The Latest GOP Efforts to Gum Up Obamacare

[xchrom]

http://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2013/11/the-latest-gop-efforts-to-gum-up-obamacare/281352/


U.S. Chief Technology Officer Todd Park speaks with President Obama. (Pete Souza/The White House)

***SNIP

An oversight hearing that could slow down repairs to Healthcare.gov: On Friday, the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee issued a subpoena for Todd Park, the chief technology officer of the United States, who has been detailed to the Healthcare.gov repair project. That led Clay Johnson, a former presidential innovation fellow and Obamacare build-out critic, to write: "Now, instead of continuing to fix Healthcare.gov (a mess he did not make), Mr. Park has to spend his hours preparing for his testimony .... No matter what side of the aisle you sit on, Todd is one of the good guys. Let him do his job."

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A congressional bill to increase the red tape for navigators: Marco Rubio on Thursday introduced the "The Healthcare Privacy and Anti-Fraud Act," an amendment aimed at "navigators," people and organizations that receive grants to help enrollees sign up for insurance—especially the poor and near-poor. The Florida senator's bill requires "all employees of the entity" receiving a grant to enroll people through ACA be subject to a "criminal background check, fingerprinting, and credit report" and no one "found guilty of a felony, or guilty of a misdemeanor involving deceit or dishonest" work at any institution receiving such a grant. The bill would also ask navigators to "meet educational and licensure requirements that are identical or comparable to those currently applicable to health insurance agents and brokers within the State in which they seek to provide navigation services"; proposes a $5,000 fine for anyone who pretends to be a navigator; and suggests that the entities that employ navigators might be held legally liable for anything that a navigator does wrong.

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A fresh round of "medical privacy" fear-mongering: Meanwhile, at the state level, there are separate efforts underway to undermine the navigators. Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott last week said he wanted more background checks for navigators, the Dallas Morning News reports, writing the state's insurance commissioner to urge her to “move quickly to establish state regulations that will protect Texans’ medical privacy.” But as has been well-established, ACA applications do not ask for any medical information other than whether or not an applicant smokes, so there is no threat to medical privacy from applying for insurance through Healthcare.gov.

[G_j]

1. K&R

obstruction of the day

[B Calm]

2. Republicans keep gumming it up and we the people are going

to demand Medicare for all!

[Laelth]

3. Lovely. (sarcasm) k&r n/t

-Laelth

[starroute]

4. So that's why James O'Keefe's latest scummy video targets the navigarors

It looks like all the usual suspects are at it again. Here's the story on it by John Fund, that ever-reliable stovepiper of "voter fraud" claims and other right-wing nonsense:

http://www.nationalreview.com/article/363699/truth-about-navigators-john-fund

James O’Keefe, the guerrilla videographer who helped bring down ACORN (the “community organizing” group that Barack Obama worked for as a lawyer and trainer) and got NPR’s president fired, is back.

This time, his undercover investigators focused on Obamacare’s “navigators,” the nearly 50,000 people who, in the words of the Department of Health and Human Services, “will serve as an in-person resource for Americans who want additional assistance in shopping for and enrolling in plans” on the Obamacare exchanges (at least when they’re finally working). The total value of grants doled out for nonprofits and community organizations to hire navigators has topped $67 million nationwide, and some of the money is going to a group run by ACORN’s highly controversial founder.

The events of O’Keefe’s video of a Texas navigator site run by the National Urban League are a familiar sight to viewers of his past efforts exposing Medicaid and voter fraud. Government-paid workers supposedly trained to uphold the law advise clients on how to lie on government forms, evade legal requirements, and ignore proper procedures.