Obamacare Regulations
On Thursday June 4, my colleagues and I on the Subcommittee on Health held a hearing that examined Obamacare menu labeling requirements, which will require certain businesses such as restaurants, grocery stores, convenience stores, etc. to detail the amount of calories in the foods and beverages they sell.
Among other things, I am concerned about vague language which some testified could result in an overeager employee being charged with a felony for adding additional cheese to your food without subsequently disclosing the additional calories. I am working on clarifying language to solve this problem.
Testifying at this hearing regarding controversial requirements was Delegate Israel O’Quinn (R-5th District), also Director of Strategic Initiatives for K-VA-T Food Stores, Inc. As Delegate O’Quinn has noted regarding H.R. 2017, which is a bill to reform the sections related to food labeling, “The Common Sense Nutrition Disclosure Act of 2015 helps address fundamental problems with [the Food and Drug Administration]’s final menu labeling regulations.”
Speaking of Obamacare concerns…
Obamacare Transparency & Sticker Shock
As you may recall, then-candidate Barack Obama promised that health premium rates would decrease, pledging, “In an Obama administration, we’ll lower premiums by up to $2,500 for a typical family per year….. We’ll do it by the end of my first term as President of the United States.”
Instead, not only have prices gone up in previous years, indicators are prices will be going up again this year. According to the Daily Press, “Virginia health insurers are proposing rate increases in the low teens for 2016 individual coverage. That puts them in the moderate to low range nationally — proposed hikes of 20 to 30 percent have been reported — but it's still sticker shock for consumers after a couple of years of single-digit growth.”
As was reported in a May 21 Wall Street Journal (WSJ) story, “In New Mexico, market leader Health Care Service Corp. is asking for an average jump of 51.6% in premiums for 2016. The biggest insurer in Tennessee, BlueCross BlueShield of Tennessee, has requested an average 36.3% increase. In Maryland, market leader CareFirst BlueCross BlueShield wants to raise rates 30.4% across its products. Moda Health, the largest insurer on the Oregon health exchange, seeks an average boost of around 25%.”
According to a June 1 WSJ article, “Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Illinois is looking to raise rates by averages of 29% or more. In Pennsylvania, Highmark Health Insurance Co. is asking for 30%, according to proposals submitted by insurers for the year ahead. Around the country, some of the main market leaders are looking for double digit increases.”
The May 21 story notes: “All of them cite high medical costs incurred by people newly enrolled under the Affordable Care Act.”
Insurers submit for review their proposed rates to the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) and to certain states. The proposed rates have not yet been approved or finalized, but according to CNN Money, “…consumers may not learn the final prices until just before enrollment opens.”
I want the President and Obamacare officials to release premium data in a reasonable timeframe. I will again be introducing a bill that would require HHS to release this information to Congress within 30 days of receiving it from insurers. This is in an effort to increase transparency and ensure that the American people are not kept in the dark for political reasons.
I will continue to hold their feet to the fire.
More NSA Surveillance?
According to a Thursday, June 4 New York Times story, “Without public notice or debate, the Obama Administration has expanded the National Security Agency’s warrantless surveillance of Americans’ international Internet traffic to search for evidence of malicious computer hacking, according to classified NSA documents.”
Additionally, “In mid-2012, Justice Department lawyers wrote two secret memos permitting the spy agency to begin hunting on Internet cables, without a warrant and on American soil, for data linked to computer intrusions originating abroad — including traffic that flows to suspicious Internet addresses or contains malware, the documents show.”
I am very concerned about this new overreach. This may be okay, but because the federal government has previously breached the trust of the people and disregarded the rights of American citizens, I will be looking into the situation further.
If you have questions, concerns, or comments, feel free to contact my office. You can call my Abingdon office at 276-525-1405 or my Christiansburg office at 540-381-5671. To reach my office via email, please visit my website at www.morgangriffith.house.gov. Also on my website is the latest material from my office, including information on votes recently taken on the floor of the House of Representatives.
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