#ObamaCare Disaster Deepens as Insurers Get Wrong Data

At WSJ, "Health Website Woes Widen as Insurers Get Wrong Data: New Errors Indicate Technological Problems Extend Issues Already Identified":

Insurers say the federal health-care marketplace is generating flawed data that is straining their ability to handle even the trickle of enrollees who have gotten through so far, in a sign that technological problems extend further than the website traffic and software issues already identified.

Emerging errors include duplicate enrollments, spouses reported as children, missing data fields and suspect eligibility determinations, say executives at more than a dozen health plans. Blue Cross & Blue Shield of Nebraska said it had to hire temporary workers to contact new customers directly to resolve inaccuracies in submissions. Medical Mutual of Ohio said one customer had successfully signed up for three of its plans.

The flaws could do lasting damage to the law if customers are deterred from signing up or mistakenly believe they have obtained coverage.

"The longer this takes to resolve…the harder it will be to get people to [come back and] sign up," said Aetna Inc. Chief Executive Mark Bertolini. "It's not off to a great start," he said, though he believes the marketplaces are "here to stay."

The new troubles for the Affordable Care Act arrive as Washington's attention is expected to sharply shift toward scrutiny of the site's rocky rollout, whose problems had been overshadowed by a two-week brawl over the government shutdown and debt ceiling.

Pressure is rising on the Obama administration to fix the problems. A number of Republicans have urged Kathleen Sebelius, secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services, to resign. Prominent Democrats, including House Ways and Means ranking member Rep. Sander Levin (D., Mich.), have called for fixes to be accelerated. The White House has said it has full confidence in Ms. Sebelius.

HHS, which is running all or part of the marketplaces in 36 states, has repeatedly declined to answer specific questions about its handling of the rollout, including specific glitches, enrollment figures, or its plans to fix the problems.


"We know that people are enrolling in coverage and the system works. As individual problems are raised by insurers, we work aggressively to address them," HHS spokeswoman Joanne Peters said Thursday.

Health-department officials have pressured insurers to refrain from commenting publicly about the problems, according to executives at four health plans, who asked not to be named. The HHS declined to comment.

In prolonging the battles over the budget and debt ceiling, "all Republicans did was give [President Obama] great cover for the complete screw-up on the opening of the exchanges," said Gail Wilensky, a Medicare director in the administration of George H.W. Bush and UnitedHealth Group Inc. UNH +0.28%  board member.

But the persistence of the technological problems could force a steeper political price for the Obama administration as Republican lawmakers redirect their focus. The GOP-led House Energy and Commerce Committee announced Thursday night it would hold a hearing next week on the rollout of the law and called on HHS to "voluntarily" make officials available after the secretary's staff said she couldn't come. Ms Peters, the HHS spokeswoman, said the department intended to be "responsive" to the request.

More at the click through.

And from Yuval Levin, at National Review, "Assessing the Exchanges." And at the Weekly Standard, "Obamacare Website Violates Licensing Agreement for Copyrighted Software."

#ObamaCare: More Than a Glitch

Via John Hawkins on Twitter.

Peyton Manning Still Tops in Indianapolis

At USA Today, "Emotions run high in Indianapolis before Manning return":

INDIANAPOLIS -- Kill the fatted calf. The all-pro-digal son returns.

OK, Peyton Manning is no prodigal. The 12-time Pro Bowl pick didn't choose to leave Indianapolis, and he didn't squander his money, as in the parable. In fact, he helped raise so much money for a children's hospital here that it's named for him.

But the calf half of the metaphor is apt. The phrase comes from biblical times, and it means to break out the very best for the most special of special occasions — in this case, as in that one, the return home of a favorite son.

Manning, who was released by the Indianapolis Colts in March 2012 amid uncertainty over his surgically repaired neck, isn't back for good, of course. No. 18 plies his trade in a new home now, for the Denver Broncos. This season, at 37, he is on pace for the best year any NFL quarterback has ever had.

And Sunday night on NBC, when the 6-0 Broncos play the 4-2 Colts in the Dome that Peyton Built, the good people of Indianapolis will offer one last roar for the greatest athlete in their city's history, before they go back to rooting for the guy they hope will be even better someday.

The Crazy 'Deadender' Tea Party

Even Business Week's attacking grassroots conservatives with the "cray cray" smear.

See "The Tea Party's Pyrrhic Victory" (via Tyler Durden).

Shutdown Showdown Is Win for the Tea Party

Scottie Nell Hughes' comments are particularly interesting, but also the segment includes excerpts from Sarah Palin's interview with Megyn Kelly yesterday, and also Brit Hume's rant from earlier this week.

Excellent commentary:

Dana Loesch Rips #ObamaCare as 'Biggest Bait-and-Swith I've Ever Seen'

Since Social Security, lol.

A great segment.

Democrats cannot defend this law. This Steve McMahon dude gets his ass handed to him.

Erick Erickson Nails the Analysis of Post-Shutdown Conservative Politics

I don't post Erickson often (he's a jerk, if you ask me), but he's an extremely talented analyst, and I really like this piece.

At Red State, "Advancing. Ever Advancing":

The establishment has given conservatives a brilliant opportunity to advance against them and then against the Democrats. As Obamacare now goes into full swing, conservatives can show that they tried to stop it while Mitch McConnell and so many others sat and watched from a cozy booth the Capitol Hill Club leaving the fighting to others while they did everything possible to undermine the fight.

As more Americans watch Obamacare fail them through the Republican primary season, conservatives will be able to put the focus on Republicans who funded Obamacare instead of fighting it. Whether they like it or not, Republicans in Congress will find their names on ballots in 2014. They cannot hide or escape fate.

Conservatives must advance — ever advancing against the Republicans who have folded in the fight against Obamacare. We will not win all the fights. But Ted Cruz and Mike Lee show we do not have to win them all. We just need reinforcements.

RTWT.

Backlash After Kim Kardashian Posts Skeezy Side-Boob Selfie to Instagram

Man, that woman must be hurtin' bad.

Now a mom and she's posting photos of herself practically nude to Instagram? Jonesin' to get back in the media limelight? Hey, that's the culture these days. Nude gets the page views.

At London's Daily Mail, "'Put on some mom jeans!': Now Kim Kardashian receives BIG online backlash over 'inappropriate' swimsuit selfie... four months after becoming a new mother."

Number of Visitors to Disastrous #ObamaCare Website Crashes

Visitor counts are crashing just like ObamaCare's crashing.

At the New Counter-Culture, "VISITS TO OBAMACARE EXCHANGE SITE PLUMMET."

#ObamaCare's Black Box

At WSJ, "Why the exchanges are worse than even the critics imagined":

The White House set low expectations for the Affordable Care Act's October 1 debut, so anything remotely competent should have seemed like a success. But three weeks on, the catastrophe that is Healthcare.gov and the 36 insurance exchanges run by the federal government is an insult to the "glitches" President Obama said were inevitable.

This isn't some coding error, or even the Health and Human Service Department's usual incompetence. The failures that have all but disabled ObamaCare are the result of deliberate political choices, which HHS and the White House are compounding with secrecy and stonewalling.

***

The health industry and low-level Administration officials warned that the exchanges were badly off schedule and not stress-tested despite three years to prepare and more than a half-billion dollars in funding. HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius and her planners swore they'd be ready while impugning critics and even withholding documents from the HHS inspector general for a routine performance audit this summer.

Yet the launch has been worse even than critics predicted. The rare users who weren't locked out experienced crashes, delays and error messages. Mrs. Sebelius initially claimed this was merely servers crashing under unexpectedly high demand. She called it "a great problem to have."

Now that traffic has abated, HHS concedes there were built-in information technology and structural defects. Some of Healthcare.gov's automatic operations mimic hacker denial-of-service attacks meant to disable a site. These can be fixed, though press reports suggest they're due to a programming rush because HHS delayed key regulations and IT specifications until after the election to avoid Republican criticism.

Then instead of rolling out the program in stages or delaying it as HHS has so many other parts of the law, the department simply dumped a bad product on the public to meet a self-created deadline.

Other failures have the same political character. Consumers must set up a complex account with sensitive personal information like Social Security numbers before they are allowed to browse health plans. The government wants to show consumers only their net out-of-pocket premiums minus subsidies, not the true underlying cost of insurance. That's because those all-in quotes are so much higher than what's available on the individual market.

HHS continues to claim that the exchanges are all about competition—they're even trying to rebrand them as "marketplaces." But real marketplaces are transparent and let consumers know what they get for what price. ObamaCare's exchanges are intended to obscure price and service options.

HHS still refuses to disclose how much taxpayers shelled out for this exchange lemon. The money came from several ObamaCare, general HHS and Medicare accounts and flowed to more than 50 outside vendors, with several no-bid contracts awarded outside the normal procurement process.

Mrs. Sebelius also refuses to reveal basic data about ObamaCare enrollment even as she brags about the millions of people who have supposedly visited Healthcare.gov. Information that would allow outsiders to evaluate the exchanges includes how many people have applied and qualified for coverage so far, what types of health plans they're selecting and what their health risks are.

Continue reading.

The genuinely surprising thing is that public opinion hasn't crashed on this yet. The true measure of public support, of course, will be the congressional elections next year. It's not going to go well for the Dems. Of course, the president couldn't give a f-k. He's not on the ballot, and he's laughing at the socialist monstrosity he's sloughed off on a sheepish electorate.

Congress Sends Obama Bill to End Shutdown

At WaPo:

Sixteen days after a federal shutdown began and one day before the United States would have exhausted its ability to borrow money, Congress approved a bill to reopen the government and raise the debt ceiling until Feb. 7. President Obama has promised to sign the legislation immediately, meaning hundreds of thousands of federal workers will be back at work Thursday.

“Now that the bill has passed the United States Senate and the House of Representatives, the President plans to sign it tonight and employees should expect to return to work in the morning,” Sylvia Mathews Burwell, Director of the Office of Management and Budget, said in a statement late Wednesday night. Burwell directed employees to check news outlets and OPM’s Web site for further updates.

By a vote of 81 to 18, the Senate sent the 35-page bill to the House of Representatives, where it was approved 285-144 just a little over two hours later. All 198 Democrats present in the House voted yes, and 87 Republicans voted yes as well. All 144 no votes were Republicans.

“We fought the good fight; we just didn’t win,” House Speaker John A. Boehner (R-Ohio) said in an interview with conservative radio host Bill Cunningham.

At the White House, Obama hailed the Senate’s deal. “Once this agreement arrives on my desk I will sign it immediately and we will begin reopening the government immediately, and we can begin to lift this cloud of uncertainty and unease from our businesses and the and the American people.”

Obama said he hopes to move forward on other domestic priorities, including immigration reform and the farm bill. “We could get all these things done if everybody comes together in a spirit of ‘how can we move this country forward’ and put the last three weeks behind us.”

More at that top link.

Senate Passes Debt Deal

At WaPo, "Senate passes bipartisan bill to raise debt limit, end government shutdown."

Comparing Costs of Buying Health Insurance

Things are looking up.

Way up, lol!

Sky high health insurance rates.

At Heritage, "How Will You Fare in the Obamacare Exchanges?"

Dodgers Beat Cardinals in Game 5 to Extend #NLCS

I caught the last 1 and 1/2 innings. Turns out Dodgers' bats got hot. Let's see if they can keep hope alive this weekend.

At LAT, "Dodgers take the solo route to stay alive with 6-4 Game 5 victory."

We will see you in St. Louis. @Dodgers blast 4 HRs to muscle past @Cardinals in Game 5: http://t.co/3IkwHKglgm pic.twitter.com/5IuUteccfr
— MLB (@MLB) October 16, 2013

Seems the Dodgers want to keep playing.

Using the sudden power of the solo home run and a terrific turnaround pitching performance from Zack Greinke, the Dodgers lived to fight another day with their 6-4 victory Wednesday afternoon over the Cardinals in Game 5 of the National League Championship Series.

The victory staved off elimination, but still leaving the Cardinals up three games to two in the best-of-seven series.

After taking a day off Thursday, the series is scheduled to resume Friday with Game 6 in St. Louis.

The score was tied 2-2 when the Dodgers suddenly discovered their new love affair with the solo home run.

More at that link.

Clayton Kershaw will start Game 6. I think the Dodgers have a pretty good chance. Kershaw's the best in the majors.

Charles Krauthammer: Obama Never Cared About Debt, His 'Priority Is to Increase Entitlements...'

At RealClearPolitics.

Congressional Leaders Race to End Stalemate

Maybe they'll get a deal today. Word is Speaker John Boehner's caving.

At WSJ, "Leaders Adding Final Touches to Senate Budget Deal: Plan Would Temporarily Raise Debt Ceiling, Reopen Government":

Senate leaders in both parties were putting the finishing touches on an agreement to temporarily raise the nation's debt ceiling and fully reopen the government as lawmakers raced to resolve their budget stalemate and calm anxious financial markets.

The expected Senate deal would avoid a potential U.S. debt default, but it would only set new deadlines for lawmakers to make decisions about the long-term course of fiscal policy.

As outlined by aides, the deal would fund federal agencies through Jan. 15 and extend the nation's borrowing authority through Feb. 7. A negotiating committee would be charged with devising plans for longer-term solutions.

Lawmakers have been hoping to pass legislation—or at least set Congress on a clear path to doing so—before Thursday, which many officials and investors view as a landmark moment. The Treasury says that on that day it will exhaust its emergency borrowing powers and be left with only about $30 billion to pay the nation's bills, enough to last for a week or two.

House GOP leaders on Wednesday were contemplating taking up the expected deal from the Senate for a vote later Wednesday, according to aides from both parties. That would send the bill to the Senate in a fashion enabling the Senate to skip some of its time-consuming procedures to ensure a quicker final vote.

"What I'm hearing is they may move first," Sen. Kelly Ayotte (R., N.H.) said of the House.

Yeah, they're gonna move. See Ed Morrissey, "Breaking: Boehner to take vote on Senate compromise 1st, pass it with Dem votes":

The endgame will arrive a little sooner than expected, thanks to a deal cut with John Boehner to take the first plunge on a bipartisan plan to end the budget standoff before the theoretical debt-ceiling limit gets breached. Instead of the Senate taking up the proposal from Harry Reid and Mitch McConnell first, Boehner will allow a vote — without amendments — and have it pass with Democrats making up the difference from expected opposition from conservatives...

Yeah, well, even WSJ tired of the games, "The Debt Denouement":

The Beltway budget melodrama rolls on to its predictable and dreary end, with both sides now split over increasingly small differences. None of this is worth a partial government shutdown, much less the risk of a debt default, and both sides are looking like losers. Let's get it over with.

As we went to press Tuesday night, Republican leaders in the House had abandoned a plan to pass a debt-increase bill that was nearly identical to the one that Senate leaders agreed to on Monday. The main differences were funding the government only through December 15, rather than January 15 in the Senate bill, and a provision to require Members of Congress and their staff to live by ObamaCare's subsidies.

None of that was enough to please the small band of 20 or so House conservatives who have been all but running the House since this fiasco began. They refused to support House Speaker John Boehner and even Budget Chairman Paul Ryan. Another 30 or so Members were tired of getting kicked around by Heritage Action and Senator Ted Cruz and want the whole thing settled. With Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi keeping her troops in line for a no vote, GOP leaders pulled the bill from the floor.

The conservatives thus undermined whatever small leverage the House GOP had left. Without a united majority of 218 votes, Republicans might as well hand the Speaker's gavel to Senate Democratic leader Harry Reid. Senate leaders announced immediately that they would resume negotiating to finish a deal that they would bring to the floor as early as Wednesday...

Keep reading.

Maybe's it's time to lick the wounds of battle, but I'm not so downbeat as WSJ. I expect the administration's callous treatment of veterans, and its cold indifference to plight of average Americans, will come back to haunt the Democrats in November 2014. Republicans can wrap up this fight and then keep hammering away on Democrat weaknesses, the shitty economy and the morally bankrupt ObamaCare monstrosity.

More at Memeorandum.

Army Captain William Swenson (Retired) Finally Gets His Medal of Honor

A CNN report:



More at WaPo, "With William Swenson, the Army gained a Medal of Honor but lost a leader."

And ICYMI, "New Versions Question Dakota Meyer's Account of Battle at Afghanistan’s Ganjgal Valley in September 2009."

Why #ObamaCare's a Mess

A Chicago Tribune editorial, "The administration has to 'fess up and promote changes":

If you've tried to sign up online for health coverage under the problem-plagued Obamacare exchange, our sympathies. Many people have tried to create accounts and shop for insurance under the new law. Few have succeeded. Those that have enrolled have found that the system is prone to mistakes. Some applications have been sent to the wrong insurance company.

Wait. It gets worse. Those who have managed to browse the marketplace have often been hit by sticker shock. Take Adam Weldzius, a nurse practitioner and single father from Carpentersville. He sought the same level of coverage on the exchange as he and his 7-year-old daughter have now, with the same insurer and the same network of doctors and hospitals. At best, Weldzius found, his monthly premium of $233 would more than double. If he chose a plan priced at the same level, the annual deductible would be $12,700, more than three times his current $3,500 deductible.

"I believe everybody should be able to have health insurance, but at the same time, I'm being penalized. And for what?" Weldzius told the Tribune's Peter Frost. "For someone who's always had insurance, who's always taken care of myself, now I have to change my plan?"

Last spring, President Barack Obama said "there will still be, you know, glitches and bumps" in the rollout of the new system. But what we're seeing now is no glitch or bump. There is a growing mountain of evidence that Obamacare has fundamental problems in design and implementation.

Oh boy. This isn't IBD or WSJ. This is the leftist Chicago Tribune, the marquee newspaper from Obama's hometown. This editorial should sink in. It should sink in for those who most need to be shaken from the stupor and cognitive dissonance: the idiot regressive leftists who refuse to see reality and blame everything else under the sun for the disaster besides the freakin' ACA itself. (See Power Line for just one example, "The Kos Kids Learn About Obamacare.")

In any case, don't hold your breath for changes. King Barack's got his socialized medicine. It's locked in and he couldn't give a flying f-k if it works or not.

More from the Tribune at the link.

Awesome O'Reilly Talking Points Memo: The Collapse of #ObamaCare

And listen especially to Monica Crowley. Obama promised a "fundamental transformation"of America, and it's finally here.

And as O'Reilly notes, the president hasn't said a word about the epic disaster of the health exchange rollout. He doesn't freakin' care. He's got his socialized medicine and the country just better suck it up.

'Strong is the New Skinny' - Jennifer Nicole Lee Flaunts Smokin' Hot Body in New Fitness Program Rollout

Well, she's certainly the perfect spokeswoman for "strong is the new skinny."

What a lady. Wow!

At London's Daily Mail, "Holy Batgirl! Jennifer Nicole Lee makes a splash in superhero bikini bottoms while promoting her fitness program."

Previous J. Nicole Lee blogging here.