Don't Forget to Pay Your Obamacare Tax Penalties

Failure to Improve
Gov. Peter Shumlin says the state will consider abandoning the Vermont Health Connect insurance exchange and moving to a federally supported system if the state-based marketplace fails to improve.

"We now have a vendor with a proven delivery record to finish the job," Shumlin said in a statement. "Ideally, Vermonters will continue to benefit from the Vermont-focused health insurance marketplace that we all envisioned, a system that builds upon our history of health reform and advances our goal of health coverage for all Vermonters.

"But if our system can't deliver for Vermonters by next fall," Shumlin continued, "we'll need to take action to move permanently to a system that can." Vermont Health Connect has suffered back-end technological problems and cost overruns since launching in October 2013. (Burlington Free Press, 3/20/2015)

So everything is going swimmingly as far as health care reform in Vermont goes...except for that pesky website. Which is where people go to buy health care. (As a user of VHC we can confirm: it is a nightmare). 

And how about that tough accountability from Gov. Shumlin? 'If we can't fix the website - two years after its launch, mind you - we are going to abandon it!'


The Logic of Obama's Foreign Policy
The sharpened tone indicates that the Obama administration may be re-evaluating its relationship with its closest ally in the Middle East, having lost patience with Mr. Netanyahu in the closing days of an election campaign in which he spotlighted deep disagreements with President Obama over a Palestinian state and a nuclear deal with Iran.....The moves confirmed that instead of acting quickly to smooth over tensions with Mr. Netanyahu that burst to the fore in the weeks running up to the Israeli elections, the White House is stoking the acrimony. (New York Times, 3/21/2015)

Country Obama Improves Relations With: Cuba
Country Obama Wants to Isolate: Israel