Saturday, January 4, 2014

11 State Attorneys General Protest Obama's Illegal Fixes To ObamaCare, And HHS Refusal To Properly Vette Personnel With Access To Private Info of Millions

weaselzippers;
11 State Attorneys General Protest Obama's Illegal Fixes To ObamaCare, And HHS Refusal To Properly Vette Personnel With Access To Private Info of Millions 




Eleven state attorneys general have sent a letter to HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius protesting, first, the illegality of the alleged “fixes” to Obamacare to “save” people from losing their plans, and second, the continuing failure of HHS to properly vette Obamacare navigators and people who will have access to the private information of millions of Americans.
Obama said in November that he would allow insurers to basically ignore the law for those with cancelled plans, that the insurers could continue the plans they had already cancelled in order to comply with the law of Obamacare.

This was of course all political as he himself essentially admitted, “what we want to do is to be able to say to these folks, you know what, the Affordable Care Act is not going to be the reason why insurers have to cancel your plan”.
Yet after already setting this whole disaster into motion, Obama’s “fix” was illusory, as the states and the insurers were mostly not able to comply.
Plus, since the law cannot be waved away on the word of Obama, the law was still in effect, even if it was a bad and stupid law.
The attorneys generals noted correctly what was needed was a real, effective legal fix, not just the ever crazy changing Imperial whim of Obama.
The attorneys general also noted the great danger posed by the failure to properly check the Obamacare navigators and other personnel who would have access to millions of Americans’ private information, and the great danger this posed with identity theft:
This lack of standardized background checks pales in comparison to what is usually required for employees in programs receiving federal healthcare funds, particularly with respect to high-risk employees with direct access to consumers.
They noted HHS had done nothing to resolve this, was ignoring public outcry- including a prior letter from attorneys general, and was even trying to weaken privacy standards required still further:
Despite widespread public outcry over the disregard for consumer privacy shown by HHS and its rules governing assistance programs, HHS has never acknowledged these concerns. HHS never imposed additional security and training standards on the consumer assistance programs. Instead, HHS ignored the letter from thirteen Attorneys General, ignored media Honorable Kathleen Sebelius concerns, and ignored follow-up FOIA requests. These concerns have since been borne out by numerous media reports about inadequately screened personnel violating laws and encouraging consumers to do the same. Now, HHS is proposing to weaken these already-lax privacy standard
The attorneys general involved in the letter are from West Virginia, Alabama, Georgia, Idaho, Kansas, Louisiana, Michigan, Nebraska, Oklahoma, Texas, and Virginia.
Hopefully, they will stay on the case and keep pushing on behalf of the citizenry.
HT: IJR


Thank You Nickarama and WZ.

No comments: