Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act

Jonathan Turley ~ Goodbye Hobby Lobby, Hello Halbig: Get Ready For An Even Greater Threat To Obamacare

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“Where Hobby Lobby exempts only closely held corporations from a portion of the ACA rules, Halbig could allow a mass exodus from the program. And like all insurance programs, it only works if large numbers are insured so that the risks are widely spread. Halbig could leave Obamacare on life support — and lead to another showdown in the Supreme Court.” J Turley

jonathanTurleyBelow is my column today in the Los Angeles Times on a little discussed case that presents a far greater threat to Obamacare than did Hobby Lobby. The Hobby Lobby case is a huge blow for the Administration in terms of one of the most prominent provisions of the Act and recognizing religious rights for corporations. However, it is more of a fender bender for the ACA. Halbig could be a train wreck of a case if it goes against the Administration. We are expecting a ruling any day and the panel is interesting: Judges Harry T. Edwards (a Carter appointee), Thomas B. Griffith (a George W. Bush appointee), and A. Raymond Randolph (a George H.W. Bush appointee). In oral argument, Edwards was reportedly highly supportive of the Administration’s argument while Randolph was very skeptical. That leaves Griffith. It could go 2-1 either way, though in my view the interpretive edge goes to the challengers for the reasons discussed below. This case however is largely a statutory interpretation case, though it has the same separation of powers allegations of executive overreach that we have seen in other recent cases.

Now that the Supreme Court has issued its ruling in the Hobby Lobby case, the legal fight over the Affordable Care Act will shift a few blocks away to another Washington courtroom, where a far more fundamental challenge to Obamacare is about to be decided by the powerful U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit. Indeed, if Hobby Lobby will create complications for Obamacare, Halbig vs. Burwell could trigger a full cardiac arrest.

The Halbig case challenges the massive federal subsidies in the form of tax credits made available to people with financial need who enroll in the program. In crafting the act, Congress created incentives for states to set up health insurance exchanges and disincentives for them to opt out. The law, for example, made the subsidies available only to those enrolled in insurance plans through exchanges “established by the state.” Continue reading →

Mac Slavo ~ Obamacare Success: Half Of Georgia’s Insurance Enrollees Fail To Make Monthly Payment

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Activist Post  April 22 2014

The Obama administration has stated unequivocally that the debate concerning whether or not the Patient Affordable Care Act has been a success is over. They’ve won the argument and its evidenced by the tens of thousands of Americans who have signed up on exchanges across the country.

Here’s a small glimpse into just how successful Obamacare has been.

In Georgia, where some 650,000 people are eligible for subsidies only about 220,000 applications have thus far been received. So, to start, we’re about 70% short on the originally estimated sign up rate.

Even more successful than that, however, is that of those 220,000 received applications Georgia Health News reports that at least half of the applicants have failed to actually pay their monthly premiums even though most of those people are being subsidized by the government to some extent.

Georgia insurers received more than 220,000 applications for health coverage in the Affordable Care Act’s exchange as of the official federal deadline of March 31, state officials said Wednesday.

Insurance Commissioner Ralph Hudgens, though, said premiums have been received for only 107,581 of those policies, which cover 149,465 people.

“Many Georgians completed the application process by the deadline, but have yet to pay for the coverage,” Hudgens said in a statement Wednesday.

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Had Enough Of Obamacare: You Ain’t Heard Nothin’ Yet!

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Activist Post  March 20 2014

With all the spin, fallacies, half-truths, and a few facts thrown in regarding the implementation of the Affordable Care Act, aka ObamaCare, readers probably have not heard some of the more egregious stories making the rounds.

Before I’m castigated for not liking ObamaCare, let me say that back in the 1980s and ‘90s I was working for affordable and effective healthcare for everyone in the USA, long before Mr. Obama came on the political scene. Anyone with half a brain understood, even back then, that we needed healthcare reform, but not healthcare destruction!

The number one issue I have with ObamaCare is how it was passed into law. I contend it was passed under duress, i.e., Nancy Pelosi’s “We have to pass the bill so that you can find out what’s in it.” That’s downright ILLEGAL! Why did Congress fall for such arm twisting, ploy, and deceit? When parties don’t know the full facts, or information is kept from them during negotiations, according to contract law that contract is not valid and is non-negotiable. On that fact alone, the U.S. Supreme Court should have ‘displayed’ certain parts of the male anatomy to reject ObamaCare when it came up before it, instead of reclassifying it as a “tax.” SCOTUS’s ruling is something that many legal minds question. Congress initiates, passes/enacts, and modifies legislation.

The second issue I have with ObamaCare is how it’s being manipulated by the White House when only Congress should be initiating changes to that unfortunate law. Apparently, there is total disregard for that branch of government by the sitting POTUS. Why is Obama so at odds with Congress? Wasn’t he the one who ran on a platform that his administration would be the most transparent administration, all while having Washington work better?

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Start Your Own Seed Bank

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StanDeyo  March 4 2014

SvalbardSeedVault
Image: Seed storage containers on metal shelving inside the vault in Svalbard, Norway. (Wikipedia)

While having a nice stash of freeze-dried, dehydrated and canned foods is great fall-back, nothing can replace fresh crisp garden vegetables and fragrant, sweet fruit. Increasingly, it is incumbent on individuals to maintain their own supply of life-sustaining seeds.

Seed vaults are not a new concept and had its roots 40 years ago over growing concerns for maintaining bio-diversity. A decade ago, it became mainstream when the global seed vault in Svalbard, Norway took center stage. It is just one of some 1,400 seeds banks around the world. Bet this puts a crimp in Monsanto’s Day! As of 2010, in that location alone, more than 500,000 unique seeds rest waiting to bail out humanity.

So what is the chance that the ordinary human would ever have access? Zip. Zero. Cero. Nada. Zilch. Sero. Nulla. Náid.

This one vault of hundreds is in place to serve the global elite, not us. That Bill and Melinda Gates are instrumental in this project should say everything. So now we circle around to what us, the every day person, can do to insure that we have the same benefits, sans the New World Order.

Create your own seed bank.

It is such a simple deal that it seems really silly to write on this topic. However, it you haven’t investigated it, then maybe it’s not so silly. Maybe it will help you.

This is what you need: seeds. Period. Well, OK, and maybe a bit of know-how. This article shows you how to maintain your own private seed bank that will keep you vegetable (therefore vitamin) self-sufficient. Healthy.

Oldies & Goodies

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This Is Too Well Stated About ObamaCare To Ignore

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TaxedEnoughAlready AKA “TeaParty”  February 11 2014

For the second time this year, talk-radio giant Rush Limbaugh has expressed his fear that President Obama may not step down when his term ends in 2017.

To make his point on his national broadcast Tuesday afternoon, Limbaugh cited Obama’s three-year extension of the Affordable Care Act’s employer mandate.

BEGIN TRANSCRIPT

RUSH: Well, well, well, well. Look. I know that Obama has done another — in fact, we mentioned yesterday he was gonna do it, this three-year extension on the employer mandate, three years. Folks, this plan is never gonna work. It is impossible to implement. That is what this means. It really isn’t complicated at all. The only reason Obama’s doing this is to make sure this law does not harm him and his party politically, period, that’s it. It is proof positive this thing is a disaster, it is an albatross, it isn’t going to do what everybody supporting it promised it would do. It is not going to guarantee the uninsured have insurance. It isn’t gonna lower costs. It isn’t gonna promote jobs. It isn’t gonna lower the deficit.

It is nothing more than an albatross around the neck of the whole country. And the very fact that it cannot be implemented, period, it won’t work if it’s implemented. It will harm the political prospects of the Democrat Party if it’s fully implemented. That’s all you need to know about it and that means it isn’t going to work. If this thing were the panacea it was promoted to be, they couldn’t wait to implement this thing front to back, top to bottom, side to side, as quickly as possible because everybody would love it then and everybody would vote for Democrats and we’d be finished.

But instead they’re having to delay the implementation, which means delay the effect, which means delay the impact — and no, the bloom is off the rose. All across the political spectrum in Washington, everywhere, they all know now — and this is where (big sigh) I start getting frustrated if I start thinking about this. They’re all now finally realizing — Republicans, Democrats, media, whatever — this is all political, and that’s all it has ever been from the get-go. I guess we’ll take it whenever we can get it. But this really doesn’t need any analysis.

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