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(VIDEO) HEALTHCARE.GOV CEO GRILLED ON 1 MILLION BOTCHED TAX FORMS: “It is obvious this gentleman is stonewalling the committee,”
THIS IS JUST UNREAL! This guy can’t and won’t answer the questions posed to him by the subcommittee regarding a major screwup by HealthCare.gov. The other question of whether illegals will get Obamacare was not answered…I guess that a yes. Your tax dollars at work for people who aren’t even legal citizens of this country. Unreal!
VIDEO…
House Republicans and Democrats lobbed fierce questions but got few answers from a key Obamacare official on botched tax forms sent to nearly 1 million people.
The questions during a Thursday subcommittee hearing come amid several problems the Obama administration has encountered with the tax portion of the law set to go into effect this year.
“We are still seeing problems with healthcare.gov,” said Rep. Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, chairman of the House Oversight committee’s health subcommittee.
The error on the form sent to 820,000 people was related to two pieces of code that threw off how the tax credits were calculated, said Kevin Counihan, CEO of healthcare.gov. The incorrect form, on tax form 1095-A, was sent to Obamacare customers in the second-cheapest silver plan, one of three plan options available.
Democrats were also dismayed by the error, which Counihan said is still being investigated.
“I am disappointed that the agency made this kind of mistake at a critical time,” said Rep. Matt Cartwright, D-Pa., ranking member of the panel. “This is an unforced error that provides fodder for those who want to tear down the Affordable Care Act.”
“What are you doing to correct this problem so that we don’t have future mistakes?” asked Rep. Michelle Grisham, D-N.M.
Republicans also grilled Counihan on why it took so long to get re-enrollment numbers to the committee.
Rep. Mark Meadows, R-N.C., said that Counihan shared re-enrollment numbers in healthcare.gov with insurance providers back in December but didn’t share them with the committee until the day before the hearing.
Counihan said he would have to look into the issue. He said that the government needs to verify numbers before releasing them, hence the delay in providing numbers to the congressman.
The deflection didn’t sit well with Republicans on the panel.
“You are certainly not ready today,” said Rep. Scott Desjarlais, R-Tenn.
“It is obvious this gentleman is stonewalling the committee,” Meadows added.
Meadows also wanted Counihan to say how many Obamacare customers who automatically re-enrolled are getting the wrong subsidy.
“According to my numbers, there are hundreds of thousands of people getting the wrong subsidy,” he said.
“If people didn’t come back to the marketplace and not updated the eligibility it is possible they could get the wrong subsidy,” Counihan said, but didn’t have estimates on how many people are getting the wrong subsidy. He said that 2.83 million people re-enrolled in Obamacare.
Republicans also asked whether illegal immigrants have received subsidies from the healthcare law, especially those covered under President Obama’s executive action he took last year.
Counihan again couldn’t say if any received subsidies. He noted that the administration reviews the eligibility of anyone who applies for healthcare coverage to ensure that they are eligible. He added that illegal immigrants aren’t eligible to get subsidies since they are not American citizens.
Free healthcare for illegals continues the ObamaCare way
In 2009, the Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR) estimated that the yearly cost of providing healthcare for illegal aliens was $10.7 billion. It was a difficult figure to approximate as hospitals are not permitted to ask if an emergency room patient is in the country illegally. After all, should an exact total of monies spent even on the delivery of anchor babies (about $10,000 per “anchor”) become known, it would enrage an American public which Democrats especially hope to keep blissfully ignorant about one of the principle reasons for skyrocketing healthcare and health insurance prices—uncompensated costs.
In 1986, EMTALA was signed into law. Part of the COBRA act, EMTALA requires hospitals to provide treatment to anyone who needs it regardless of citizenship status or ability to pay. As the government does NOT reimburse hospitals for such care, a number of hospitals nationwide were forced to close their doors, being unable to provide millions of dollars in free services.
Though hospitals are able to recoup a minimal portion of this massive expense via Medicaid reimbursement, the only way to remain solvent is by raising prices to paying patients. Naturally, this drives up the cost of both healthcare and health insurance.
Enter Barack Obama and his namesake “healthcare” program. When arguing the constitutionality of ObamaCare before the Supreme Court, Solicitor General Donald Verrilli claimed that the individual mandate requiring everyone either purchase health insurance or pay a penalty was necessary in order to stop the practice of charging “…uncompensated costs … directly to other market participants…”
In short, the Regime was ostensibly outraged that responsibility for payment of these uncompensated costs was being placed on others by healthcare providers who routinely “…charge[d] higher rates in order to cover the cost of uncompensated care…” Mr. Obama’s Justice Department minions argued that although millions of Americans did not WANT to purchase health insurance, the federal government had both a right and an obligation to force them to do so in order to halt the “unfair practice” of the uninsured taking advantage of and driving up prices for the insured!
So by charging EVERYONE, whether they wanted insurance or not, there would be no more unfair, uncompensated costs because everyone would be paying for healthcare! The freeloaders, formerly gaming the system by getting free care paid by others, would now be forced to pay their “fair share!”
Did Congress consider changing the EMTALA LAW–the real reason for uncompensated costs–rather than forcing ObamaCare on the American people? Of course not. Will illegals have to buy healthcare? No. They will STILL be getting “free” care, paid by those who ARE required to buy ObamaCare approved healthcare or pay a “penalty.” (A “TAX” if you’re Justice Roberts.)
In short, thanks to ObamaCare, billions in healthcare costs for illegals will be neatly covered up by the individual mandate. And Democrats will eagerly state that illegals are NOT being covered by ObamaCare and that any healthcare expense associated with illegals is at worst minimal.
It’s the LEAST the Democrat Party can do for 30 million undocumented voters, isn’t it!
