Stumbo fears ObamaCare too late

Kentucky House Speaker Greg Stumbo has killed a fellow Democrat's bill granting legislative approval of the state ObamaCare "exchange" to prevent a repeat of last week's humiliating spectacle in which only 25 House members supported funding the state's part of federal health reform.

House Bill 505 has languished in the Health and Welfare Committee since March 4 despite its sponsor, Rep. Tom Burch of Louisville, serving as the committee's chairman. Without passage of the bill's provisions creating the exchange and the tax to fund it, the Kentucky Health Benefit Exchange must fold in July, under KRS 12.028.

"The biggest ObamaCare story of the year happens in Kentucky when the exchange collapses this summer," said David Adams, tea party activist and an ardent opponent of ObamaCare. "Beshear and Stumbo are left now hoping no one notices."

"But voters understand trying to put money into ObamaCare when you don't have to is supporting ObamaCare," Adams said. "Republicans will take over the House in November and the Governor's Mansion next year on that vote alone and Speaker Stumbo is figuring that out just a little too late."

Honest look at Kentucky ObamaCare can't wait

To continue to exist in Kentucky as envisioned by Gov. Steve Beshear, ObamaCare needs two things it does not have and cannot get.

First, the "exchange" needs legal authority and a legally created funding mechanism in order to exist. It has neither. HB 505 attempts to make it legal, but the bill's sponsor, Rep. Tom Burch, is afraid to call the bill in his own committee for fear someone (*hello Mr. Chairman!*) might expose its obvious fatal shortcomings. Twenty five state House members voted last week to fund the exchange despite its illegality and they were joined by 28 Democrats who hid under their desks rather than vote on the measure, so the illegitimate taxing and spending has been sent to the Senate.

The Medicaid expansion was announced by Gov. Beshear in May of 2013 but he failed to initiate necessary administrative steps until September 30, which was too late to have legally opted in to the Medicaid expansion before it was to take effect on January 1. The whole process failed the requirements of KRS 13A.

The inability of Kentucky's Obamacrats to gain Medicaid expansion will force those who would have been eligible for it to buy insurance at bloated exchange premiums without federal subsidies. Frankfort can seek a federal waiver like Arkansas did to help with this, but they have to get honest first and realize clinging to their illegal attempt creates the biggest mess.

Senate Republicans have been suspiciously silent and that must end. Please call them and wake them up.

What Steve Beshear did with $220 million

Kentucky's Health Benefit Exchange has spent over $220 million in federal grant money setting up a web site that, they claim, works better than other ObamaCare web sites around the country. The federal money dries up on December 31 and then the idea is to come after Kentuckians to finance the wild spending every year, forever.

Gov. Steve Beshear says 1.26 million people have visited the exchange web site and 60,837 have purchased an insurance policy in addition to 239,453 signing up for Medicaid. Even if we take these numbers at face value -- and there are very good reasons not to -- they don't give us any reason to expect ObamaCare is worth the waste of additional dollars.

Only in government would anyone dare suggest spending $200 per visitor to a web site is a good thing. Worse, paying nearly $750 per person who converts into a customer when  four out of five of them not only do not pay (Medicaid) but cost to keep on the books would bankrupt a rich state, which we are not. And we have paid over $3600 per enrollment into a private health insurance plan for 60,837 Kentuckians after federal mandates forced 280,000 off their old plans.

And Beshear has not reported a single cancellation of ObamaCare health plans for any reason, though estimates suggest around half of Beshear's "enrolled" number is bogus. Even if you give him the benefit of the doubt, we are still spending more than $5000 to throw someone into ObamaCare. That's per person, or $20,000 for a family of four.

With all this, it's unconscionable that Senate President Robert Stivers can't muster whatever he needs to muster to strip funding for the exchange and the Medicaid expansion out of the budget. Please call him at 800-372-7181 and tell him to stop dragging this out and cut funding for ObamaCare now.

The 2014 General Assembly has screwed around on this for way too long. If they really wanted to cut healthcare costs, they would repeal Kentucky's certificate of need laws and quit playing the Obamacrats' silly games.

How many fake ObamaCare sign-ups?

Multiple sources inside the Kentucky Health Benefit Exchange report Beshear administration officials in a white hot panic in the last two weeks of ObamaCare open enrollment trying to find bodies to sign up to justify their existence.

It's not going so well.

Applications with fatal errors such as Medicaid recipients who can't be located or verified as existing and health insurance policy applicants who never made their first ObamaCare premium payment have cut deeply into the publicly reported Beshear "success" story, cutting by as many as half the number of people touted as signing up for the program.

And those numbers were already pretty lousy.

Internally, the exchange reports failed insurance applications as "Pending." Exchange Director Carrie Banahan previously promised that unpaid insurance plans would be canceled in January, but she now says they will be dropped off the rolls at the end of March, giving Kentuckians of clearer picture of the disaster.

KY Senate shows sign of life on ObamaCare

The Kentucky Senate has called a special meeting of the Appropriations and Revenue committee for tonight after the session adjourns. They will make a case for withdrawing state funding for at least the Kentucky Health Benefit Exchange.

This is a good first step. They must also remove funding for the ObamaCare Medicaid expansion in support of common sense, fiscal sanity and House Republicans who already voted to do so.

Governor Beshear has already gotten way too much help from Senate Republicans during his time in office. There is absolutely no reason to continue that nonsense, particularly not for ObamaCare.

Thanks to everyone who called in to Frankfort and otherwise encouraged legislators to find their spines. Keep it up. Chopping up ObamaCare is a multi-step process that ends in the Kentucky Supreme Court.

No time for squishy Republicans

Kentucky's Senate majority leaders must pronounce all ObamaCare funding and legal authority dead on arrival immediately and make clear that no horse trading will bring it back to life, tea party activist David Adams said.

 

"Robert Stivers could have saved us a lot of trouble and a lot of money by standing up against ObamaCare two years ago," Adams said. "He would cut House Republicans off at the knees if he caves in now. We need a decidedly non-squishy statement from him right away."

KY Senate GOP must kill ObamaCare today

Frankfort Senate Republicans have to know there is no time for playing games with the budget. Today is the day for declaring they will not fund ObamaCare. Not a dime for the illegal ObamaCare "exchange" and not a dime for the illegal Medicaid "expansion."

Tell your state Senator right away that this must happen today.

Gov. Beshear caused the budget problems by attempting to force Kentucky into ObamaCare to serve his Washington D.C. masters and to pave the way for his son to run for Attorney General with big leftist campaign cash. Tell your state senator we will not be pawns in this absurd game.

From their perspective, Senate Republicans have no reason to fund ObamaCare. It doesn't work, it busts the budget and it only delays starting the process to fix what is really harming healthcare in America -- government involvement.

Forcing Beshear to try to run ObamaCare without legislative approval and legislative funding when all the federal seed money runs out pushes him back into court where the Kentucky Supreme Court gets to decide literally if we still have a Constitution or not. Frankfort judicial politicians may be ready to throw away our republican form of government on the ObamaCare nightmare, but Supreme Court justices need votes from other parts of the state from people who aren't sufficiently drunk on big government poison.

Call your senator right away at 1-800-372-7181 and tell them they do not have your permission to fund ObamaCare.

McConnell wants to party like it's 2008

The Weekly Standard asked Sen. Mitch McConnell if GOP Congresses during the Bush years spent too much money. McConnell said, essentially, that they did not.

As he often does when asked a direct question, McConnell offered an evasive answer to this one: "I think it's time to quit relitigating the Bush years." This means, of course, that the bailouts and the wasted billions would be continue to be welcomed by McConnell if he is given another term in office.

He also reiterated his attack on conservatives who fought to defund ObamaCare, a strategy that only failed because weak "leaders" in Congress -- Boehner and McConnell -- caved in to Obama and friends.

You can read the whole article here.

Five damned ObamaCare supporters in Frankfort

Yesterday, House Reps. Sannie Overly, Bob Damron, Johnny Bell, Jeff Greer and Gerald Watkins voted in favor of ObamaCare in Kentucky, effectively turning their seats over to Republican candidates this fall.

There were three dozen more Democrats who did the same, but these will be sufficient to turn the House of Representatives over to Republicans this fall. Again, congratulations and good job, Jeff Hoover.

Start calling Jeff Hoover "Mr. Speaker"

Kentucky House Democrats just threw away their majority tonight in order to campaign for ObamaCare funding in the state budget.

Highlights of the debate included Rep. Tom Burch saying, again, that we should just get over it and Rep. Bob Damron claiming falsely that we have no choice in the matter.

These people are thoroughly disgusting and being forced to listen to them as the majority in the House is not something I will miss.

There is no reason at all for Senate Republicans to cave in on this now. Right, guys?

ObamaCare debate happening now

The Kentucky House of Representatives is debating funding for ObamaCare right now.

3:47 pm: Speaker Stumbo tried a little legislative sleight-of-hand to avoid taking a vote specifically on ObamaCare funding and House Minority Leader Jeff Hoover crammed it back down his throat.

3:54 And Stumbo just slipped back out of it. But House Republicans immediately moved to shift the discussion back to ObamaCare. The fight is on.

3:57 We are now in a full blown budget crisis over funding for ObamaCare in Kentucky.

3:59 Rep. Joe Fischer is properly framing the debate as one dealing with proper gubernatorial powers and the abuse of same by Gov. Steve Beshear.

House Republicans are the only people speaking.

4:13 First test vote on ObamaCare funding passed with 52 votes.

4:14 Now taking up first floor amendment to strip out ObamaCare funding. Democrats are using their majority to shut off debate about ObamaCare.

4:29 Rep. Stan Lee is arguing for making Attorney General Jack Conway pay for Gov. Beshear's appeal of the federal court marriage amendment lawsuit. The legislative trick Democrats used to avoid a vote solely on ObamaCare is now forcing them to take a position on marriage they did not want to take.

4:44 Rep. Lee's amendment failed. Some of the cowards who took a pass on this one will have trouble with this pretty soon. Thinking specifically about Bob Damron's Democratic primary for Jessamine County Judge Executive.

4:58 Rep. Robert Benvenuti is making the case for dropping ObamaCare funding because it has nothing to do with healthcare and is only about a federal takeover.

5:02 Rep. Mary Lou Marzian is the first rank and file Democrat to stand up in support of ObamaCare. She hates insurance companies. Really isn't saying anything else.

5:06 Rep. Kim King talked about being kicked off her private health insurance due to ObamaCare.

5:08 Rep. Tom Burch says ObamaCare is the law and we should just get over it. Said we will have single payer in five years and people won't be fat or smokers.

5:11 Rep. Rick Rand said if ObamaCare funding is not included in the budget Frankfort will undergo a government shutdown in July.

5:28 Rep. Jill York, Richard Heath, David Floyd and Bam Carney took to the floor to talk against other forms of waste in the budget.

5:34 Rep. Jim Wayne appreciates Gov. Beshear being "wise enough" to throw us into ObamaCare.

6:00 Rep. Jeff Hoover on ObamaCare: "We don't agree with it and we want to know what Democrats in the House think about it." By all accounts, Democrats in House are for it. Twenty nine Democrats who are in attendance today did not vote on the ObamaCare amendment.

6:22 Democrats are whining about "no" votes, saying that voting against the budget means you want children to starve and old people to freeze to death.

6:27 Rep. David Watkins spoke in favor of ObamaCare.

6:28 Rep. Tim Moore criticized Democrats' "procedural manipulation" which shut off all Republican amendments to make the budget "acceptable to all." Said voting against budget is not a vote against everything in the budget, but against the entire measure.

6:42 Rep. Bob DeWeese: "I have voted for every budget since I have been over here, but I'm not voting for this one."

6:48 Rep. Bob Damron: "The federal law didn't give us any options. The only option we had was about the Medicaid expansion." "I don't know if it will work or not but there is not a single member on this floor who has taken a vote or can take a vote on ObamaCare." This is not true. Damron voted for it when he passed on the motion to suspend the rules and take a vote on an amendment to delete ObamaCare funding. Damron: "We've been talking for three and a half hours about how much we hate ObamaCare but, Mr. Speaker, we don't have a say in whether we do ObamaCare or not."

6:57 Rep. Stan Lee: "The people want us to not fund it (ObamaCare.)

7:03 Budget passed House 53-46.

Frankfort's first ObamaCare vote delayed until tomorrow

The House of Representatives just announced that the budget bill with ObamaCare funding will not be voted on until tomorrow. Do you know how your representative is going to vote?

First real Kentucky ObamaCare vote TODAY

The Kentucky House of Representatives is expected to vote on the executive branch budget House Bill 235 this afternoon and go on the record on funding for ObamaCare, which we can't afford.

Rep. Joe Fischer has filed House Floor Amendment 13 to HB 235 to pull funding for the Medicaid Expansion and the Health Benefit Exchange out of the budget. Any vote for the budget without HB 13 is a vote for ObamaCare.

Kentucky ObamaCare bill twisting in Frankfort wind

I have to laugh every time I tell someone about the Kentucky bill (HB 505) seeking to make the ObamaCare exchange legal here. There is almost no public understanding of what is about to happen and the latest indication is that it when it blows up it will be a shock to almost everyone.

The House Health and Welfare Committee just released its agenda for tomorrow's meeting and House Bill 505 is not on it. The committee's chairman, Rep. Tom Burch, is the sponsor of HB 505 and would surely pass it onto the House floor if he had the votes in his committee.

Letting his own bill linger at this late date in the session is very telling.

The legislative fight is coming down to the budget with Republicans having no reason to support ObamaCare and Democrats writing the campaign commercials for their opponents this fall if they (Democrats) do.

I'm not seeing any desire by Republicans in Frankfort to turn in support of Gov. Beshear on ObamaCare now, are you?

How many Frankfort reporters can screw in lightbulbs?

The ObamaCare sales pitch presented to the Senate budget committee yesterday was by any objective viewing a disaster. Health and Family Cabinet Secretary Audrey Haynes was arrogant and dishonest, telling Sen. David Givens that state funds are not necessary for Medicaid Expansion in the next two years, telling Sen. Tom Buford that no new tax is necessary to fund the ObamaCare exchange and telling Sen. Bob Leeper that we can unilaterally drop out of the Medicaid Expansion when we realize we can't afford it.

She spent most of the rest of her time apologizing for not knowing answers to legislators' questions.

But the funniest line may have been when Audrey Haynes justified forcing men and infertile women to be covered for maternity care like this: "As a woman, I would say that I probably paid for tests that you have to take as a man that I pay for in my health insurance policy. And so, women have been unduly sort of penalized by having to get riders on their policies unless they have some terrific policy which is why we have always with Medicaid you could be up above the 38% of poverty, it went higher than that, for poor women who were pregnant because they, first of all it is expensive as we all know to have a child and so now we will all be able to share in that expense."

Well, that certainly clears that up. What is less clear is why not one single Frankfort reporter covered the hearing. Fortunately, there is video on KET. Click here to watch it under "March 11 Senate Appropriations and Revenue Committee." The part about Medicaid starts twenty four minutes in and runs to the end.

There is no way Senate Republicans can justify putting this nonsense in the budget, which must be completed April 15. If House Democrats insist on wasting more money on ObamaCare -- and they might -- that means a budget stalemate that must be resolved with yet another special session before June 30. The fact this possibility has not been explored by a single reporter is inexcusable after yesterday's hearing.

More Beshear lying on Medicaid today

Kentucky Secretary of Health and Family Services Cabinet Secretary Audrey Haynes testified falsely to the Senate budget committee this afternoon that if (when) it becomes clear we can't afford the ObamaCare Medicaid expansion in our state, we will be able to opt out of the program then.

She said, again, that we can drop out later. There is nothing in the federal law to confirm this. Governor Beshear has not legally implemented the Medicaid expansion. The time to get out is now.

Also, Haynes said the Kentucky Health Benefit Exchange funding source has already been created so a new tax is not necessary to fund the exchange going forward. This is not true. HB 505 creates that funding source but there is no chance of the legislature passing HB 505.

This is about to get really fun and if you depend on the mainstream media for your news, you are missing it all.

Madison likely not Kentucky ObamaCare hot spot

The ObamaCare talking point of the day is that the number of uninsured people in America is dropping precipitously, proving that ObamaCare works. Don't buy it.

Measuring the number of people without health insurance because they can't afford it has long been the holy grail of leftist orthodoxy, but not so much the stuff of demographic accuracy. In other words, it's all fake.

In Kentucky, Obamacrats put together a county-by-county list of uninsured Kentuckians made up of wild guesses. So when they report that Madison County ranks at the top of the state for ObamaCare compliance with 121% of the uninsured population covered on the Kentucky Health Benefit Exchange, ask for proof.

ObamaCare's April Fool's joke on Kentucky

The most obvious failure of ObamaCare in Kentucky so far has been the large numbers of Kentuckians willing to face the possibility of tax penalties rather than purchase insurance on the "exchange." At the very most, eighty percent of those put on ObamaCare coverage in the state have been stuck in Medicaid and if you think that's bad, you haven't seen anything yet.

A little known fact is that after the ObamaCare open enrollment ends on March 31, the entire sales force associated with the Kentucky Health Benefit Exchange turns their attention one hundred percent to signing people up on Medicaid. That starts on April Fool's Day.

Despite Gov. Beshear's lie about that the federal government picking up the entire cost of Medicaid expansion for the first three years, the truth is the expansion busts our Medicaid budget immediately and this effort will only make it worse if it is allowed to continue.

Kentucky is already spending unappropriated Medicaid administration funds illegally and the state Senate appears to going squishy on the issue of throwing more money for this mess into the new budget. Please tell your state representative and senator not to fund the ObamaCare Medicaid expansion in the budget they start voting on this week.

Are you paying attention?

Anyone who tells you the ObamaCare mess is permanent and the fight is over is either clueless or hopes you aren't paying attention. Even with squishy members of Congress neglecting to cut off the excessive spending required to keep the federal takeover of healthcare going, ObamaCare faces a very difficult 2014.

There are four federal lawsuits making their way to the U.S. Supreme Court challenging the ability of Obama and the IRS to tax and spend ObamaCare subsidies in states that refuse to set up an ObamaCare exchange. The Court already rejected the federal attempt to make Medicaid expansion mandatory. They did this by a 7-2 vote. The law clearly states there are to be ObamaCare subsidies only in states with state-run exchanges. Three dozen states refused to set up an exchange and the law collapses without them.

Better, Kentucky Governor Steve Beshear has tried to illegally force an unwilling Kentucky into a state-run exchange. House Bill 505 wouldn't even make it legal, though it does try. This bill has no chance of passage even, I think, in the Democratic majority state House. But it certainly has no chance in the Senate. A state legal challenge is headed to the Kentucky Supreme Court based on clear legal language requiring legislative approval which has not and will not be granted. Fixing this will put Kentucky with the vast majority of states smart enough to opt out.

Beshear also illegally implemented the ObamaCare Medicaid expansion in Kentucky. A separate state court legal challenge can soon set this right, too.

Any questions?

Beshear Death Spiral already baked in

With less than three weeks before the end of ObamaCare open enrollment in Kentucky, the President's target rate for exchange sales to young people ages 18 to 34 is hopelessly out of reach. So far in Kentucky, barely 22 percent of those enrolled in private health plans belong to that key demographic, while the official estimate needed to avoid a catastrophic death spiral for exchange insurers is 40 percent.

Gov. Beshear has been hiding this failure by reporting coverage of young people to include children under 18 and young people on Medicaid. In doing so, Beshear provided a distorted view of marketplace activity. Children under 18 are not part of the coveted so-called "young invincibles " and so Gov. Beshear's misleading claim that 48 percent of enrollees are under 35 does almost nothing to prevent older and sicker policyholders from quickly driving up insurance premiums in ObamaCare.

The figures in this report were provided by the Beshear administration (click here for proof).