"L'Etat c'est Moi' - Obamacare year-two signups delayed until after 2014 election.(DM).
The Obama administration plans to delay by a full month the open enrollment period for Obamacare's second year, in a move that a Republican campaign strategist called 'nakedly political.'According to Healthcare.gov, the Department of Health and Human Service's official online portal for the Affordable Care Act, enrollment for 2015 is scheduled to begin on October 15, 2014 and end on December 7.
But an HHS official said Thursday that the schedule has been bumped back, beginning on November 15, 2014 and ending on January 15, 2015. That timetable will ensure that the midterm elections come and go before the new year's insurance rates are published.
'Consumers will not see their 2015 premiums until after the midterm elections, instead of immediately before,' an APCO Worldwide Washington, D.C. managing director Mike Tuffin told Bloomberg. 'One doesn’t have to be a conspiracy theorist to divine the motive here.'
The White House attracted widespread scorn in July when the Treasury Department also quietly announced a one-year delay of the Obamacare law's employer mandate, shelving the implementation of its stiffest penalties past the 2014 midterms.
'How nakedly political can you get?' a Republican campaign strategist based in a southern U.S. state asked when MailOnline reached him late on Thursday.
'Are you kidding me? This is like a high school delaying the SAT until a few weeks after college acceptance letters come out,' he said.
'Next they're going to tell us that Santa won't put together his naughty-or-nice list until December 26.'
An HHS official told Politico that the change is 'good news for consumers, who will have more time to learn about plans before enrolling.'
But it will also postpone any resulting public sticker shock until after voters choose the members of the next Congress.
Insurance companies will still be required to submit their policies to the federal government in mid-spring 2014, but consumers getting their coverage through the government's exchange will not find out how much they will pay until they shop online – 11 days after the election.Hmmm.....Issa was right from day One, 'The Most Corrupt admin EVAH !Read the full story here.