Venango County Tea Party Patriots

A non-partisan, non-profit, non-member, association dedicated to educating the public and promoting the principles of fiscal responsibility, constitutionally limited government and free market economics, and all other lawful activities.

Department of Health and Human Services

/

HHS Says More Eligible for Medicaid

The number of people determined to be eligible for low-income health insurance programs grew in the month of December, the halfway point for ObamaCare’s first enrollment period, according to federal health officials.

The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) reported Wednesday that more than 6.3 million people were approved to receive either Medicaid or the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP) between October and December.

Roughly 2.3 million of these verdicts occurred in December, a 20 percent increase over the previous month, officials said.

HHS used the data to argue that more states ought to expand their Medicaid programs using mostly federal dollars. That expansion was a mandatory part of the Affordable Care Act, but the Supreme Court made it optional.

Read more.

/

White House Delays Another Obamacare Deadline

The administration said it would extend the Pre-Existing Conditions Insurance Plan (PCIP), slated to end Jan. 31, until March 15.

“As part of our continuing effort to help smooth consumers’ transition into Marketplace coverage, we are allowing those covered by PCIP additional time to shop for new coverage while they receive the ongoing care and treatment they need,” Health and Human Services spokeswoman Joanne Peters said in a statement.

The deadline was originally at the end of December, but last month, the administration pushed it back through January because of the problem-plagued HealthCare.gov.

The new extension is just the latest in a string of unilateral delays the administration has implemented to buy time after the disastrous rollout of HealthCare.gov.

The Obama administration has so far delayed the premium payments deadline, delayed by one week the sign-up date for coverage beginning Jan. 1, pushed back by six weeks the sign-up date for those seeking coverage by April 1 and delayed the second-year enrollment period until after the 2014 elections.

The $5 billion PCIP program was intended as bridge health coverage to sick patients waiting for the full implementation of ObamaCare. The administration says 135,000 have used the program at some point.

An HHS official told The Hill there are less than 30,000 people still enrolled.

HHS stopped accepting new applicants early last year over fears the program didn’t have enough money to cover those who had signed up.

Read more.

/

Five Million of Six Million Enrollees qualify for Government Subsidies

In their first three months of operation, the federal and state health-insurance marketplaces created under the Affordable Care Act—AKA Obamacare–have signed up 5,572,305 people who qualify to get federal funding for their health care, either through Medicaid or through an insurance premium subsidy, according to data released by the Department of Health and Human Service.

Those 5,572,305 are part of the “6 million Americans” HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius said today have used the exchanges to sign up for health insurance or Medicaid.

Read more.