Obama's Non-Alternative Alternatives
Oh don't be disturbed by the health care web site failures. They can be bypassed, Dear President said from the Rose Garden two weeks ago.
Obama said the website isn't the only way people can sign for health care coverage. He said call centers have expanded, and people can also apply in person at federal offices across the country.
The president twice provided the number of 24-hour call centers -- 1-800-318-2596 -- where he said people would be available to answer questions in 150 languages. He also said that volunteers in community health centers and hospitals can help people apply for coverage, and he suggested that people looking for information also could log onto a website called LocalHelp.HealthCare.gov.
Now we learn, once again (from ABC News no less), Obama's distorted blathering has no more than a veneer of truth.
While President Obama and other top aides have publicly reassured frustrated consumers that they can bypass the troubled website and apply by phone in as little as 25 minutes, those working most closely with the rollout acknowledged privately that even the nonelectronic avenues would be no more efficient or guaranteed, the documents show.
“The same portal is used to determine eligibility no matter how the application is submitted (paper, online),” reads a Center for Consumer Information and Insurance Oversight memo from Oct. 11.
“The paper applications allow people to feel like they are moving forward in the process and provides another option,” it says. “At the end of the day, we are all stuck in the same queue.”
The pattern of lies and deception in this morally repugnant presidency continues.
I have a friend who is an appraiser. He appraises about to foreclosed upon properties for Fannie Mae. Because I wish to short sale the same property, he is naturally on the "other side". But I respect him, and he respects me, and to date he has always given me my sales price because he knows I do my best to get top dollar for his client (as opposed to some short sale freaks who try and siphon off the properties to their "investor" clients My friend is Type 2 Diabetic. For years, he has been unable to get health insurance, having to instead, get his supplies mail order from Canada. But he has always paid for health insurance for his wife and two almost adult children--about $500 a month. He is a life long Republican who voted for Obama in 2008. This past Friday, he appraised a property of mine in the trendy South Loop area. His story is as follows. The cost of insurance for the three members of his family went up by $300 a month. The cost of his health insurance added another $500 a month--a total increase of $800 a month. HIs solution. Pay the extra money for his family, and pay the $500 penalty and keep buying his supplies for $250 a month.. Not that hard a choice. Given that this gentleman represents a segment of the population that was to have benefitted from the (not so) Affordable Care Act, this does not auger well. Thus, while I have personally benefitted from the change (I have already made eight appointments with NU Medical Faculty Foundation doctors for after the first of the year) I by contrast may be the only guy in Chicago who has benefitted from the change in the law.
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