'How nakedly political can you get?': Obamacare year-two signups delayed until after 2014 election
- Voters in the insurance exchanges won't know until 11 days after the 2014 election just how much they'll pay for coverage in 2015
- The Treasury department has already delayed implementation of the employer mandate, and its fines, until Election Day has come and gone
- Millions of Americans are receiving private-insurance cancellation letters, with many experiencing sticker-shock when they learn their options
- One poll released Wednesday shows that 48 per cent of taxpayers now want the Obamacare law repealed
By David Martosko, U.s. Political Editor
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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.
Cynical: The White House will find itself losing even more public confidence from the move to push back Obamacare's year-two insurance enrollment period until after Election Day
The shadow knows: HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius hasn't commented publicly on the new calendar, which will ensure many voters won't know their 2015 insurance rates until after they've voted for members of congress
'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.
Ana Gupte, an analyst at the investment firm Leerink Swann & Co., told Bloomberg that '[t]he death of this law would be for health insurance companies
to price policies for 2015 in a way that premiums skyrocket. At that
point, it’s a death spiral and it’s over.'
The makeup of the next Congress will have a greater impact on the future health of Obamacare itself than any other factor. Republican control of both the House and Senate could lead to a complete defunding of the program during President Obama's final two years in office.
The administration has plunged ahead with the Affordable Care Act despite public discontent, drawing charges that the White House is putting political considerations before the practical needs of consumers
All politics, all the time: Republicans will be hopping mad, judging from the reaction of one GOP campaign insuder
Year-one enrollment in Obamacare's exchanges has been fraught with one disaster after another.
The government's online registration system's crashes, along with millions of private insurance cancellation letters, have combined to drive down consumer confidence in President Obama's signature legislature achievement.
A CBS News poll released on Wednesday showed that just 1 in 10 Americans believe the Affordable Care Act's rollout is going well.
Fully 48 per cent say they want the law repealed.
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nooneyouknow, Vancouver, moments ago
Ban people without full time jobs from voting. Every Dem would be voted out in a landslide. I can't belileve what this guy is getting away with.