Saturday, August 24, 2013

Community Organizers and Political Hacks Wanted to Hawk ObamaCare - No Background Check Required

By Ragnar Danneskjöld 

Let me see if I can put this in perspective.  To become an insurance agent requires a one week class, a test that most eight graders can pass and about $150 in bureaucrats' payoffs (referred to as licensing fees to the Orwellians). But that is just too demanding of a standard to recruit the Obama supporters who will be schlepping ObamaCare.  I guess if we require 8th grade intellect we'd all but eliminate Chicago and Detroit's public school graduates let alone the typical Obama voter. 

In Illinois they are specifically looking for "community organizers" to be the ObamaCare Illuminati.  I guess if that is good enough to make you president ... Here is the exact quote:  
The job listing says the applicant “should possess experience with canvassing/community organizing, program recruitment and retention....
I'm glad to see they have the most important skills covered. You certainly wouldn't need someone with the ability to dissect an insurance contract, explain the difference between an HMO and PPO, or evaluate the particular tax and retirement benefits of a Health Savings Account.  No, we just want to make sure you can ooze ObamaCare out with the magic fairy dust of hope and change. 

This is yet another example of watering down the standards in society in order to allow every child to have a trophy - or every Obama supporter to have a free iPhone as the case may be. 

The below is from Bloomberg with my commentary in [brackets]: 

President Barack Obama has set aside $67 million to make it easier to enroll in his health-care overhaul. Laws pushed ... in 12 states may keep that from happening.

Under the [Un]Affordable Care Act, the U.S. government plans to pay a network of local groups known as navigators to explain the law’s new coverage options to the uninsured and guide them through its online insurance markets. ...

The Obama administration awarded 105 grants last week, steering money to hospitals, social-service agencies, local clinics and other groups [of supporters]. The navigators are meant to offer “unbiased information” to help people through the complexities of the new system, with its deductibles, copays, provider networks and tax credits, according to an Aug. 15 statement from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. ...

In Florida this week, Governor Rick Scott told a Miami audience that federal privacy protections for consumers working with navigators were “behind schedule and inadequate.” He urged people to use brokers and agents instead.

Georgia Governor Nathan Deal ... believes navigators need state regulation because they’ll give advice on “a highly complicated and highly important topic,” his spokesman, Brian Robinson, said in an e-mail. They will also handle personal information that is open to abuse. ...

States require agents to be licensed and undergo periodic training, said Statz, who’s based in Brecksville, Ohio. He also has to carry insurance to protect clients who may be hurt by bad advice or malpractice, he said.

The 2010 law is intended to prod millions of Americans to buy health insurance, many for the first time.  Those seeking coverage must provide details on citizenship, family size and income to determine whether they’re eligible for subsidies, and complete a form that can stretch to seven pages. ...

Georgia’s navigators need a license from the insurance commissioner. Each person assisting the uninsured has to pay a $50 application fee, complete 35 hours of training -- 15 more than the federal requirement -- pass an exam, and complete a criminal background check. Licenses must be renewed every year, requiring another $50 and 15 more hours of training. [This is 5 hours and $100 less than in California, where I can assure you, licensing is an incredibly low bar already. It only keeps out the most frequent of paste-eating, helmet-wearing droolers.  But in this context the Obama Administration argues it is far too high a bar.] ...

The Obama administration has been “in conversations with states” to ensure their laws don’t hinder the effort [to place unqualified political supporters on the ObamaTax payroll], said Chiquita Brooks-Lasure, a deputy director at the federal health department, in an Aug. 15 conference call with reporters.

The federal law doesn’t require background checks. ...