.

The only positive thing about this whole fiasco and the software involved in running it is that it makes Microsoft's release of Windows ME or Vista a work of Nobel Prize winning genius by comparison.

[Billy Jingo]

I understand that. Being this is a government run program I am understandably somewhat confused on how this is supposed to work.

From what I have read, beginning 1 January 2014, I must be covered by ACA approved insurance if I am not among the special or waivered classes.
I have until 15 February 2015 to sign up through the exchanges (or otherwise obtain insurance)to meet the 31 March 2015 enrollment deadline if I currently do not have insurance and am not among the special or waivered classes.
Proposals are being submitted to extend the sign up period by a to be determined amount without delaying the Mandate and others are are being submitted to extend both the sign up period and the Mandate implementation date.

If they extend the sign up without extending the Mandate date it looks like there are 2 choices.
1) Illegally (according to the current Mandate date) go without insurance until I can get in via the exchanges.
2) Buy a short term policy that will give me coverage from 1 January 2014 until the Feds release Healthcare.gov 2.0 Service Pack 16 HotFix 12 which works until someone changes their keyboard to Cyrillic at which point 3 nuclear power plant go into emergency shutdown when their name is entered as Achmed.

If they fuck it up long enough without extending the IM deadline, people can go the whole year without insurance which makes them libel for fines for no coverage (unless you are among the special or waivered classes) and the subsequent windfall profit for the IRS next tax year.

The only positive thing about this whole fiasco and the software involved in running it is that it makes Microsoft's release of Windows ME or Vista a work of Nobel Prize winning genius by comparison.

That, was funny.