White House braces for doctor dump

By Chris Stirewalt

Published November 20, 2013
FoxNews.com

The White House in Washington, November 19, 2013.(Reuters)

Buzz Cut:
• White House braces for doctor dump
• Perk-packed version of ObamaCare for Congress
• Feds try roadside blood tests
• Sliding faster than Obama’s approval ratings

WHITE HOUSE BRACES FOR DOCTOR DUMP - The president’s “if you like it” bait-and-switch on insurance is not the only pledge that will be broken under ObamaCare. Press Secretary Jay Carney appeared to step back from the second part of President Obama’s oft-repeated campaign promise: that Americans could keep their doctors if they like them. Carney hinted consumers could lose their doctors too saying, “So, if you are looking for, if you want coverage from your doctor, a doctor that you've seen in the past, and want that, you can look and see if there's a plan in which that doctor participates in.”

[Asked at a WSJ forum what he might have done better in implementing ObamaCare, the president blamed Republicans for failing to help him in “fixing glitches and fine-tuning the law.” Washington Examiner has more.]

He doesn’t like it, he won’t keep it - President Obama meets today with state insurance commissioners, whom he charged last week with undoing his order to crack down on individual insurance policies. After working for three years to impose regulations required by ObamaCare that have led to the cancellation of millions of policies, the commissioners learned Thursday that the president was upending the rules. Facing withering anger from voters after being forced to admit that he misled them about the law, the White House said in talking points that cancelled policies would no longer be the fault of the law but rather insurance companies and state insurance commissioners.

Poll: 7 percent say ObamaCare working well - A new CBS News poll shows President Obama’s job approval rating dropped to 37 percent, the lowest of his presidency – a 9-point drop since October. The poll also found Americans’ approval of ObamaCare has dropped to 31 percent, the lowest rating ever in the poll. Just 7 percent of respondents said the president’s health law is working well.

Perk-packed version of ObamaCare for Congress - Members of Congress may have to enroll in ObamaCare, but that doesn’t mean that it’s the same smashed system ordinary Americans are facing. NYT details the perk-puffed version of ObamaCare for Congress: “…access to ‘in-person support sessions’ …a special Blue Cross and Blue Shield website for members of Congress and…. a ‘dedicated congressional health insurance plan assistance line’…Lawmakers can select from 112 options offered in the ‘gold tier’ of the District of Columbia exchange, far more than are available to most of their constituents.”

GOP governors huddle on ObamaCare - The Republican Governors Association gathers this week in Arizona, one of the issues they will tackle is how to minimize the damage of ObamaCare at the state level. Of the nation’s governors, 30 out of 50 are Republicans. ­–Watch Fox: Campaign Carl Cameron is following the gathering from Scottsdale, Ariz.

OBAMACARE SITE ONLY 60 PERCENT FINISHED - Henry Chao, deputy chief information officer at the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, told a House committee that the crash-prone ObamaCare Web site is not yet finished. Chao said Tuesday that up to 40 percent of the technical systems supporting the federal health insurance marketplaces have not yet been built, including a system to issue payments to insurance companies. Chao said the site will be “greatly improved” by the end of the month -- not fixed. Read more from Fox News.

No magic - Health Secretary Kathleen Sebelius does not consider the previously announced Nov. 30 deadline to fix problems with ObamaCares’s online home “a magic go, no go date.” She told the AP she sees the project as “a work of constant improvement.”

ObamaCare’s security scares - David Kennedy, a cyber security expert who testified before a House committee Tuesday, told Greta Van Susteren he believes there is so little monitoring done on healthcare.gov, Health and Human Services officials “probably don't even know if they're getting hacked right now.” Watch the interview from “On the Record with Greta Van Susteren.”

[“Given the distressing testimony we heard at the Science Committee’s hearing about Healthcare.gov, there is only one reasonable course of action. Mr. President, take down this website.”—Rep. Lamar Smith, R-Texas, head of the House Science the Science, Space, and Technology Committee, in a Breitbart OpEd.”]



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