12.14.2012

ObamaCare's madcap dash to ???



It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad ObamaCare - The law's implementation is turning into one pratfall after another.
Excerpt:


For sheer political farce, not much can compete with ObamaCare's passage, which included slipping the bill through the Senate before dawn three Christmas eves ago. But the madcap dash to get ready for the entitlement's October 2013 start-up date is a pretty close second.

The size and complexity of the Affordable Care Act meant that its implementation was never going to easy. But behind the scenes, even states that support or might support the Affordable Care Act are frustrated about the Health and Human Services Department's special combination of rigidity and ineptitude.

To take one example, for the better part of a year states and groups like the bipartisan National Governors Association and the National Association of Medicaid Directors have been begging HHS merely for information about how they're required to make ObamaCare work in practice. There was radio silence from Washington, with time running out. Louisiana and other states even took to filing Freedom of Information Act requests, which are still pending.

Now post-election, new regulations are pouring out from HHS—more than 13,000 pages so far and yet nuts-and-bolts questions are still unanswered. Most of what we know so far comes from a 17-page question-and-answer document that HHS divulged this week, though none of the answers have the force of law and HHS says they're subject to change at any moment.
Most Governors Refuse to Set Up Health Exchanges
Excerpt:


The Obama administration said Friday that more than half the states had rejected its pleas to set up their own health insurance exchanges, dealing a setback to President Obama’s hopes that Republicans would join a White House campaign to provide health insurance to all Americans.

But in Virginia, after more than a year of planning and research, Gov. Bob McDonnell said his state would not operate its own exchange. “Despite repeated requests for information, we have not had any clear direction or answers from Washington until recent days,” Mr. McDonnell said.
Comment: I saw someplace (can't find the link) that setting up a health care exchange would be like setting up the New York Stock Exchange.




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