Another Obamacare extension
Another day, another Obamacare extension, decided by the president himself—thus further justifying the fact that the law is called by his name.
The thing that bothers me most about this extension of the deadline to April 15 is, once again, the procedural overreach by Obama and the unconstitutionality of his declaration. The actual content of the change makes more sense than the March 31 deadline ever did, because pre-Obamacare, individual health insurance could ordinarily be purchased by the fifteenth of the month effective the first day of the next month.
The new Obamacare extension only applies to people who’ve had trouble signing up on the federal website, so I assume that people in states with functioning state websites still supposedly have to sign up by March 31. I suspect such a distinction would be unconstitutional, but isn’t most of what Obama’s been doing with Obamacare rule changes unconsitutional (not to mention Obamacare itself, whatever SCOTUS says)? The deadline change is also on the honor system, which would make it almost humorous if this weren’t a very serious business indeed.
I’m with Boehner here:
“What the hell is this, a joke?” Boehner said at his weekly press conference.
…The Speaker called the move “another deadline made meaningless,” adding it to a litany of unilateral changes that the administration has made to the law.
“This is part of a long-term pattern of this administration manipulating the law for its own convenience,” Boehner said. “It’s not hard to understand why the American people question this administration’s commitment to the rule of law.”
The Speaker mocked the use of the “honor system” to determine who was eligible for an extension after the administration said it would make no effort to ensure that people had actually begun the process of signing up by March 31.
“Why don’t they just say, ”˜We’ve moved the date to April 15’? Because that’s in effect what they’ve done,” Boehner said.
Boehner said, “It’s not hard to understand why the American people question this administration’s commitment to the rule of law.” However, I would amend that to read: “It’s not hard to understand why Republicans question this administration’s commitment to the rule of law, and why conservatives and Jonathan Turley (strange bedfellows) realize that he has none.”
[ADDENDUM: A history of Obamacare extensions.]
Unconstitutional?
The Constitution’s got nothing to do with it.
Is Obamacare a law or a bowl of Jello? I wish the court could just say , We don’t do Jello.
expat:
But apparently they do do Jello.
I was thinking more “rubber band,” though.
These delays and changes are a farce. I’d like to see how many people who were granted–by the grace of dear leader–the ability to keep their previously canceled plan or extend their enrollment date, actually found a way to do so. Probably Oregon-like figures.
By the way, individual policies used to be purchasable at any time of the year. Now, they are subject to an enrollment period, which ends March 31 (or April 15… or, “we don’t need no steenking badges”). Anyone who procrastinates beyond whatever deadline the ink dries on, because they are operating assumptions about the individual insurance market that have been true for decades, will be SOL. The only option for them will be temporary policies.
I wouldn’t be surprised to hear that Kafka’s publisher rejected a fictional projection of such a system for being too outlandish.
You have to have a closed enrollment period if you are not going to screen or charge for preexisting conditions. Otherwise, healthy people can go without paying until they get sick or injured. Then they sign up.
TSays posted a link to a Michael Ramirez cartoon
http://www.investors.com/editorial-cartons/michael-ramirez/689908-the-aca-white-house-revised-edition in the comments section of your Jonathan Turley post.
When I tried to open it with my Samsung/Google tablet the screen darkened and the text in the middle of the screen said “Unfortunatly, the Internet has stopped.” “OK”.
I then went to my old desk top with Windows XP and tried the link and it worked. both devices use the same wireless router.
It’s not a fluke, I tried it several times with the same result. It not only refused to link to it but lied about the reason.
Am I missing something or is this as scary as it seems?