Tuesday, January 21, 2014

House to vote on stopgap funding, PPACA

WASHINGTON (AP) — The White House is promising to veto, if necessary, a Republican effort to wreck President Barack Obama's health care law as part of House legislation to prevent a partial government shutdown.

The official policy statement, issued Thursday, said the GOP attempt to block "Obamacare" ''advances a narrow ideological agenda that threatens our economy and the interests of the middle class" and would deny "millions of hard-working, middle-class families the security of affordable health coverage."

The veto threat was expected and wasn't going to stop House Republicans from pressing their effort to defund the health care law.

House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, said the House will pass a bill Friday to keep the government running while undercutting Obama's health care law.

"The fight over here has been won. The fight over there (in the Senate) is just beginning," Boehner said Thursday. "I expect my Senate colleagues to do everything they can to defund this law, just like the House is going to do."

Boehner also addressed the need for Congress to raise the government's borrowing cap to avoid a first-ever U.S. default on its obligations. Boehner said: "Let me be very clear. Republicans have no interest in defaulting on our debt — none."

While raising the possibility of a government closure, the latest GOP plan is actually aimed at avoiding one. GOP leaders are looking to shift the fight over health care to even more important legislation required to prevent the government from defaulting on its financial obligations.
Even top advocates of the strategy to defund Obama's health care law by attaching it to a stopgap government funding bill acknowledge it has no future in the Democratic-controlled Senate. Senate Democrats have the votes to strip away the health care provision and send the stopgap measure right back to the House.

Continue Reading HERE

Wednesday, January 8, 2014

SHOP delayed on year

CHICAGO (AP) — President Barack Obama's administration is delaying yet another aspect of the health care law. An online health insurance marketplace for small businesses is being put off until November 2014 to make sure the HealthCare.gov website gets fixed first.

In a conference call with reporters, administration officials said employers who want to buy marketplace plans for their workers now will need to go through an agent, broker or insurance company to buy coverage this year, instead of using a government website. The administration says the plan will still allow small businesses to buy coverage but avoid slowing technical repairs to the hobbled federal online site.

The small business marketplace, also called SHOP, was supposed to provide employers a new way to shop for coverage, and the delay was met with frustration.

"It's disappointing that the online portion of the federal small business marketplace through Healthcare.gov will be delayed, and it's important it get up and running as soon as possible," said John Arensmeyer, CEO of Small Business Majority, an advocacy group. "However, it doesn't change the fact that the marketplace can offer the most competitive combination of price and quality for small businesses purchasing health insurance."

Read the full article HERE