Obamacare News of the Day

The Federalist: Kathleen Sebelius's Resignation Hands Republicans A Golden Opportunity Not even the New York Times thinks Sebelius is leaving because she succeeded.

• …it appears that this resignation presents Republicans with a golden opportunity to reignite their crusade against Obamacare with Sylvia Burwell’s nomination as a proxy for all the problems with the law. Burwell is a political loyalist and a veteran of the shutdown fight with no record on health care, and will likely be coached to avoid answering questions about specific challenges with implementation at HHS.
• Senate Republicans actually have an advantage here in the wake of the Nuclear Option’s implementation: they can easily come up with a list of facts they claim the administration has hidden, details kicked aside, statutes ignored, and a host of other challenging questions on accountability over the implementation (and non-implementation) of the law. A list of every question Sebelius has dodged over the past several years would suffice. By demanding answers before the HHS nomination moves forward and refusing to rubber stamp the president’s pick, Republicans could force more vulnerable Democrats to take a vote that ties them both to the Nuclear Option and Obamacare six months before a critical election.
• [RELATED] Wall Street Journal: Who is Sylvia Burwell, HHS Secretary Sebelius's Expected Replacement? Ms. Burwell Has a Low Public Profile, But Is One of the Most Experienced Officials in Obama's White House
  • In choosing Ms. Burwell, Mr. Obama also would be getting someone who less than a year ago successfully navigated Washington's often difficult Senate confirmation process, though that has eased somewhat since majority Democrats have changed their rules on nominees. The West Virginia native was confirmed as budget director in April 2013 by a Senate vote of 96-0. Many Republicans saw her nomination as a potential breakthrough because she brought corporate experience to a White House often criticized for being too insular.
  • "It does not matter who is in charge of HHS, we still need to repeal Obamacare and replace it with solutions that put the patient in charge, not Washington," said Rep. Bill Cassidy, a Louisiana Republican challenging Democratic Sen. Mary Landrieu. However, Ms. Burwell won early plaudits from at least one Republican. Sen. John McCain of Arizona tweeted that "Sylvia Burwell is an excellent choice to be the next #HHS Secretary."
  • During an appearance before the Senate Budget Committee last month, Sen. Jeff Sessions (R., Ala.) became incensed about Ms. Burwell's answers to questions regarding the White House's spending plan. "You look really innocent the way you look at me here, like you don't know what I'm talking about," Mr. Sessions said. "Can't you just simply answer the question?"
• [RELATED] NBC News: Meet Sylvia Burwell, the woman who ordered the government shutdown [October 2, 2013 column]
  • A single person shut down the entire U.S. government for the first time in 17 years. Not a congressman, but an unelected woman named Sylvia Burwell who, as the relatively new director of the Office of Management and Budget, sent the email that initiated the process that has closed national parks, visitors’ centers and even the “panda-cam” at the National Zoo.
• [RELATED] National Review Online: Obama's Next HHS Secretary Doesn't Really Have Health-Care Experience
  • Her résumé , according to Dan Diamond of the Advisory Board, only includes a stint as a board member at the University of Washington Medical Center. “Burwell’s track record in health care is not well-established,” Diamond writes in a briefing for the Advisory Board, a health-care consulting firm.

The Washington Times: Obamacare exit strategy brings endless waits on hold If you thought signing up for his health insurance was hard, try canceling

• Signing up for insurance under Obamacare was harder than making sense of Donald Trump’s hair. It took more than 20 attempts over four days just to get on the “Health Insurance Marketplace” website and shop for insurance. The plan I found most similar to my canceled plan cost nearly $1,000 more a year, and my deductible increased from about $2,000 to more than $5,000. So I was forced to pay almost twice as much for a whole lot less insurance.
• On the same day that I was counted as one of the 7.1 million Americans that Mr. Obama energetically exploited during his Obamacare victory lap, I was able to enroll in a group insurance plan through my employer. I was free from the shackles of my terrible Obamacare plan — or so I thought. When I tried to terminate my plan, my insurance company told me that plans purchased through the marketplace could only be canceled through the marketplace. That started a brutal three-day fiasco.
• Ultimately, on my umpteenth try, three days into the process, I was finally able to get into the Healthcare.gov site, wade through several pages and cancel my plan — although, unlike with most insurance plans, I couldn’t get a prorated refund on the days I had paid for but wouldn’t need. One last $100 slap in the face.
• It was difficult to sign up for Obamacare, but nowhere near as hard as it was to leave the program. That raises a serious question: Was Obamacare designed to inflate its numbers by holding enrollees hostage in the program once they signed up? From my experience, that certainly seems to be the case.

The Federalist: Is Employer Sponsored Insurance On The Rebound? Not So Fast…

• Don’t get too excited about the uninsured rate decreasing due to ESI [employer sponsored insurance]. In the next couple of years companies will be forced to PPACA compliant plans. As employers transition a significant majority of them will be seeing mind-boggling increases. This will lead to more costs being passed along to employees or in some cases employers simply dropping their plans. This will magnify in 2018 when the “Cadillac Tax” kicks in. If you think this trainwreck is bad now just wait until the engine is moving full steam ahead.

The Heritage Foundation: Obamacare in Pictures