It was a big week for Obamacare news, so let’s get right to it.
As you’ve undoubtedly heard, the House won its lawsuit against the administration’s Obamacare cost sharing subsidies made without Congressional appropriations. It’s a nice win for the rule of law – requiring the executive branch to use appropriated funds instead of just drawing from an open-ended entitlement spending account. But I agree with Mark Levin. Congress should not be relying on the courts to enforce the separation of powers. Congress should use the powers in Article 1 of the Constitution to fight its own battles, beginning with the power of the purse. If I was a judge and Congress came crying to me about how the executive branch was doing something Congress never authorized, I would say – ‘don’t look at me, fix your own problem.’
There have been lots of stories recently about Obamacare premiums going up a lot next year. The administration knows it has a P.R. disaster on its hands. The actual increases will hit right before the election. So the administration is already trying to spin the rate increases and control the narrative – The final rate increases will be smaller than requested, they say. Rate increases aren’t so bad after subsidies, which also increase. Consumers are free to shop for a better deal in the exchanges. Next comes the kitchen sink – Obamacare has reduced the number of uninsured, plans are better than before, blah, blah, blah. The rebuttal to all this is, this is not what we were promised. We were told our premiums would go down $2,500 a year. Instead, they’ve gone up a lot faster than inflation each and every year under Obamacare. Keep your eye on the ball – the rate increases are bad news no matter how they try to spin them, and we should pound our opponents with them every chance we get. The Truth Squad will be tweeting every rate increase story we see, using the hashtag #PremiumPain.
Meanwhile, stories continue to trickle in that more insurers might leave the exchanges next year. Humana is leaving Alabama and Virginia, and might leave some more exchanges. Blue Cross might leave North Carolina after losing almost $300 million there.
Finally, in addition to the transgender bathroom ‘guidance’ for schools issued this week, the Obama administration finalized new regulations that will force doctors and hospitals to provide sex change operations under Obamacare and any other health program funded by HHS. This presumably includes Medicare and Medicaid. This means that the federal government is now forcing healthcare providers to participate in sex changes even if it goes against their religious beliefs or their medical judgment. I imagine this will be litigated at some point on religious freedom grounds, or on grounds that bureaucrats cannot puff up ‘sex discrimination’ under federal law to include gender identity. The language is important here. The new regulations call this ‘sex reassignment surgery’. This fits with the Left’s narrative that gender is merely ‘assigned’ at birth and it’s no biggie to ‘reassign’ it later. There was a story this week about how a city council in Britain wants 4-year-olds to be asked whether they want to be a boy or a girl when they grow up. I’m sorry, but confusion is a weapon. If they can confuse you about whether you are a boy or a girl, they can confuse you about anything. Transgenderism is not just some political issue that came up by accident, that people disagree about. It’s part of a deliberate military-style assault against the people by the hard Left to redefine everybody and everything in order to take control, just like the Soviets did with their efforts to remake society through artificial identity construction. It’s the New Soviet Man all over again. What did people think Barack Obama meant when he talked about fundamentally transforming America? Well, now you’re seeing ‘fundamental transformation’ in all its glory, and all the coercion, artificial identity construction, and thought control that goes with it. More reasons we must repeal Obamacare.
Links
Court slaps O-admin down on unappropriated cost-sharing subsidies; sides w/House but stays ruling
http://www.cnn.com/2016/05/12/politics/obamacare-court-challenge-republicans/
#ACA rate hikes will hit a week before the election, causing problems for the Democrats
http://www.politico.com/story/2016/04/obamacare-rate-hikes-a-looming-political-headache-for-democrats-222663
O-admin laying plans to control narrative on rate increases (put Ben Rhodes in charge – LOL!)
https://morningconsult.com/2016/05/democrats-prepare-win-healthcare-narrative/
Humana to leave #Obamacare market in Alabama and Virginia
http://www.wtvy.com/content/news/Humana-pulls-out-of-Alabama-leaving-one-insurer-on-Obamacare-exchange-378451841.html
Humana might leave some #ACA exchanges; enrollment way down.
http://www.chicagobusiness.com/article/20160505/NEWS03/160509869/humana-like-rivals-may-leave-obamacare-exchanges
Blue Cross might leave North Carolina after losing almost $300 million there.
http://wncn.com/2016/05/05/blue-cross-still-dealing-with-system-failure-issues-may-drop-obamacare/
New #ACA rules force docs, hospitals to give sex change surgery against religious belief, medical judgement
http://dailysignal.com/2016/05/13/new-obamacare-transgender-regulations-threaten-freedom-of-physicians/
City council in Britain wants 4-year-olds to be asked whether they want to be a boy or a girl when they grow up.
http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/news/7089698/Parents-blast-council-after-kids-told-to-choose-their-gender.html
Obamacare Truth Squad Twitter Feed – All the Bad News about #Obamacare Every Day
https://twitter.com/ObamacreTrthSqd @ObamacreTrthSqd
O/T –
The Increasingly Brazen Fascistic Left Will Soon be Coming for You (new issue of The Truth – Thinkpieces)
http://www.liberato.us/the-truth.html
So Jeffrey Sachs, you’re going to tell me what my rights are? Go jump in the lake! (tweets from The Discontenterati)
http://www.liberato.us/the-discontenterati.html