Gov Christie vetos Obamacare Exchange in NJ

[OpenJumper1]

Dagnabit, I put this post in Politics forgetting there is a healthcare debate thread on this website. My apologies and here is the letter I recieved today on this issue

all I have to say right now is "whew" glad Christie did something "right"



Fellow Patriot,

All of your calls, emails, tweets, and Facebook messages to New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie made a difference!

Gov. Christie just announced that he has vetoed the bill that would have created an ObamaCare health insurance exchange in the state. And for that he deserves our thanks.

Please call, email, tweet, and Facebook Gov. Christie to thank him for taking this action to protect the residents of New Jersey from this provision of ObamaCare that would replace the state's insurance market with crony collusion between bureaucrats and insurance companies, and add a load of new taxes on to Garden State taxpayers, as well.

We should thank Gov. Christie for this veto, but we should also be mindful that he has indicated that if the Supreme Court upholds ObamaCare, he would move forward on implementing a ObamaCare exchange.

Remind Gov. Christie that he is under no obligation to create an exchange and implement that part of ObamaCare. According to CATO's Director of Health Policy Studies Michael Cannon:

Obamacare does not and cannot mandate that states create exchanges. Moreover, state-run exchanges do not preserve local control. They will do Washington's bidding, or else they will be commandeered or swept aside.

Remind him that not creating an exchange doesn't put his state out of compliance with the law.

 

[Listening]

The tide continues.

We have to keep pounding this down.

In five years, hopefully people won't hardly remember what Obamacare meant.

And single payer will only apply to generosity of one when four friends go out to dinner.

 

[Greenbeard]

And single payer will only apply to generosity of one when four friends go out to dinner.

The exchange concept is the opposite of single payer.

 

[starcraftzzz]

Amazing that the GOP who applauds capitalism is bent against an health exchange that fosters competition..

 

[Trajan]

Amazing that the GOP who applauds capitalism is bent against an health exchange that fosters competition..

uh yea, whatever....

 

[Katzndogz]

If the Supreme Court does what they have indicated they will do which is strike down obamacare, there will be no such thing as exchanges so Christie was absolutely correct in not requiring the expenditure of funds to create something that may not be in existence in a month.

 

[starcraftzzz]

Amazing that the GOP who applauds capitalism is bent against an health exchange that fosters competition..

uh yea, whatever....

Yea its weird that the GOP opposes compeition/

 

[EdwardBaiamonte]

Amazing that the GOP who applauds capitalism is bent against an health exchange that fosters competition..

uh yea, whatever....

Yea its weird that the GOP opposes compeition/

too stupid !!! of course if competition was the liberal goal government exchanges would have been the last option.

Do you want an government soviet exchange in all industries to cause competition???

 

[Greenbeard]

Amazing that the GOP who applauds capitalism is bent against an health exchange that fosters competition..

Nah, they don't oppose exchanges per se. Indeed, the party's intellectual leaders--such as they are--built their own comprehensive health reform proposals around exchanges in 2009. Unfortunately, the next month the Democratic proposals came out and they too had embraced the exchange concept. Which means that, for now, Republicans must reflexively oppose them.

H.R.2520
Latest Title: Patients' Choice Act
Sponsor: Rep Ryan, Paul [WI-1] (introduced 5/20/2009) Cosponsors (13)
Related Bills: S.1099

SUMMARY AS OF:
5/20/2009--Introduced.

Patients' Choice Act - Requires the Secretary of Health and Human Services (HHS) to convene an interagency coordinating committee to develop a national strategic plan for prevention. Provides for health promotion and disease prevention activities consistent with such plan.

Sets forth provisions governing the establishment and operation of state-based health care exchanges to facilitate the individual purchase of private health insurance and the creation of a market where private health plans compete for enrollees based on price and quality.

An Alternative to Obamacare
By Tom Coburn, Richard Burr, Paul Ryan & Devin Nunes

May 20, 2009 ...

We have introduced a comprehensive health care reform bill, the Patients' Choice Act that, we believe, will bring us far closer to the goal of universal coverage than the Obama plan. Our bill, in specific legislative language, does the following: ...

Prevents cherry picking by guaranteeing access to coverage. Even though we're confident that less government interference and more individual choice will control costs and improve quality and access, we recognize that markets can't solve all problems. That's why our bill prevents cherry picking - when insurance companies choose to cover only healthy patients - by equalizing risk across insurance companies and reversing the perverse incentives that leave those most vulnerable with the fewest options.

Our bill creates voluntary state-based solutions - state health exchanges - that will offer health insurance benefits using the same standard used for Members of Congress. Every American would have guaranteed access to coverage and care under this plan, regardless of patient age or health history. And to ensure that states get to design the solutions their patients need, states would have the freedom to form voluntary pooling arrangements with other state exchanges to diversify risk pools, ease administrative burdens and cover costs for insurance. We also provide simple new opportunities for automatic enrollment to help people who need coverage.

 

[rightwinger]

Why would anyone oppose a health insurance exchange?

It brings down costs for the insured and opens competition

 

[theDoctorisIn]

So, what's the problem with a health care exchange?

 

[starcraftzzz]

uh yea, whatever....

Yea its weird that the GOP opposes compeition/

too stupid !!! of course if competition was the liberal goal government exchanges would have been the last option.

Do you want an government soviet exchange in all industries to cause competition???

See this is the problem you are so stupid that you think the govt setting up an exchange where all private comapniesn compete is the same as the goverment telling all private companiesn what they can and cant do.

 

[starcraftzzz]

So, what's the problem with a health care exchange?

A democrat passed is so therefor it is bad even though it creates competition, but competition is bad if the government create it because of some soviet communist whatever

 

[Greenbeard]

So, what's the problem with a health care exchange?

A good question. Still no takers on it yet, though.

 

[Katzndogz]

If the Supreme Court does as expected and overturns obamacare there will be no health care exchange. Setting up a health care exchange now is a huge waste of time and money that no one can afford.

 

[PoliticalChic]

So, what's the problem with a health care exchange?

Exchanges are the end of competition.


1. Obamacare was intended to have one national exchange to regulate all health insurance, and to distribute subsidies. Forced to back down on that idea, he got fifty instead! Under Title I, state officials are instructed that they “shall” establish an “American Health Benefit Exchange, “ (AHB) in each state. The secretary of HHS will make grants to each state to set them up, determining the amount of money, whether or not to renew depending on whether the state is “making progress” in meeting the new federal insurance requirements, and other “benchmarks” that the secretary may see fit to establish. And the secretary has the power to decide if the state exchanges are “qualified,” as of January 1, 2013.

a. These exchanges will be the central vehicle for the federal government to control and regulate the health insurance market. Washington will dictate exactly how they work, and step in and set them up if not satisfactory. PPACA, Public Law 111-148, section 1321(c) (1)

b. Rather than co-equal with the federal government, as is the character of American federalism, the state becomes nothing more than an distal agency of Washington.

2. The feds will require the ‘state’ exchanges to perform a dozen or so “minimum functions”
Section 1311(d)(4) of the PPACA requires all Exchanges to perform certain minimum functions:
Certify, recertify and decertify health insurance plans as “qualified health plans” to be offered through the Exchange,
Operate a toll-free hotline for consumer assistance,
Maintain a website providing standardized comparative information on health plans,
Assign price and quality ratings to plans,
Present plan benefit options in a standardized format,
Provide information on Medicaid and CHIP, determine eligibility for applicants, and enroll eligible individuals in these programs,
Provide an electronic calculator to allow applicants to determine the actual cost of coverage, taking into account premium tax credits and cost sharing reductions for which they are eligible,
Certify individuals who may be exempt from the individual responsibility requirement,
Provide information to the Treasury Department and to employers on certain employees who are eligible for premium tax credits, and
Establish a Navigator program that provides grants to entities to conduct outreach and education, as well as assist consumers in enrolling in qualified health plans through the Exchange.

a. While states cannot accept any insurers who offer policies that provide fewer benefits than those ordered by the federal government, they may offer plans that include more benefits. This, of course, obviates the kind of competition that lowers cost or favors the consumer. The state must them subsidize the additional benefits, which requires extensive invasion of privacy of the individual.

b. While mandating additional benefits, the PPACA imposes restrictions that one would expect in a free market system, i.e., more benefits results in higher premiums. On the contrary, this law gives the secretary of HHS the ability to remove the company if the increases are 10% or more.
Questions and Answers: Keeping the Health Plan You Have: The Affordable Care Act and ?Grandfathered? Health Plans

3. One would do well to look beyond the word salad in section 1311 (d)(4), and carefully consider the machinations necessary to ascertain “Provide information on Medicaid and CHIP, determine eligibility for applicants, and enroll eligible individuals in these programs” , to “Certify individuals who may be exempt from the individual responsibility requirement, “ and to “Provide information to the Treasury Department and to employers on certain employees who are eligible for premium tax credits, and cost sharing reductions for which they are eligible,” and “Certify, recertify and decertify health insurance plans as “qualified health plans” to be offered through the Exchange.”

a. They will have to check the incomes of people applying for health insurance subsidies to make sure they qualify…and stay qualified. Every month. Every family member.

b. The state exchanges will be tasked with making sure that all ‘private plans’ meet the new expanded federal mandates and standards. They must have, as well, enough, and the right mix of doctors.

c. Exactly what the ‘private plans’ in the exchanges must and will do is difficult to pin down, as the PPACA has built in the right of the secretary of HHS to change, add delete requirements at will. Neither the ‘private plan’ nor the consumer has any rights here. The secretary has sweeping powers to decide which insurers will be allowed to sell policies in the exchanges. PPACA, Public Law 111-148, section 1321(e) (1)(B)

4. It is noteworthy that the only plans that the secretary of HHS can’t shut out of the exchanges are the Office of Personnel Management’s. The law charges the federal government’s OPM, the one that administers the health insurance for Congress, with creating new government-sponsored health plans; they will be “deemed” to be certified to offer policies in the exchanges.


See “Why Obamacare is Wrong for America,” Turner, Capreta, Miller and Moffit.

Again...anyone who is telling you that there is competition in the so-called exchanges is working for the federal government, or is a liar, or is a complete fool.

Note several in this thread.....

 

[PoliticalChic]

So, what's the problem with a health care exchange?

A good question. Still no takers on it yet, though.

Read above....and 'fess up.

 

[Katzndogz]

So, what's the problem with a health care exchange?

A good question. Still no takers on it yet, though.

Read above....and 'fess up.

It's a lesson in demothink. No matter how many answers a democrat gets, they will insist that their question has never been answered because no answer is possible to an unequivocal truth.

 

[starcraftzzz]

So, what's the problem with a health care exchange?

Again...anyone who is telling you that there is competition in the so-called exchanges is working for the federal government, or is a liar, or is a complete fool.

Note several in this thread.....

Are you really this illiterate?

 

[Sallow]

Amazing that the GOP who applauds capitalism is bent against an health exchange that fosters competition..

uh yea, whatever....

Yea its weird that the GOP opposes compeition/

Well not really.

The GOP supports corporatism. Democrats support Capitalism.

They are entirely different.