Sebelius Rejects Bipartisan Calls for Delay in Health Law

[Purveyor]

Source: New York Times

WASHINGTON — Kathleen Sebelius, the secretary of health and human services, categorically rejected bipartisan calls to delay parts of the new health care law during testimony Wednesday before a Senate committee.

“Delaying the Affordable Care Act would not delay people’s cancer or diabetes or Parkinson’s disease,” Ms. Sebelius said. “It would not delay the need for mental health services or cholesterol screenings or prenatal care. Delaying the Affordable Care Act doesn’t delay the foreclosure notices for families forced into bankruptcy by unpayable medical bills.”

With many people unable to obtain coverage through the federal insurance marketplace, lawmakers of both parties have suggested extending the open enrollment period or delaying the financial penalties for those who go without insurance.

“For millions of Americans, delay is not an option,” Ms. Sebelius said at a hearing of the Senate Finance Committee. “People’s lives depend on this.”






Read more: http://www.nytimes.com/2013/11/07/us/politics/overseer-of-health-website-retiring.html?_r=0

[geek tragedy]

1. Good for her nt

[Dopers_Greed]

2. They should at least do something

Maybe extend the enrollment period for however long the site went without being fully functional.

The Dems are digging their graves with this.

[monmouth3]

3. The site is being fixed and the Democrats are NOT digging their graves. Did you see the

election results from yesterday? Oh, and welcome to DU...

[lark]

4. It's really going to hurt the working poor in the red states - badly.

Think they should let people off the hook who have incomes up to 130% of FPL and live in states whose assholes legislatures voted to not expand Medicaid. The subsidies being offerred aren't enough when you have no room for any extras at all. My son barely pays rent and buys gas, eats at the restaurant where he works, has no disposable income and can't afford the cheapest bronze policy in FL. He also can't pay the fine, so I will have to continue paying his medical costs and the penalty. Know Obama didn't plan for this, but when the Supreme Court threw out mandatory Medicaid expansion, something should have been done! Now, the Democratic party is hurting those that should be their natural voters, especially younger people, and turning them off to all politics. My son won't vote Repug, but he won't be out working for Dems anymore either and probably won't vote in the next elections, he's so angry.

[geek tragedy]

14. The mandate doesn't apply in states that didn't expand Medicaid if the person

would qualify for the Medicaid expansion.

[lark]

16. Are you sure about that?

I have read differently in a number of articles and couldn't get to a person at Healthcare.gov to find out. Just got a hang-up after holding for a long time.

I really hope and pray you are right! My son, along with a whole lot of working poor in FL, really needs help, not another kick in the ass.

[geek tragedy]

17. per healthcare.gov

https://www.healthcare.gov/exemptions/

Hardship exemptions
If you have any of the circumstances below that affect your ability to purchase health insurance coverage, you may qualify for a “hardship” exemption:

12.You were determined ineligible for Medicaid because your state didn’t expand eligibility for Medicaid under the Affordable Care Act.

Link also has information on applying for exemption.

[lark]

18. Thanks greek

I'll let my son know there is hope after all!

[geek tragedy]

19. Hope especially if Rick Scott loses and he becomes eligible for Medicaid. nt

[lark]

20. I'm still in disbelief that he won the first time.

Like really don't think he did, just bought the machine results he wanted. I don't know anyone who voted for him besides my 86 (at the time) year old mother and this includes a friend who voted Dem for the first time ever because even she knew Scott was evil.

Ironically enough, Scott wanted to expand Medicaid because of his hospital connections, it was the stupid knuckledragger legislators who vetoed the idea. Assholes all! It would take a monumental shift to get the state legislature here even to purple - it's pretty solid red now and has been for some time. I really don't have any hope of Medicaid expansion happening here, it just isn't going to happen. Too many teahadists.

[former9thward]

6. Did you see the election results?

Terry McAuliffe was supposed to win by 10-12% and he wins by 2% after Cuccinelli said at the last minute to vote for him because of Obamacare. The only reason McAuliffe won is because a libertarian was in there. Elected Democrats are smarter than some posting here.

[monmouth3]

7. Sorry I don't meet with your intellectual high bar, but the projected believable polls did not have

McAuliffe that high. 10-12% was a joke but if you want to believe it then be my guest.

[former9thward]

8. So all these analysts saying the election was unexpectedly close..

Don't know what they are talking about. I guess they didn't see the "believable polls."

[monmouth3]

10. Guess not and neither did you apparently...n/t

[geek tragedy]

11. You mean like the one ran by McAuliffe's campaign, that showed a 2-4 point margin?

If you know anything about Virginia, you know that the electorate that turns out in gubernatorial elections is much older, much whiter, much richer, and more male than the general election electorate.

No way was McAuliffe--who's about as uninspiring as they come--going to get an electorate as favorable as Obama did when he won by 4%.

[geek tragedy]

9. Thank you for vomiting up the rightwing's spin on Virginia.

Here's reality.

http://talkingpointsmemo.com/livewire/mcauliffe-pollster-cuccinelli-s-obamacare-stance-a-liability

Geoff Garin, pollster for Governor-elect Terry McAuliffe, said Wednesday that GOP gubernatorial candidate Ken Cuccinelli's position on Obamacare may have cost him the election.

"We tested Cuccinelli’s brag that he was the first attorney general to sue to stop Obamacare," Garin said. "That actually made more voters less likely to support him than more."

Garin said that even for voters who disapprove of the health care law, Cuccinelli's stance was too extreme.

"A majority disapproved of the Affordable Care Act, but in Virginia, as elsewhere, we found that a lot of these voters want to fix the law," Garin told the Washington Post. "'Cuccinellis' position on Obamacare actually supported what we were saying about him, which is that he was extreme and supported a national Tea Party agenda."

Garin also said McAuliffe's somewhat narrow win over Cuccinelli was expected by his campaign team.

"With the exception of a brief spike during the government shutdown, Terry's lead was never less than two points, and never greater than four," Garin said. "It was a stable race."

[geek tragedy]

12. Thank you for your concern. Enjoy your brief stay here nt

[red dog 1]

5. "People's lives depend on this"??

"For millions of Americans, delay is not an option"???
"Delaying the ACA would not delay people's cancer or diabetes or Parkinson's disease"??

Those with cancer, diabetes or Parkinson's Disease could still sign up for affordable health care without any delay, couldn't they?

The bipartisan calls to delay the open enrollment period and to delay the financial penalties for those who go without insurance doesn't mean that other parts of ACA can't still go into effect right away, so those who need a health care plan should still be able to get one, while those who need more time to choose should not have to be penalized.

[geek tragedy]

13. It would mean higher premiums for those who do sign up because the healthy would join later, thus

making the insurance pool older, sicker, and more expensive.

[alp227]

15. NPR report on the hearing

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=243537883

Excerpts

CHANG: Sebelius pointed out a number of improvements to the site. Pages are loading within one second instead of several. Filtering through health plans, which used to take minutes, now takes seconds. And fewer error messages are popping up. Great, said Republican John Cornyn of Texas, but that still doesn't solve another problem.

He pointed to the White House website, which he said was still insisting that you could keep your health plan if you like it, despite news reports that people across the country were getting cancellation notices.

SENATOR JOHN CORNYN: Well, we know that lying to Congress is a crime, but unfortunately lying to the American people is not. I'd just like to ask you a simple true or false question. Is that statement on the White House website true or is it false?

SEBELIUS: Sir, I think the statement is that you can keep your plan...

CORNYN: Is it true or is it false, Madam Secretary?

CHANG: Sebelius wouldn't give him a one-word answer, so Cornyn switched gears, jumping to the Obamacare navigators. These are people hired to educate the public about how to enroll. Cornyn was concerned these navigators didn't undergo federal background checks.

CORNYN: So a convicted felon could be a navigator and could acquire sensitive personal information from an individual unbeknownst to them.

SEBELIUS: That is possible.

CHANG: Other committee members spent their entire question time not waiting for answers, like Republican Pat Roberts of Kansas.

SENATOR PAT ROBERTS: So I have to wonder if you have any regrets, any regrets at all, that you failed to heed the warnings, that you ignored the calls from members of Congress, you proceeded to open the exchanges on October 1.

CHANG: He never let Sebelius respond and ended his few minutes calling for her resignation again. Ailsa Chang, NPR News, the Capitol.

Wow, how rude of these CONs, especially the senator from Sebelius' home state! (KS was twice elected as governor of KS before Obama nominated her to be HHS Secretary.)