Nothing Ted Cruz Said About the ACA Today Is True

Not to mention, again, that 96% of US businesses employ fewer than 50 employees. Of the remainder, less than 1% do not already provide healthcare to their employees. This ACA "devastating impact" on business is a bunch of hooey.

 

Federal Reserve districts report hiring slowdowns and layoffs because of Obamacare

http://poorrichardsnews.com/post/64872099449/federal-reserve-districts-report-hiring-slowdowns-and

 

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Obamacare’s Vermont Fail
by Stuart Stevens Oct 22, 2013 5:45 AM EDT

The Green Mountain State has been ambitious in its efforts to get insurance for all. That’s admirable. Too bad it’s failing big time, writes Stuart Stevens.

After more than two weeks of dysfunction, it is clear that the rollout of the $400 million federal health-care exchange at HealthCare.gov has been an unmitigated disaster with no end in sight. Enrollment is far lower than hoped for, projected, or needed, in part due to a cascade of technical website design and testing failures.
The good news for the ACA is that the conventional wisdom now being adopted is that the 16 states that opted to create their own exchanges are functioning far better. If only conventional wisdom were reliably true.

Take Maryland, for example, the would-be poster child for the success of the ACA with the unwavering support of Gov. Martin O’Malley and the majority of citizens in the solidly blue state. Two weeks into the launch of their state exchange, a whopping 1,000 people had enrolled through the state’s online portal that is riddled with “glitches” that likely won’t be resolved until late November or early December.

But maybe Maryland just did a lousy job. What about a smaller state, one that overwhelmingly supported the president’s election and reelection, is progressive in its politics, and even had a vibrant and extensive state-run health-care program already in place prior to the ACA? That would be tiny Vermont. Surely with its Democratic governor and Democratic and Socialist senators, it can serve as a laboratory for Obamacare implementation, leading the way through the darkness of those “glitches.”

But, alas, not so, at least not yet. The reality is that Vermont’s health-care exchange website may be even a bigger mess than the federal-run HealthCare.Gov. And health care in Vermont may be headed for a unique train wreck due to its efforts to become the first state in the country to implement a single payer plan.

One of the president’s key selling points of the ACA was the promise that if you liked your plan, you could keep it. We’re learning that’s often not the case as Obamacare is implemented across the country. And in Vermont, there has been no pretense of such assurance.
As of January 1, 2014, in Vermont, the ability for individuals or employers with 50 or fewer employees to purchase health insurance from private insurance companies ceases to exist. As for policies already covering those businesses and individuals? Those cease to exist, as well. In other words, in Vermont, a good percentage of its population will have no choice but to buy health insurance through the state exchange.

But despite the urgency of getting the exchange launch right and the givens that should make it easier rather than difficult—small state, high rate of literacy, 98 percent English speaking—Vermont’s website seems as bad or worse than the federal system...

 

Last night on Fox News's Special Report, Juan Williams singlehandedly raised the bar for what qualifies as world-class failure in blame-shifting. Williams excused the mind-boggling incompetence of the Obama administration's HealthCare.gov implementation by claiming that "massive opposition (to Obamacare) from the Republicans" caused fearful system architects to "roll it out and see how it works for now." Gosh, the only thing that remains is for President Obama to say that these poor programmers were "held hostage" by GOP press releases and speeches.

Read more: http://newsbusters.org/#ixzz2iZGvdxrV


So now it's the GOP's fault?

 

So, how many people have signed up for Obamacare through the online exchange? The White House refuses to say, and they're asking health insurance companies not to tell you either.

from Inforum:

The Obama administration asked North Dakota's largest health insurer not to publicize how many people have signed up for health insurance through a new online exchange, a company official says.

During a Monday forum in Fargo for people interested in signing up for coverage via the exchange, James Nichol of Blue Cross Blue Shield of North Dakota told the crowd his company received the request from the federal government earlier Monday. Nichol is a consumer sales manager for the company.

Still, a spokeswoman from Blue Cross Blue Shield says about 14 North Dakotans have signed up for coverage since the federal exchange went live Oct. 1. That brings total statewide enrollment to 20, less than one a day...