Obamacare News of the Day

The New York Times: Insurers Say Most Who Signed Up Under Health Law Have Paid Up [but importantly, many of these are duplicate enrollments]

• Most of the people choosing health plans under the Affordable Care Act — about 80 percent — are paying their initial premiums as required for coverage to take effect, several large insurers said Tuesday on the eve of a House hearing about the law.
• But the health insurance industry said the total of eight million people who signed up included “many duplicate enrollments” for consumers who tried to enroll more than once because of problems on the website. “Insurers have many duplicate enrollments in their system for which they never received any payment,” said Mark Pratt, a senior vice president of America’s Health Insurance Plans, an industry trade group. “It may be a matter of months,” Mr. Pratt added, “before insurers know how many people activated their coverage by paying their share of premiums.”

Washington Post: Poll: Obamacare hits new low

• A new poll shows the public's opposition to Obamacare has never been higher. The Pew Research Center poll shows disapproval of the law hitting a new high of 55 percent. It comes on the heels of several polls last week that showed the law had very little -- if any -- bump after sign-ups on the health-care exchanges exceeded goals. The previous high for disapproval of the law was 54 percent in Pew polling. That was at the height of the implementation problems in December.
• Forty-three percent of Americans disapprove of the law "strongly" -- also a record high. Forty-one percent of Americans currently approve of the law. That's higher than the record low, 37 percent.
• [RELATED] Washington Post: Why Obamacare isn't getting any more popular – and probably won't
  • 80 percent said a major reason for their opposition was "too much government involvement in health care". 76 percent said the law is "too expensive for the country". 58 percent cited the law's requirement that everyone must have health insurance. 57 percent feared their "own health care may suffer". Asked for their No. 1 reason for disliking the law, 42 percent cited "too much government involvement."
• [RELATED] The Hill: Hillary Clinton: Politics, media to blame for O-Care unpopularity
  • “A small majority of Americans don’t like the Affordable Care Act,” said the former secretary of State and potential presidential candidate at an event in Washington. “But a large majority of Americans don’t want to do away with many of the provisions in the act.”
  • Speaking at the 2014 National Council for Behavioral Health Conference, Clinton attributed the law’s unpopularity to misinformation from critics and the news media’s treatment of both sides of the debate as equally valid. “If you tell people long enough with great passion they get inclined to believe it,” she added. “I just want to get back to evidence-based decision making.”

Washington Post: D.C. Council approves broad new tax on health insurance to cover city's exchange

• The D.C. Council on Tuesday unanimously approved a broad tax on all health-related insurance products sold in the nation’s capital to solve a big money problem faced by its online health insurance exchange. Under the measure, which will take effect on an emergency basis but eventually face congressional review, the exchange will fund its operating costs through a 1 percent tax on more than $250 million in insurance premiums paid annually by those who live and work in the District.
• In warnings to city exchange officials, insurers who offer those products have threatened that the costs will be passed on to D.C. customers and that the exchange is certain to face a court challenge over whether it is overstepping the intent of Congress and the Affordable Care Act by taxing products not sold on the exchange.
• But unlike the others, the city does not have enough customers buying insurance on its Web site to adopt the funding plan being employed by most states and the federal government — a tax of a few percentage points on premiums. To cover its $28 million annual budget, the District’s exchange would have to levy a whopping 17 percent tax on every health plan sold on its Web site. As an alternative, Mayor Vincent C. Gray (D) on Tuesday proposed legislation granting the District’s exchange board broad new power to tax any health-related insurance product.
• Council member Yvette M. Alexander (D-Ward 7), chair of the Health Committee, said she would pursue funding for an annual audit of the exchange’s financing. She said she did not expect the assessment to exceed 1 percent. “We don’t want it to be willy-nilly, and we want some money,” she said.

The Heritage Foundation: 9 Obamacare Predictions That Have Come True

• The individual mandate is an enforcement nightmare.
• The law will create new disincentives to work.
• The law, particularly the employer mandate, will impose new costs on businesses that undercut jobs and wages.
• The law undermines competition and further consolidates health insurance markets.
• The law guarantees major premium increases.
• The law discourages insurance enrollment among the young.
• The law’s Medicare savings would not financially strengthen Medicare.
• The law’s Medicare changes will result in reduced benefits and threaten seniors’ access to care.
• The law compels taxpayers to fund abortion and weakens protections of the right of conscience.