“Do you mind if I cry?”

The Huffington Post: "This is the fourth major pullback by the White House from the Affordable Care Act...Is Obama Backing Away From Obamacare?

All these changes are causing mass confusion and consternation for the insurers. Already, two of the four largest insurers - United Health and Cigna - have elected not to participate in the exchange, a decision that appears fortuitous. The remaining participants in the federal exchange are preparing for massive adverse selection that raises their costs far beyond the projections they used in bidding on these plans, especially the bronze plans. As the healthy young opt to go without insurance and pay the modest penalty or take the catastrophic plans, the insurers are left with the least healthy people in their plans. The latter comprise the vast majority of people enrolled to date.

All these changes are exposing the flawed premise on which Obamacare is based: that the healthy young are willing to pay much more for insurance in order to support the unhealthy elderly.

The ObamaCare-Caused Hardship:

"If you have been notified that your individual market policy will not be renewed, you will be eligible for a hardship exemption and will be able to enroll in catastrophic coverage if it is available in your area. In order to purchase this catastrophic coverage, you need to complete a hardship exemption form, and indicate that your current health insurance policy is being cancelled and that you consider other available policies unaffordable."

Obamacare stipulates that these so-called catastrophic plans must comply with all of the law’s new benefit mandates, but do not have to meet the same “minimum value” criteria imposed on other plans. Oh, and the plans also come with a standard deductible of $6,350 per person. Thus, an Obamacare catastrophic plan is—by both Obamacare’s own definition and design—a “substandard” plan.

So there you have it, ladies and gentlemen. The Obama administration has now issued a formal, public document clarifying the following as its official positions:

• 1) That being subjected to the disruptive and costly effects of Obamacare constitutes suffering a “hardship.”
• 2) That an Obamacare-imposed hardship is sufficient grounds for claiming an exemption from Obamacare.
• 3) That individuals who suffer the hardship of losing their previous, “substandard” insurance, will be granted relief by being allowed to purchase replacement insurance that is “substandard.”

These implicit admissions are stunning, to say the least.

Who would have thought, in 2008 or in 2012 when 50% of you voted him in, that he'd be responsible for the law that brought "Hardship" down on the American People, never mind one you have to pay more to avoid.

What's worse? "Obamacare Has Lost the Uninsured":

A Wall Street Journal/NBC News poll released [last] week asked uninsured individuals whether or not they thought the law was a good idea. Just 24 percent said they thought it was. In contrast, half the uninsured polled said they thought it was a bad idea. As the Journal points out, that represents an 11 point drop in support for the law amongst the uninsured since September. The same poll also finds that 56 percent of the uninsured believe the law will have a negative effect on the U.S. health care system.

Payment Due: The Obamacare Deadline No One Is Talking About:

For coverage to take effect on Jan. 1, enrollees must pay their first month's premium on time... according to consultants and some insurers, ...actual enrollment will be far lower than the figures HHS is releasing. ...industry consultant Robert Laszewski wrote in an email: "One client reports only 15% have paid so far..." Another consultant Kip Piper, agreed. "So far I'm hearing from health plans that around 5% and 10% of consumers who have made it through the data transfer gauntlet have paid first month's premium and therefore truly enrolled."

Payments? We don't need no stinkin' payments! As RadioViceOnline.com reports, "Obama administration is pressuring insurance companies to pay for procedures and care even if no premiums have been paid."

Imagine expecting something, anything, in this world without paying for it? Oh, wait... that is Obama's dream world:

So that--lack of payment--makes the following basically nothing but moot, except for the fact that Obama again just ignores his own law:

...without any public announcement, Obama administration officials have changed the rules so that people will have an extra day to enroll, according to two individuals with knowledge of the switch...Asked to explain the reason for the extension — and why it was kept secret — officials at the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, the federal agency overseeing the health exchange, at first declined to respond. Then CMS officials issued two statements, the second rewording the previous one...

Funny how often he's ignored his own law when it suits him and the Democrat party politically or when his feet are held to the fire he created? And ObamaCares' main architect, Zeke Emmanuel, actually uttered these. exact. words last week,

"If you want to pay more for an insurance company that covers your doctor, you can do that.”

"Obamacare failing to aid Oklahoma's uninsured rate"

Kind of an understatement actually:

So the number of uninsured Oklahomans has barely budged since October. In fact, the number of uninsured citizens may have increased because of Obamacare.

MNsure [Minnesota] is counting on the young signing up, but typical enrollee is 50

That story thanks to Powerlineblog, which elaborates:

...can young people be wheedled or coerced into paying way too much for health insurance? That has always been one of the key questions about Obamacare. You can understand why Obama was optimistic: he fooled young people twice, why not fool them again? The difference is that this time, the connection to their pocketbook is obvious...To the extent that the pool of enrollees is worse (older or sicker) than predicted, premiums will rise next year and the year after, which will drive more healthy people out of the system and accelerate its inevitable collapse.
...
The Associated Press headlines: “In ominous sign, many health plan buyers are just picking the cheapest.” Imagine that!

As a key enrollment deadline hits Monday, many people without health insurance have been sizing up policies on the new government health care marketplace and making what seems like a logical choice: They’re picking the cheapest one. Increasingly, experts in health insurance are becoming concerned that many of these first-time buyers will be in for a shock when they get medical care next year and discover they’re on the hook for most of the initial cost.

That first Minnesota Star Tribune article also reports what a lot of other states are finding:

Nine states with their own insurance exchanges under federal reform have published data showing the age ranges of the enrollees, and most of them are like Minnesota in that they are lacking younger people so far.

The body language, the facial-downturn/glance avoidance of Kathleen Sebelius is astounding in this video, put out by The Miami Herald, which shows her avoiding their questions about PolitiFact's Truth-O-Meter naming the Obama lie "The Lie Of The Year".

All that and a Nobel Peace Prize too.

But We the People aren't as stupid as Obama thought we were: "CNN Poll: Health care law support drops to all-time low":

62% oppose the law
60% of all women now oppose the law
63% "believe the new law will increase the amount of money they personally pay for medical care"
42% "say they will be personally worse off under Obamacare"
40% say "it will have no effect on them"

"AP-GfK poll: Health law seen as eroding coverage" by those who already have insurance:

The poll found a striking level of unease about the law among people who have health insurance and aren’t looking for government help. Those are the 85 percent of Americans who the White House says don’t have to be worried about the president’s historic push to expand coverage for the uninsured...In the survey, nearly half of those with job-based or other private coverage say their policies will be changing next year — mostly for the worse. Nearly 4 in 5 (77 percent) blame the changes on the Affordable Care Act...Disapproval of Obama’s handling of health care topped 60 percent in the poll.

In that AP-Gfk poll:

69% "say their premiums will be going up"
59% "say annual deductibles or copayments are increasing"
14% "said coverage for spouses is being restricted or eliminated"
11% "said their plan is being discontinued"

Phyllis Dessel, 63, of Reading, Pa., believes she is finally enrolled after 50 attempts online. The retired social worker, a political independent, currently has her own private insurance.

When Dessel described her experience, she jokingly asked, “Do you mind if I cry?”

Even a CBS/New York Times Poll in the first half of December 2013 couldn't sugarcoat its findings, noting that "more uninsured Americans think the health care law will hurt them (37 percent)" than those who think it will help them (only 15% think that!):

53% of Americans without health insurance disapprove of the law
51% of Americans with health insurance disapprove of the law
33% of uninsured Americans "say it will make the health care system worse (the same number who think it will improve)

Find all that hard to believe? This guy doesn't:

Bob Laszewski, an insurance industry expert who has become the go-to guy for the news media on the rollout of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (because the insurance industry is extremely reluctant to talk), tells the Weekly Standard that he thinks come Jan. 1, more people will have lost private insurance than gained it:

"'I was out making some client calls this week with a number of different carriers and they know exactly how many policies they canceled and how many who reupped. And they know how many people have come in through the exchange,' says Laszewski. 'And I didn't find one of them who thought they were going to be net ahead on January 1. They all think they're going to net behind on January 1. That's where it's trending so far.'

"So far, at least 4.8 million Americans have received insurance cancellations notices, but Laszewski predicts that the total Obamacare enrollment will be less than half that number on January 1.

And the changes he keeps making just jack the costs of ObamaCare up and up and up:

Earlier in the year, Mr. Obama made another major change to Obamacare, delaying the employer mandate by a year. House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan, R-Wis., was quick to ask about the cost of that move, and the CBO confirmed it would reduce revenues in 2015 by $10 billion and utlimately increase Obamacare’s cost by $12 billion over 10 years.

According to Gallup's newest poll, 36% of Americans see ObamaCare as Obama's biggest failure, while the largest "achievement" vote of 23% see "none/nothing" as his biggest achievement. Only 22% see ObamaCare his biggest achievement. 22%. The next largest percentage on the "failure" vote is 9% saying Obama's "not working with Republicans/not getting along with Congress"! That's really a gasser, given that he had both House and Senate Democratic-controlled and in his pocket when ObamaCare was rammed through in 2010 without a single Republican vote.

So what happens when the costs skyrocket, the insurers start to fail because the underlying foundation of ObamaCare has just been gutted by Obama himself, unlawfully, because his law caused so many Americans so much "hardship" already and will only continue to do so as he destroys the healthcare system in this country? Oh, yeah, it CAN get worse:

And last but not least: