Benefits Package due to arrive here on the 10th [BUMPED]

We're pleased as punch to host the next edition of the new Benefits Package blog "carnival," conceived and developed by our friend Evan Falchuk. Look for it here next Monday (the 10th).

What's the Benefits Package all about?

Glad you asked!

It's a bi-weekly round-up of the best posts in health-benefits blogging. Participation is encouraged, so if you're a benefits blogger, here's the scoop, via EPS (Evan's Package Service):

Your Benefits Package is scheduled for delivery on Monday, January 10, 2011. In order to ensure proper contents, please check the packaging material for the
following:

■ Your blog's url
■ Your post's url
■ The post's trackback URL (if available)
■ A (brief) summary of the post

Please email your package's contents [Sorry, the deadline for BP#3 has passed] no later than today (January 7th) to ensure timely delivery.

Thanks, and Happy New Year!

Um, about that CBO blogpost

A number of polibloggers have seized on this claim by the Director of the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) regarding appeal of ObamaCare©:

"(W)e expect that repealing that legislation would increase budget deficits."

Of course, they leave out the back-pedaling and obfuscation part:

"The administration's chief actuary predicts that the federal government and the country will spend $310 billion more under Obamacare than we would have without the new law"

Fine, but what strikes me as most interesting is this: the previous Congress, lead exclusively by the Democrat party, managed to rack up more debt than all the previous Congresses, combined!

And now they're worried about deficits?

There's your new definition of "chutzpah."

[Hat Tip: FoIB Holly R]

Cavalcade of Risk #122 Call for submissions

David Williams hosts next week's CavRisk. welcoming in the New Year with new risks. Submissions are due by Monday (the 10th). David asks that you include:

■ Your blog's url
■ Your post's url
■ The post's trackback URL (if available)
■ A (brief) summary of the post

And PLEASE remember: ONLY posts that relate to risk (not personal finance tips and the like).

You can submit your post via Blog Carnival or email.

NB: The Cav is about risk, but not necessarily or exclusively about insurance. So feel free to think outside-the-box (e.g. driving and texting, the environment, vaccination, etc).

ObamaCare© Overreach

Once again, this administration just doesn't seem to understand its own limits. At a time when "(n)early half of voters with health insurance do not believe President Obama’s promise that they will be able to keep it under the new healthcare reform law," the rocket surgeons behind ObamaCare© think it's a good idea to not only expand federal regulation of health insurance (a blatantly unlawful move), but to exacerbate that awful decision by folding the "health reform office charged with overseeing the insurance ... into the federal Medicare agency."

Brilliant!

But of course they've tapped someone with a deep and exhaustive knowledge of insurance principles and the impact this could have on our ability to manage our care, right?

Sure they did:

"The Office of Consumer Information and Insurance Oversight was created to guide the implementation of key parts of the health overhaul law. Its director, Jay Angoff, a class-action litigator who took on insurance companies..." [emphasis added]

Oh goody: we get the love-child of HHS Secretary Shecantbeserious and John Edwards.

What could go wrong?

Health Wonk Review: Auld Acquaintance edition

The Apothecary's Avik Roy hosts this week's outstanding edition of the HWR. As fellow blogger David Williams puts it, " this is exactly the way to host a blog carnival: well-organized classification of the posts, synopsis of each, thoughtful commentary and context, not too cutesy."

Ditto!

Heh: We get results!

Less than two weeks ago, we blew the whistle on the new Medicare Death Panels. Well, FoIB Holly R tips us that "(t)he Obama administration ... will revise a Medicare regulation to delete references to end-of-life planning as part of the annual physical examinations."

The Gray Lady is spinning this like a whirling dervish, but the bottom line is that this ghoulish program has been busted. You're welcome.

And speaking of spinning, here's more of your tax dollars at work shilling for ObamaCrap:

"Try typing "Obamacare" into Google, and you'll find that the first entry is now the Obama administration's www.healthcare.gov ... You'll get the same paid-for result if you type in "Obamacare facts," "Obamacare summary," "Obamacare info ..."

And the list goes on. These people have no shame: whether it's spending tax dollars for Matlock to pimp for Medicare cuts, or this waste of taxpayer dollars, HHS Secretary Shecantbeserious and her henchmen just don't care.

AARP Waivermania

We've long noted AARP's disingenuous (some would say hypocritical) support of ObamaCare©. Well, on a tip from FoIB Bob D, we learn about the quid-pro-quo:

"While other health policies must go through a rigorous rate review under ObamaCare and justify any premium increases of more than 10 percent, AARP's Medigap policies are to be exempt from the federal review and restriction."

[ed: For an explication of that "more than 10%," see Mike's excellent analysis here]

One presumes that 10% is equal to 30 pieces of silver.

Brett Baier has more: