Wednesday, October 08, 2014

Uber-Linkage Wednesday Morning

■ So, I'm reviewing Fall renewals, trying to get a sense of rates and benefit options for my clients, amid a bewildering array of complicated and often contradictory information. The good news is that there's an explanation for this:

"We won’t actually know what effect the Affordable Care Act is having on insurance prices until 2017, when a bunch of temporary subsidies for insurers expire."

The bad news is, there's an explanation for this.

We've written before about the often sketchy Navigators (and especially the lack of background checks and accountability of these characters). And there's a reason for this, as well:

"The federal government is giving an ObamaCare insurance navigator Seedco, which has a reported history of fraud, $1.4 million to operate in Tennessee this fiscal year."

What could possibly go wrong?

And it's not just Navigators. The folks in charge of enforcing the penalty fine tax aren't much (if any) better):

"Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration publicized the sentencing of Tax Examining Technician Missy Sledge for aggravated identity theft and mail fraud, and IRS employee Monica Hernandez for making and subscribing a false income tax return, wire fraud, and aggravated identity theft."

And those are just the two they caught.

So a couple of months ago we reported that The Beaver State's health insurance Exchange had managed to enroll...no one. The good news is that the state's bureauweenies are (finally) looking to pull the plug on this great testament to the ObamaTax:

"Oregon is in the process of pulling the plug on the site and switching over to the federal exchange and [404Care].gov -- but the question is, how quickly they can do it."

Indeed: Open Enrollment is just weeks away. Go Beavers!

Finally, some potentially good news (for a change):

"IRS clarifies cafeteria plan changes for employees switching to the exchange"

Used to be, if you signed up for your company's health insurance plan, you were basically stuck with it until the next open enrollment (barring leaving that job, of course). Now, the Infernal Revenue Service has indicated that new rules may allow employees who want to bail on the group cover in favor of an ObamaPlan.

Be interesting to see how many folks take advantage of that offer.
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