Administration illegally funding ObamaCare

[Clocker]

The Government Accountability Office reports that the Obama administration has been illegally diverting funds to insurance companies to prop up ObamaCare.

The Obama administration is illegally sending payments to health insurers instead of to the federal Treasury as Obamacare requires, according to a new report from the Government Accountability Office.
In 2014, the industry-funded reinsurance program was supposed to provide $10 billion to insurers and $2 billion to the federal Treasury. But when total collections from insurers amounted to only $9.7 billion, the Department of Health and Human Services opted to funnel all of the money toward insurers. The agency paid insurers $7.9 billion in claims for 2014, the first year of exchange coverage, and held over the remaining $1.7 billion for future payments.
Read more: http://www.politico.com/story/2016/09/obamacare-funds-misused-228908#ixzz4Lk3jDczQ (http://www.politico.com/story/2016/09/obamacare-funds-misused-228908#ixzz4Lk3jDczQ)

[chadk66]

move along, nothing to see here.:sleeping:

[JustRalph]

WE HAVE NO ATTORNEY GENERAL, SO THEY CAN DO ANYTHING THEY WANT!

We are living in a Banana Republic

[Clocker]

WE HAVE NO ATTORNEY GENERAL, SO THEY CAN DO ANYTHING THEY WANT!

We are living in a Banana Republic

I wish the people who are happy with that would just move to Venezuela and leave the rest of us alone.

[ElKabong]

Obama's legacy is looking more and more like a shitstain each and every passing day

Why the GOP candidate doesn't have a 30 point lead right now is beyond me...oh wait. A fairly sizable faction of the party voted In a guy that tweets about some beauty contest contestant for days, after a key debate...as if that really effing matters...he doesn't understand politics, and he's completely without knowledge when it comes to winning an election.

Makes me sick. Between obama's disastrous tenure, and a crook for a dem candidate, this thing is slipping away.

[Tom]

Obama's legacy is the he lowered the bar to new lows.
He was the MVP for terrorists.

[Clocker]

Obama's legacy is looking more and more like a shitstain each and every passing day



He will be gone before ObamaCare hits the fan. The next president will be stuck with the blame and with coming up with a fix. Both candidates favor expanding the federal government role in health care, Trump not as much as Hillary. Both are also in favor of the individual mandate.

[Clocker]

Here's an update on the original article which said that HHS kept $2 billion it should have paid into the Treasury in 2014. Adding in results from 2015-16, HHS kept a total of $5 billion that should have gone into the general fund. Most of that went to insurance companies and HHS just kept the rest in its own accounts.

The Government Accountability Office states that it is clear that the Treasury contributions had to be kept separate from fund disbursements. The statute clearly states that the portions designated for the general fund “shall be deposited into the general fund of the Treasury of the United States and may not be used for the program established under this section.” HHS has broken the law.

Time for another Congressional hearing with much finger pointing and speechifying and no action.

http://www.thefiscaltimes.com/Columns/2016/09/30/How-Obamacare-Execs-Broke-Law-and-Cost-Taxpayers-Billions

[Tom]

Remember when we used to call ourselves a great nation?
See what happens you let unvetted foreign trash in?

Total disregard of the law, skids on money delivered in the dead of night to the premier sponsors of world-wide terrorism?

Kenya, take back your garbage.
We have enough street thugs already. We don't need yours.

[mostpost]

The GAO has no authority to declare anything illegal. It can only give an opinion. None of this is illegal until a court says it is illegal. There is enough ambiguity in the law for there to be serious questions.

My question is, why didn't HHS collect enough money to satisfy all requirements? It clearly states that they were responsible for setting up the collection methods.

[JustRalph]

The GAO has no authority to declare anything illegal. It can only give an opinion. None of this is illegal until a court says it is illegal. There is enough ambiguity in the law for there to be serious questions.

My question is, why didn't HHS collect enough money to satisfy all requirements? It clearly states that they were responsible for setting up the collection methods.

"There's no controlling legal authority"

We've heard this shit before

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/politics/special/campfin/stories/op030797.htm

[Saratoga_Mike]

The GAO has no authority to declare anything illegal. It can only give an opinion. None of this is illegal until a court says it is illegal. There is 1) enough ambiguity in the law for there to be serious questions.

My question is, 2) why didn't HHS collect enough money to satisfy all requirements? It clearly states that they were responsible for setting up the collection methods.

1) Please share with us the "ambiguity" as it pertains to this section of the ACA.

2) There's a tax/fee rate to generate the monies for this part of the ACA. The tax/fee rate does not generate enough monies to cover the needs of the program b/c the original actuarial projections have proven incorrect.

[Clocker]

The GAO has no authority to declare anything illegal. It can only give an opinion.

And the legal opinion of the Government Accountability Office carries no weight with the ObamaCare apologistas? :lol:


My question is, why didn't HHS collect enough money to satisfy all requirements? It clearly states that they were responsible for setting up the collection methods.


The amount that they collect is based on the profits or losses of the insurance companies in the Obama exchanges. The profitable companies are supposed to give a legally defined amount out of their profits and HHS is supposed to use that to pay reinsurance claims of money losing companies and give the rest to the Treasury.

“When total collections for benefit year 2014—$9.7 billion—fell short of the target amount for reinsurance payments, HHS did not allocate any collections to the Treasury or to administrative expenses,” GAO investigators reported. “The agency received $7.9 billion in reinsurance claims and paid these in full, leaving approximately $1.7 billion in collections, which it carried over for reinsurance payments in subsequent benefit years. As a result, HHS did not deposit any amounts collected from issuers into the Treasury.”

[Saratoga_Mike]

And the legal opinion of the Government Accountability Office carries no weight with the ObamaCare apologistas? :lol:




The amount that they collect is based on the profits or losses of the insurance companies in the Obama exchanges. The profitable companies are supposed to give a legally defined amount out of their profits and HHS is supposed to use that to pay reinsurance claims of money losing companies and give the rest to the Treasury.

The HHS formula was based on a national per capita user rate. The user rate was around $65 in 2014. The revenue generated from the rate has not been adequate to cover the required reinsurance payments. HHS claims they may prioritize payments to the reinsurance program (i.e., monies going to insurers) over payments to the treasury when collections do not reach statutory targets. The Office of the General Counsel at the GAO found HHS may not prioritize such payments. Regulations for this part of the ACA were published in the Federal Register on 3/11/13.

"The Office of the General Counsel regularly issues legal decisions and opinions on the use of federal funds and related matters, reports on major rules issued by federal agencies, and bid protest decisions that resolve challenges to government contract awards." Source: gao.gov

[Clocker]

The HHS formula was based on a national per capita user rate. The user rate was around $65 in 2014. The revenue generated from the rate has not been adequate to cover the required reinsurance payments. HHS claims they may prioritize payments to the reinsurance program (i.e., monies going to insurers) over payments to the treasury when collections do not reach statutory targets.

But they didn't prioritize the payment allocation between insurers and Treasury. They paid the insurers and kept the rest for HHS future needs. The whole $1.7 billion. :rolleyes:

[Saratoga_Mike]

But they didn't prioritize the payment allocation between insurers and Treasury. They paid the insurers and kept the rest for HHS future needs. The whole $1.7 billion. :rolleyes:

Right, HHS views that as a simple prioritization (to cover future reinsurance payments). If you waste the time to review the Fed Reg regs, you'll find little in the way of ambiguity, contrary to the assertion by professional Obama apologist MostPost.

[davew]

I rather they illegally divert funds to this rather than to the middle east groups with weapons to overthrow Assad (including ISIS)