Sebelius: We Don't Need To Extend Obamacare Open Enrollment

[TeaBagsAreForCups]

Source: Talking Points Memo

Dylan Scott – October 30, 2013, 11:40 AM EDT517

Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius indicated Wednesday that the Obama administration will not extend Obamacare's open enrollment period because of HealthCare.gov's troubled rollout.

"At this point, congressman, they will have a full four months," Sebelius said at a House Energy and Commerce Committee hearing. "The open enrollment period is extraordinarily long. It's about six times as long as a typical generous open enrollment period. And it's important for the insurance partners to know who is in their pool so again they can stay in the market next year and know who they are insuring."

- SNIP -



Read more: http://talkingpointsmemo.com/livewire/sebelius-we-don-t-need-to-extend-obamacare-open-enrollment

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Critical Background to understanding her statement:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/1014634276

[PoliticAverse]

1. Right, they can't really extend the open enrollment...

and if the website is fully operating at the end of November as promised there really is plenty of time to enroll
to beat the March 31 deadline.

[George II]

2. What a bunch of scumbags those republicans on the committee were this morning....

....that wasn't a "fact finding" hearing, it was a witch hunt, and they were all prepared to go on the attack.

I don't think any of them permitted Sebilius to answer their questions - they asked leading questions and when they didn't get the answer they wanted (if they did let her answer), they interrupted the answer with their biased answers.

About security, one guy said "Amazon wouldn't do that", but last week my Amazon account what hacked and bogus orders were placed!

[Puzzledtraveller]

3. I thought it was extended.

[SolutionisSolidarity]

5. It was extended until March 31st. There are calls to extend it further.

[Pterodactyl]

6. Maybe it was the employer mandate you were thinkng of.

[OneCrazyDiamond]

4. The corporate healthcare masters,

I mean insurers.

Are threatening to hike the rates if they extend enrollment. Something about profit concerns.

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-10-30/insurers-oppose-obamacare-extension-as-danger-to-profits.html

We need to replace ACA for single payer/medicare, but on terms that are good for 2014 elections.

Telling people that they are not losing their insurance they are being "transitioned" to better insurance, although true, doesn't translate well will low information voters.