Obama: “Quality Healthcare For Everyone”…Except Our Veterans

Veterans Administration 1While I was dropping off my wife at work yesterday morning, I was listening to “Fox and Friends” on Sirius XM Radio. As I was listening, something miraculous happened: I actually agreed with something Geraldo Rivera said.

The King of the Selfies, in one of his more lucid moments, said that he believes that the horrible  treatment which our nation’s Brightest and Best have received at Veterans Hospitals, under the present Administration, could be Barack Hussein Obama’s downfall and eventually lead to his impeachment.

As I have written before, I was blessed by God to be raised by members of America’s Greatest Generation. My Daddy was an Army Master Sergeant, who landed on the beaches of Normandy on a day of unfathomable heroism and self-sacrifice, which turned out to be the turning point of World War II in the European Theater.

I had two uncles to whom I was close  one was an Army Corpsman, and the other in the Air Force.

Going up during the Vietnam War, I was privileged to have a brother-in-law who served in the Navy. I also knew a fella who served in the Army, a friend of my older sister’s, who stayed on our couch a lot after fighting with his family. And, I had a cousin who served then, as well.

For all of his photo ops and posing for the cameras, United States President Barack Hussein Obama views our armed forces as beneath him… assets to use what he needs to, in order to backup his failed foreign policy, and an ancillary service to trim, when it’s time to cut the budget.

Obama’s actions are in stark contrast to our previous president, George W Bush, who, every year at Thanksgiving, would go and serve Turkey to troops stationed around the world, during secret trips that Main Stream Media would not even know about until the president landed at the base.

And, when Bush wasn’t doing that, he was secretly visiting our wounded warriors at Walter Reed Hospital in Washington, DC, again,  out of the limelight of the cameras.

Even though Bush is no longer president, he is still showing his respect for our wounded warriors. He has held picnics in their honor, visiting with them and dancing with our brave young ladies who were wounded in the service of their country.

In a Friday night news dump, meant to take some of the heat off of President Obama, one of the executives in the Veterans Administration, who had already announced his retirement, was forced to resign, offered up as a sacrificial lamb.

Unfortunately for President Obama, the forced resignation of a sacrificial lamb is not going to get him off the hook.

Neither will any phony promises he might make, as soon as he is forced to. Remember this one, which he gave on June 15, 2009?

We know the moment is right for health care reform. We know this is an historic opportunity we’ve never seen before and may not see again. But we also know that there are those who will try and scuttle this opportunity no matter what – who will use the same scare tactics and fear-mongering that’s worked in the past. They’ll give dire warnings about socialized medicine and government takeovers; long lines and rationed care; decisions made by bureaucrats and not doctors. We’ve heard it all before – and because these fear tactics have worked, things have kept getting worse.

So let me begin by saying this: I know that there are millions of Americans who are content with their health care coverage – they like their plan and they value their relationship with their doctor. And that means that no matter how we reform health care, we will keep this promise: If you like your doctor, you will be able to keep your doctor. Period. If you like your health care plan, you will be able to keep your health care plan. Period. No one will take it away. No matter what. My view is that health care reform should be guided by a simple principle: fix what’s broken and build on what works.

If we do that, we can build a health care system that allows you to be physicians instead of administrators and accountants; a system that gives Americans the best care at the lowest cost; a system that eases up the pressure on businesses and unleashes the promise of our economy, creating hundreds of thousands of jobs, making take-home wages thousands of dollars higher, and growing our economy by tens of billions more every year. That’s how we will stop spending tax dollars to prop up an unsustainable system, and start investing those dollars in innovations and advances that will make our health care system and our economy stronger.

Obama is our Armed Forces Commander in-Chief (unfortunately). The responsibility for everything that happens to the men and women serving in our armed forces, in which some part of our federal government is involved, both during and after their service, falls on his shoulders and his alone.

Obama cannot blame this scandal involving the Veterans Administration on his predecessor.

The mistreatment of our Brightest and Best happened under his watch.

And, he must answer for it.

Until He comes,

KJ

Obamacare Imploding: Harry Reid…His Staff…and America’s Young People…Don’t Want it.

obamacaremoeAs I was riding to and from work yesterday, I noticed that Obamacare is still leading the news. There is no escaping it.  The Signature Legislation of  President Barack Hussein Obama installed by a totally Democratic Congressional Vote, taken in the middle of a cold winter’s night, has literally taken the Finest Healthcare System in the entire world and is turning it into an inefficient State-run, soon-to-be Single Payer, Ball of Confusion (with a nod to the great Temptations) .

But, wait…it’s not the President’s fault!!! (At least that’s what the Loony Left is saying.)

According to The Formerly Semi-sane Juan Williams, a Liberal Pundit seen on Fox News,

You should be blaming your insurance company because they have not been providing you with coverage that meets the minimum basic standards for health care.

Let me put it more bluntly: your insurance companies have been taking advantage of you and the Affordable Care Act puts in place consumer protection and tells them to stop abusing people.

The government did not “force” insurance companies to cancel their own substandard policies.The insurance companies chose to do that rather than do what is right and bring the policies up to code.

Ummm…what code? You mean the code arbitrarily set by the Affordable Care Act?  That code?

As a Former Independent Health Insurance Agent, I can tell you that all policies that are now being declared “bad” under Obamacare were all approved by State Insurance Commissioners’ Offices. Otherwise, they would have never been sold.

But, please, little Juanito, carry on…

…your insurance company must cover what are called “essential health benefits.”

What are “essential health benefits?”

They are clearly defined on HealthCare.gov:

“Essential health benefits must include items and services within at least the following 10 categories: ambulatory patient services; emergency services; hospitalization; maternity and newborn care; mental health and substance use disorder services, including behavioral health treatment; prescription drugs; rehabilitative and habilitative services and devices; laboratory services; preventive and wellness services and chronic disease management; and pediatric services, including oral and vision care.”

Hold on there, Hoss! Are you saying that the Free Birth Control which Obama is attempting to force Christian Employers to carry and which the Supreme Court will shortly decide on, is not an “essential health benefit”?

Don’t look now…but…you’re right.

Y’know…I have a question. If Obamacare is good enough for us average American Citizens…why isn’t it good enough for the people who voted for it…and their staffs?

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid is allowing some staffers to keep their health insurance instead of making them buy it through an ObamaCare exchange, although he was one of the strongest Capitol Hill supporters of the 2010 law.

The Nevada Democrat is exercising his discretion under the president’s signature law to designate which staffers can keep their federal insurance plan and which must now purchase a policy through the District of Columbia’s health-care exchange.

However, he purportedly is the only top congressional leader to exercise that option, which resulted in sharp criticism Wednesday from Texas Republican Sen. Ted Cruz, perhaps the staunchest ObamaCare opponent on the Hill.

“Sen. Reid’s decision to exempt his staff … is the clearest example yet of ObamaCare’s failures and Washington hypocrisy,” he said. “His staff worked to pass it and continue to promote it, now they don’t want to be part of it because it’s a disaster.”

The distinction is between personnel staff, forced onto the exchange, and leadership and committee staff, who are allowed to keep their federal plan.

However, drawing a distinction is difficult because some duties overlap,” a Reid staffer told Fox News.

The staffer could not give a breakdown. But Reid is going on the exchange and says he is happy with its options.

An amendment to ObamaCare by Iowa Republican Sen. Chuck Grassley forced staffers onto the exchanges, but additional changes allow for some flexibility. Still, the final rules, put forth by the Office of Personnel Management, leave some discretion with the lawmaker. 

Discretion? Dinghy Harry is to discretion as Rosanne Barr is to Beverly Sills. (Look her up, children.)

In order for Obamacare to work, 18-29 year olds must buy into it, in order to fund the cost of older Americans. Unfortunately, for Obama and his minions…

The Harvard “Millennials” poll found only 22 percent of young Americans — defined in the survey as between 18 and 29 years old — plan to sign up for ObamaCare. Even more troubling for the administration, fewer than a third — only 29 percent — of people who currently do not have health insurance plan to enroll.

“Actuarially, the [Affordable Care Act] depends upon these young Americans signing up,” Trey Greyson, director of Harvard’s Institute Of Politics, said. “Our survey shows that the administration has a lot of work to do to get them on board.”

Indeed, the Affordable Care Act relies on a large pool of young, healthy enrollees to pay for older, sicker Americans. Without their premium support, the entire system is at risk of collapse.

As I wrote yesterday, Obama is in the middle of a huge Youth Push, trying desperately to get America’s “yutes” to buy into his Ponzi Scheme.

So far, it looks like Obama and the Dems have misjudged America’s Young People.

They seem to want no part of Obamacare.

Gosh. It’s almost like they were actually raised here. 

Until He Comes,

KJ

Obamacare and America’s “Yutes”: The Thrill is Gone

obamacareyouthAs President Barack Hussein Obama’s Signature Legislation, the Affordable Care Act, or Obamacare, continues to swirl down the ol’ porcelain receptacle, the Administration has targeted America’s young people. Obamacare was designed on the presumption that young Americans will go head over heels for the new Healthcare Exchanges, and, in turn, that will finance the plan.

Guess what? That ain’t happening, according to nydailynews.com,

Fears that insurance exchanges that are the linchpin of President Barack Obama’s federal health care overhaul wouldn’t attract the young, healthy people needed to make them financially viable are being heightened by the early results of signups in several states.

If it becomes a trend, that could lead to increases in insurance premiums and deductibles next year. Along with the paltry enrollment numbers released this week, officials in a handful of states said those who had managed to sign up were generally older people with medical problems — those with the greatest incentives to get coverage.

It’s unclear whether that will persist. Young, healthy people may be more inclined to procrastinate, especially given doubts about the law’s technically flawed online signup system. They have until Dec. 15 to sign up if they want to be covered on Jan. 1.

Insurers have warned that they need a wide range of people signing up for coverage because premiums paid by adults in the younger and healthier group, between 18 and 35, are needed to offset the cost of carrying older and sicker customers who typically generate far more in medical bills than they contribute in premiums.

The first set of enrollment data revealed that 106,000 people signed up for coverage nationwide, far short of the 500,000 initial sign-ups the Obama administration had expected. In states where officials discussed more detailed information, it also became apparent that the people who flocked to the exchanges after they opened Oct. 1 were those who were desperate for coverage.

In California, the state with the largest uninsured population, most of those who applied were older people with health problems. In Kentucky, nearly 3 of 4 enrollees were over 35. In Washington state, about 23 percent of enrollees were between 18 and 34. And in Ohio, groups helping with enrollment described many of those coming to them as older residents who lost their jobs and health coverage during the recession.

However, the administration is going to do whatever they can to force young Americans to participate in Obamacare, even those young folks who are still in college, as foxnews.com reports…

For decades, universities and colleges have offered students bare-bones policies. But because of the Affordable Care Act, those policies no longer cut it – and universities are forced to decide whether to offer significantly higher-cost plans or cancel coverage altogether.

The new rules affect a broad swath of American schools, especially the small ones.

At Bowie State University in Maryland, the cost of student health insurance policies went from roughly $100 a year to $1,800 a year.

The cancelled plan offered $5,000 worth of medical coverage to students for just $54 per semester. University administrators said an acceptable replacement under the Affordable Care Act would have cost $900 per semester, a 1,500 percent increase.

Students who need individual coverage are likely to find a better deal for themselves on the Maryland Health Connection insurance exchange, University spokeswoman Cassandra Robinson said.

In the end, the school decided to drop the policy for all of its 5,500 enrollees. Students were notified of the dropped coverage on the school’s website.

“Bowie State University has suspended offering health insurance for domestic students for the 2013-2014 academic year,” according to the school’s official website. “Due to new requirements of the Affordable Care Act which will go into effect on January 1, 2014, the cost of insurance for domestic students will increase to approximately $1800 per year.”

The sticker shock didn’t sit well with some students who spoke out against the price hike.

“You’ve haven’t done anything Obama and I am disappointed in you,” one student said. Another told Campus Reform, “We don’t have that money. We can barely afford books.”

Well, gosh, that doesn’t sound like the perception the White House has of America’s young people.

In fact, one would think that being a young American is all about promiscuity and alcoholism, according to the Obamacare Ads put out by the Obama Administration.

The first ad shows a pretty young thing, all excited and showing off the birth control pills which she received through Obamacare. At her side is a swarthy looking young man, with his shirt out and sports jacket on, trying his best to look like a young John Stamos, with an anticipatory ear-to-ear grin on his face.

The other ad involves three male college students. two of them each have the leg of the third, and are holding him above a keg  while he balances himself with both hands while hollding a hose coming from the keg in his mouth.

Talk about aiming to the lowest common denominator in an advertising campaign…

Evidently, the only contact the White House has with college age and young adult Americans, has come from hanging out with the OWSers and/or watching the Jerry Springer Program.

Anyway, it certainly appears that they overestimated Obamacare’s popularity with that demographic and underestimated young Americans’ intelligence.

Or, perhaps, like the rest of us, these yutes simply don’t like being lied to.

Until He Comes,

KJ