Obamacare Sticker Shock

Last week, the Department of Health and Human Services unveiled new Obamacare waivers to the individual coverage mandate, offering hardship exemptions to several classes of Americans that do not meet specific income thresholds... the result is a large group of “boomerang” individuals who could not afford coverage previously, thought they’d gain coverage within Obamacare, and now are returning to the government for waivers based on the high cost of coverage and care.

Ten States to Connect with “Federal Surveillance Center”

The federal health department recently granted $1.5 billion in aid to states actively building their health insurance exchanges – government entities that feed private data into a ‘Federal Surveillance Center’ that has access to a wide variety of data about all Americans and makes it available to state and federal government agencies...

National Biosurveillance Bill Will Collect & Share Health Information Without Consent

This week, the U.S. House of Representatives will consider and debate the merits of H.R. 307, the Pandemic and All-Hazards Preparedness Reauthorization Act of 2013. The act would authorize the federal government to connect online with private clinics and hospitals to collect and share real-time private health information and to share the information nationally and internationally. It also authorizes the updating and enhancement of current biosurveillance activities, at a cost of more than $138 million over the next four years.

Executive Order on Gun Control & Healthcare Professionals Violates Spirit of Obamacare

Executive Order # 16 is hypocritical: it pressures patients to respond to intrusive queries from doctors, when PPACA clearly states that they are in no way obligated to disclose such information. If doctors, who are in a position of authority, put patients in the position of having to refuse to answer the doctors’ questions, it puts patients in an awkward position and damages the doctor-patient relationship.”

Deceptive Bill Sells PPACA Exchange as One-Stop “Marketplace” for Health Insurance

As Minnesota convened its first session of its 88^th Legislature, the Senate’s most important priority was to introduce and begin passage of Senate File 1: a bill for an act relating to commerce and establishing the Minnesota Insurance Marketplace. According to the Citizens’ Council for Health Freedom (www.cchfreedom.org), the bill is deceptive in several ways, most notably in its description of the state healthcare exchange

Americans Demand More Time to Comment on Proposed PPACA Regulations

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services set forth four new Obamacare regulations that totaled more than 700 pages during the holiday season and allowed for only 30 days of public review and comment. A majority of public comments on these bills – totaling more than 80 percent on one regulation – insisted that the HHS extend the review and comment period to 90 days to allow for adequate review and public feedback.

HHS Tight Holiday Review Periods for Pending Regulations

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) is petitioning the American public for comment on a total of six new regulations related to the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, commonly referred to as the ACA law. Two regulations have an adequate amount of time to read, understand, and comment on the proposed regulations, but four, including the 373-page the “Head Tax” rule that adds a monthly fee to all insurance premiums to cover the cost of individuals with pre-existing conditions, have only a 30-day window for public comment, and the timeframe falls over the winter holidays that include Chanukah, Christmas, Kwanzaa, and New Year’s. The four bills total nearly 750 pages of regulation, clearly a large amount to read, absorb, and understand in thirty days.

Deadline Approaches; CCHF Cites Costs as Reason to Decline

The new, extended deadline for states to declare their intentions with regard to a state health insurance exchange is December 14, by which time HHS has asked states to declare whether they intend to shoulder the responsibility of creating and operating an ACA health insurance exchange in their state. Costs are determined by a state’s population and the anticipated usage of the Exchange, with costs estimated to be between $15 million for very small states with low populations, to upwards of $300 million for heavily populated states like California. The costs are not only staggering, but could decimate the budgets and financial standing of states already struggling under a difficult economy. 

Fraud, Waste & Abuse in Medicare, Lack of Definitions Will Create Denials of Care

CCHF Applauds Gov. Walker’s Refusal to Implement a State Health Insurance Exchange

ST. PAUL, Minn. – Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker recently refused implementation of a Wisconsin owned and operated health insurance exchange, citing lack of design freedom and potentially undisclosed costs to taxpayers as impetus for his refusal. His decision letter to U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius noted that Wisconsin is already able to provide healthcare to 90 percent of its citizen population without an exchange, and the new system would not improve coverage for state citizens.