The Rule of Immobility

Metallurgy
In any case all four tiers are scrap-metal grade, because the rules ObamaCare imposes to create a supposedly superior insurance product are resulting in an objectively inferior medical product. The new mandates and rules raise costs, so insurers must compensate by offering narrow and less costly networks of doctors, hospitals and other providers in their ObamaCare products. Insurers thus restrict care and patient choice of physicians in exchange for discounted reimbursement rates, much as Medicaid does. (WSJ, 11/30/2013)

Others have already noted this, but get ready for the next Obamacare blow-up: "You can keep your doctor."


High Times
Vermont’s 2014 health insurance premiums are among the highest in the country. The rates are well above the national average, and health care economists link more expensive premiums to less competition.
...
HHS compared the premiums of the second-lowest cost silver plan, the lowest cost silver plan and the lowest cost bronze plan for every state in the country except for Massachusetts and Hawaii.  On all three levels, Vermont has the fifth-highest premium rates in the country. (VTDigger.com, 11/19/2013)

Not to worry, Vermont's Progressive thought-leaders have assured us that things will get a whole lot better once the state adopts a single-payer system. 


All the News
As RedStateVT readily admits, the New York Times will occasionally commit a random act of journalism (and whoever coined that phrase should be knighted!). 

Here are highlights from their November 30th investigative piece on Healthcare.gov: 

HealthCare.gov, the $630 million online insurance marketplace, was a disaster after it went live on Oct. 1...

Out of that tense Oval Office meeting grew a frantic effort aimed at rescuing not only the insurance portal and Mr. Obama’s credibility, but also the Democratic philosophy that an activist government can solve big, complex social problems. Today, that rescue effort is far from complete.

...it still suffers sporadic crashes, and large parts of the vital “back end” that processes enrollment data and transactions with insurers remain unbuilt.

..an insular White House that did not initially appreciate the magnitude of its self-inflicted wounds...

...a new accusation: that he had lied about whether people could keep their insurance.

...a deeply dysfunctional relationship between the Department of Health and Human Services and its technology contractors, and tensions between the White House chief of staff and senior health department officials. 

...errors in the software code written to stitch the Oracle product into the online system and improperly configured hardware trapped users in endless technological loops. It would take eight days to resolve just that one bottleneck.

...insurance executives were alarmed. Almost no one was buying their products.

The website had barely been tested before it went live, so a large number of software and hardware defects had not been uncovered.

“The extent of the problems is pretty enormous. At the end of our calls, people say, ‘It’s awful, just awful.’ ”

..a site Mr. Obama once promised would be as easy to shop on as Amazon.com — went dark for 10 to 12 hours, unheard of in the online business world.

During a trip to Tennessee by Ms. Sebelius on Nov. 1, a state senator would add insult to injury by presenting her with a copy of “Websites for Dummies.”

Mr. Obama, meanwhile, is trying to turn the page.

And finally, our two favorite quotes!

On the eve of the rollout, Ms. Sebelius, a onetime Kansas governor and former insurance commissioner who had logged countless miles promoting the health law, was ebullient.  “We’re about to make some history,” she said.

...the meeting was called, in part, to give Democrats a chance to publicly criticize the president — a message that Vice President Biden delivered to Representative Steny H. Hoyer of Maryland, the Democratic whip, in a separate meeting with several freshman Democrats.

“Just attack us,” Mr. Biden said, according to one person present. “Blame us.”


Grade Inflation
The White House announced on Sunday that it had met its goal for improving HealthCare.gov so the website “will work smoothly for the vast majority of users.”

In effect, the administration gave itself a passing grade. (NYT, 12/2/2013)

Heck, Obama once gave himself a B+ for his first year in office. 

What intrepid journalist has the stones to ask Obama to grade Year 5?


Pushy
This task has taken on new urgency given the Democratic Party’s push to the left, away from the centrist politics with which the Clintons are identified. (NYT, 12/1/2013)

Inconceivable! The Democrat party has moved to the left? This is heresy. Only Republicans can move and then, only to the right.