The new and improved Obamacare enrollment form

Yesterday, the Department of Health and Human Services released yet another version(s) of the forms you must fill out to obtain insurance on the Obamacare exchanges.

The original versions, “released” in January, only became available in March.  (I have absolutely no explanation for this.)  In any event, your mission in tackling the forms is now far easier.

The January versions were a svelte 21 pages should you be single, and over 60 pages long if you had a family.  And both included a “helpful” 12 minute video to guide you through the process.  That has all changed, at least for the moment.

If you are single, the application is now only 5 pages long, and a mere 12 pages should you have a family.  No word yet on either the fate of said video in the new versions of the application, or what it cost you, the taxpayer, to create it.

You can find the “I’m single” version of the application here, and the “I’m married” version here.  And, be assured, these versions are the final versions…until HHS revises them yet again.

Two thing did strike me though.  Both applications contain the following language:

If you want to register to vote, you can complete a voter registration form at xxxxx.gov.

First, are we creating a new “.gov” just to register people to vote?

And second, what is this language doing in an application for health insurance?

 

SoundOffSister

The Sound Off Sister was an Assistant United States Attorney for the Southern District of Florida, and special trial attorney for the Department of Justice, Criminal Division; a partner in the Florida law firm of Shutts & Bowen, and an adjunct professor at the University of Miami, School of Law. The Sound Off Sister offers frequent commentary concerning legislation making its way through Congress, including the health reform legislation passed in early 2010.

18 Comments

  1. JollyRoger on May 2, 2013 at 1:44 am

    Could it be an intimation that your treatment and overall outcome might depend party affiliation? ?Thus, a neocon might best visit his dog’s veterinarian while the correct party affiliation, like that of Bob Casey D. PA, might render a murder victim with the right organs of the right size and tissue type within hours of a press conference declaring the governor’s need for a heart and liver transplant? ? Call me cynical…



    • stinkfoot on May 2, 2013 at 1:50 pm

      The two palettes labeled “cynical” and “reality” are indistinguishable from each other… I was thinking along the same lines here-? there is more than one way to silence the opposition.



  2. Dimsdale on May 2, 2013 at 9:36 am

    “You can find the ?I?m single? version of the application here, and the ?I?m married? version here.”
    ?
    Wouldn’t it just be simpler to have a single “I’m screwed” version?? 😉
    ?
    We’re the government, and we’re here to help you…..



  3. yeah on May 2, 2013 at 10:42 am

    its almost like they WANT us to bring the guillotines back out.
    ?
    they’re recreating the conditions, at the very least.



  4. sammy22 on May 2, 2013 at 4:51 pm

    Could have been easier with a single payer system.



    • Lynn on May 3, 2013 at 1:32 pm

      Could have been simply more expensive with single payer system.



    • yeah on May 3, 2013 at 2:52 pm

      It was easier to paper over all of the financial problems in 2008 also, where did that get us?? We’re poised to have it all happen again, only this time we’re starting way further in the hole.
      Or are you forgetting that a single payer system would have been wholly rejected?
      As it is, this piecemeal claptrap we got told was Obamacare wasnt even passed properly – it COULDNT pass properly, it couldnt pass with any sort of honest assessment of it.
      So your assertion that single payer would have been easier is partially true in that – if it was presented as that – it never would have budged a nanometer off the ground and we the american people would not be swindled with a law none of us wanted.



    • sammy22 on May 3, 2013 at 10:32 pm

      You’re right, the single payer system was “rejected”. That is why we have this pile of cow manure to deal with!



    • yeah on May 5, 2013 at 12:20 pm

      well sammy, at least you’re sane enough to concede the fact that obamacare is a pile of cow manure that nobody wants.



    • Dimsdale on May 13, 2013 at 9:08 am

      Monopolies are never the answer.? If ?bama, in a genuine act of concern for the state of things in healthcare, had bothered to do it right, and hash out the details WITH the contributions of Republicans, and fixed what was broken, instead of ramming through a plan that puts gov’t in charge of too much of the private sector, he would probably have a successful, thought out plan right now instead of? cow squeeze.?
      ?
      Instead, he took his hubris, disguised as popular support, to force feed us a plan (who actually wrote that brobdingnagian bill anyway?) whose details are just emerging, along with its inefficiencies.
      ?
      You can have health care if you pick any two: good, inexpensive or universal.



  5. Fish on May 2, 2013 at 6:21 pm

    I noticed on page 2 it states ”
    Your social security number (or document number if you?re a legal
    immigrant). Does this mean the Obama regime recognizes there are “Illegal immigrants” and not undocumented?
    ?
    ?



    • Lynn on May 3, 2013 at 5:31 pm

      No



  6. JollyRoger on May 4, 2013 at 8:53 pm

    It’s a progressive claptrap- we will fix it and invest in it until it is single payer, and then we’ll have given grandma & grandpa the blue pill and rolled them off the cliff!



  7. sammy22 on May 5, 2013 at 2:18 pm

    Well yeah, I did say that Obamacare is a pile of cow manure. I did not say that “nobody” wants it (you added that). I dare say that the health insurance companies love it since they were not cut out of the health business by a single payer system.



    • yeah on May 6, 2013 at 11:06 am

      yeah I added nobody – because anyone that wants it wants the government to nanny them cradle to grave and go full single payer, where the government can endlessly paper over costs and we the people will *never* find out what the real value of anything is.
      lol…so does that surprise you that obama is in bed with big businesses on this one?? think he’s some “man of the people?”
      this is a sleight of hand against the insurance companies – blatantly obvious with the poison pill provision in there of making the no insurance penalty nice and small to incentivize people to drop their plans – then a few years out after the insurance companies have taken huge losses, exchanges established – the penalty for no insurance rockets up an order of magnitude and then some – oh, my, where do they have to go now?? the government.
      that wasn’t painfully obvious to you the second you had a handful of details about this???



    • sammy22 on May 6, 2013 at 9:23 pm

      Maybe you have heard of MEDICARE? And I suppose you think the insurance companies are stupid.



    • Dimsdale on May 13, 2013 at 9:13 am

      The only people that want ?bamacare are the ones that don’t know anything about it, be it from simple ignorance, or the fact that the media didn’t, and doesn’t, report any of the dirty details.
      ?
      Ask yourself why Congress (both parties) is having secret talks to exempt themselves from it, or that friends of ?bama (like big unions) are getting exemptions to its regulations.



  8. yeah on May 6, 2013 at 11:07 am

    its getting kinda old, crystal



frontpg-paper-stack-health-care-bill

The website's content and articles were migrated to a new framework in October 2023. You may see [shortcodes in brackets] that do not make any sense. Please ignore that stuff. We may fix it at some point, but we do not have the time now.

You'll also note comments migrated over may have misplaced question marks and missing spaces. All comments were migrated, but trackbacks may not show.

The site is not broken.