The Largest Healthcare Provider

 UnitedHealth Group, Inc. has announced today that they are considering pulling out of Obamacare.

They are expecting losses as high as $500 million on the plans in 2016. It’s almost as if ignoring the economics of legislation and focusing on how good it makes you feel about yourself leads to bad policy…

It has been 5 years. Is patience still supposed to be a virtue?

VA GOP Caucus

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Would You Like Ads With That?

It appears that the website that 316,584 Virginians have used to buy health insurance is quietly sending their sensitive data to third party advertisers. 

It isn't just unidentifiable information either. They are sending IP addresses. The tech savvy will understand, but an IP address can be used to tremendous effect by these large companies. It can give names, physical addresses, and even more far reaching data to those inclined to look.

Wow...seems like only yesterday that the administrator in charge of Medicaid and Medicare was saying “There’s no higher priority than protecting consumer information and maintaining trust for the consumers,”. 

What happened? 

VA GOP Caucus

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School System Flunks Obamacare

This report, running in several local papers around the Roanoke area, is more evidence of the cost-heavy nature of Obamacare.

Roanoke City Public Schools are now forced to outsource their substitute teachers just to avoid over $150,000 in new healthcare costs mandated by Obamacare. The ACA's 30-hours per week requirement will likely be very problematic for other school systems as well in this regard. Many financially stressed local systems will be asked to decide between absorbing the high cost of insuring employees who may or may not even cross that line, and other options like privatization or actually cutting jobs.

VA GOP Caucus

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The ACA Comes Back to Haunt Unions

Those are the haughtily-spoken, blatantly-incorrect words of Congresswoman Nancy Pelosi, while the 2,163,744 word Affordable Care Act was being shoe-horned through Congress in late 2009 and 2010. 

Fast forward a few years to 2013, and the date of implementation is right around the corner. What states like California and Ohio are discovering already is that implementing this amount of government apparatus is going to cost the average American time, money, and hassle. Premiums on the individual market could more than double. The IRS, unimpeachably fair institution that it is *cough, cough*, will be given 46 new powers to collect information, levy taxes, and determine eligibility among other things. Now, even the very muscle that pushed Obamacare forward is coming to regret it. 

In an open letter to Congresswoman Pelosi and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, Mr. James Hoffa of the Teamsters' Union (yes, the name caught our eye too), as well as James Hanson of the UFCW and D Taylor of UNITE-HERE delineate the reasons that their organizations can no longer support this law. Many of the promises made about Obamacare during its controversy by the administration are now being proven false when the rubber meets the road. 

The Union bosses now realize that the law incentivizes businesses to cut workers' hours to below the minimum 30-hour line at which Obamacare dictates an employer must cover an employee with a healthcare plan. Less hours AND no healthcare for workers are just the beginning of the consequences of the bill. Past that, the non-profit healthcare plans that were made possible by the Hartley-Taft Act would suffer under the ACA since it subsidizes for-profit plans, but taxes the two at the same level. This will drive non-profit plans under, and funnel employees to the more expensive for-profit plans to which they fought so hard for an alternative. 

This is nothing new, as Mr. Hoffa reminds the two legislators in the letter...

"As you both know first-hand, our persuasive arguments have been disregarded and met with a stone wall by the White House and the pertinent agencies."

The manifold problems with the Affordable Care Act have been constant concerns for the GOP in the last three years. Not in a long time has a law met with this kind of resistance AFTER it has already passed. 

Now that the regulatory ceiling is coming down on the American people, more and more are realizing that that opposition was based on wise principles, and valid predictions. I expect more to come out against the law as the deadline nears. But this is a HUGE blow to what amounts to the crown cubic-zirconium in the Obama Presidency. 

VA GOP Caucus

vagopcaucus.blogspot.com

Richmond Doctors Dump Obamacare

photo credit goes to unitedliberty.org

When puzzled about plumbing, you would listen closely to the opinions of a plumber. When you are confused about cars, it would be best to consult a mechanic. Why should healthcare be different?


When it comes to Obamacare, there are a lot of confused people out there, and a ludicrous amount of work and reading to do before that changes (See our earlier post about Obama's 80-Million-Hour Problem). So America has to turn elsewhere for an informed opinion on how this...thing will affect our lives.

Today, there is an article in Style detailing the opinions of Richmond doctors on Obamacare. The Richmond Academy of Medicine hosted a dinner with U.Va.'s Larry Sabato where a mock election was held, as well as a mock referendum on Obama's Affordable Care Act.

The numbers came back overwhelmingly against the law; and, while the poll was informal, gave an interesting insight into the opinions held by the Commonwealth's caregivers.

The numbers came back showing a tidy Romney victory in November, Cantor and Longo winning in the House, and George Allen for Senate. While the sample size is small and the poll unofficial, it begets optimism to know that some of Virginia's most educated and well-informed professionals fall against this attempted "solution", and that our caregivers support a common-sense fix to the issues that face us today.

VA GOP Caucus

vagopcaucus.blogspot.com