NY Times — The Affordable Care
Act is the biggest new health care program in decades, but the Obama
administration has ruled that neither the federal insurance exchange nor the
federal subsidies paid to insurance companies on behalf of low-income people
are “federal health care programs.”
[First, ObamaCare was not a tax, yet that is how he defended the law before the Supreme Court; now, to avoid another legal obstacle, he wants you all to believe that the federal program is not a federal program. I am thinking there must be a position the opposition can take using the Slicksters own words.]
The surprise decision, disclosed
last week, exempts subsidized health insurance from a law that bans rebates,
kickbacks, bribes and certain other financial arrangements in federal health
programs, stripping law enforcement of a powerful tool used to fight fraud in
other health care programs, like Medicare.
The main purpose of the
anti-kickback law, as described by federal courts in scores of Medicare cases,
is to protect patients and taxpayers against the undue influence of money on
medical decisions.
Kathleen Sebelius, the secretary
of health and human services, disclosed her interpretation of the law in a
letter to Representative Jim McDermott, Democrat of Washington, who had asked
her views. She did not explain the legal rationale for her decision, which
followed a spirited debate within the administration.
 |
| McDermott in heated debate with Megyn Kelly |
[McDermott is a weasel of a Democrat, as partisan as one can get, as abusive and arrogant as any politician can be. The GOP has no one quite like this clown, so self-serving as to be stupid.]
Under the Affordable Care Act,
millions of people will be able to buy insurance from “qualified health plans”
offered on exchanges, or marketplaces, run by the federal government and by
some states.
Most of the buyers are expected to
be eligible for subsidies to make insurance more affordable. The subsidies,
paid directly to insurers from the United States Treasury, start in January and
are expected to total more than $1 trillion over 10 years.
Ms. Sebelius said the Health and
Human Services Department “does not consider” the subsidies to be federal
health care programs. She reached the same conclusion with respect to federal
and state exchanges, built with federal money, and with respect to “federally
funded consumer assistance programs,” including the counselors, known as
navigators, who help people shop for insurance and enroll in coverage through
the exchanges. . . . . . read the full article here.
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