Paul Revere by Cyrus Dallin, North End, Boston

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Friday, December 13, 2013

Florida Republican Senator Marco Rubio...



     

s  Obamacare!












"As news breaks that enrollment has surpassed one million, it turns out one of Obamacare's fiercest critics is among Republicans showing some "secret love" for the law. 

Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Florida) signed his family up on the federal healthcare exchange and has opted to take a federal subsidy offered to lawmakers and staff, the Tampa Bay Times reports. 

"Senator Rubio spent time looking at all the options and decided to enroll through the D.C. exchange for coverage for him and his family," Rubio's spokeswoman Brooke Sammon told the Times, adding that "Senator Rubio is following the law, even though he opposes it." 

The Washington Post notes that Rubio's fellow 2016 GOP presidential prospects Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) and Rep. Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) have also joined the D.C. exchange. 

Rubio has previously tried to kill Obamacare, even declining last March to support a stopgap bill to fund the government unless it also defunded "this Obamacare bill that is going to be an absolute disaster for the American economy." 


 Read Rubio's top five fibs about Obamacare at Politifact."





Texas leads nation in Obamacare enrollments 
Texas TribuneDec 11, 2013 12:00 p.m. 

 AUSTIN, TEXAS - More people in Texas have purchased health plans through the embattled online insurance marketplace created by the Affordable Care Act than in any other state, according to enrollment figures for October and November released Wednesday by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. 

But as a percentage of the uninsured in the second-largest state - which has the nation's worst rate of health coverage - the number is tiny: 14,000 Texans had purchased coverage through healthcare.gov by the end of November.

9 comments:

dmarks said...

Kind of an odd contrast to Harry Reid [Yahoo news and CNN] who personally hates it and doesn't think it is viable for his workplace and staff.

Les Carpenter said...

Three of the 5 fibs are rated mostly false, which of course means they are sometimes true. Dependes on circumstance.

I am opposed to ObamaCare because I believe there are better options. At this point unfortunately it is what it is.

I, like Rubio and Rand, decided to comply with the law (we're all basically law abiding citizens for the most part) even though I don't like it. I am fairly sure I'll end up with a high decductable insurance plan just to keep it "affordable."

Oy Vey!

dmarks said...

RN: Thanks for providing some analysis of the sometimes shaky claims on the "five fibs".

This part needs attention: " Most small businesses -- those with fewer than 50 employees -- do not have to provide health insurance to their employees."

This is misleading since it does not mention the fine which is levied. And it overlooks that this is an inventive for companies with a little under 50 employees to not hire too many and go over the limit. And it is an incentive for a company, with, say, 59 employees, to fire 9 of them to avoid the fine. All of these incentives are bizarre, especially in an environment where there is a jobs problem. You'd think we'd at least have incentives to encourage employment, not discourage more hiring, and even in some case encourage firings.

Ducky's here said...

Makes a great stockinh stuffer

It explains the valiant stand against ACA, too.

Les Carpenter said...

For a growing dynamic company that aspires to to regional, state, national and possible global presence I'm not certain this is a significant concern dmarks. For the local business gal or guy that is comfortable with keeping it small then yeah, you are likely right.

Les Carpenter said...

Grandma and Grandpa won't be stuffing the grandson's stockings at our humble abode with the Cruz coloring book.

Rest assured Ducky Ted "the Crud Man" Cruz has NOTHING to do with my opposition to ObamsCrud.

billy pilgrim said...

THOUGHT YOU MIGHT LIKE THIS ONE

dmarks said...

RN: "...not certain this is a significant concern dmarks"

I am aware of that. It might only mean a few thousand people fired, for example. Not a huge difference at all on the national picture, but very big in their lives. My point remains that we need positive incentives regarding employment, not negative ones. And such negative incentives, even if small with a small impact, have a cumulative impact when piled up with other negative incentives.

dmarks said...

Billy: Politifact has a poor track record on this of late. Their 2012 Lie of the Year turned out to be true. Maybe the 2013 lie of the year will turn out to be true if things are fixed and people can keep their health insurance. (Personally, I'd like it to end up that the President told the truth on this one, in the end).