This Week Just Past: Just 741 New Jersey Enrollees!

Healthcare.Gov Security: A Major Concern

Rodney Backs Delay in Flood Insurance Premium Hikes

This Week’s Salutes: Jimmy Vigilante, Nutley Library

This Week Just Past: Just 741 New Jersey Enrollees!

“This week, it was the Washington Post that noted what many of us have been saying for quite some time about the President’s new healthcare law: ‘As Americans have begun shopping for health plans on the insurance exchanges, they are discovering that insurers are restricting their choice of doctors and hospitals in order to keep costs low…’

"As additional information rolls out about the health care law, more and more Americans are coming to a simple conclusion: despite promises to the contrary, the new law is forcing people to choose health care they do not want, cannot afford, and is not right for their families.

“Of course, the balky healthcare.gov website is adding to people’s worry.  The Star Ledger reports that 800,000 policyholders in New Jersey have received cancellation letters from their healthcare carrier.  Yet, only 741 people were able to enroll through the healthcare exchanges in October, far below the Administration’s projections of 6,720 for the month!

“In total, 4.2 million Americans have lost their insurance due to the new law and only 106,185 have enrolled in the President’s healthcare exchanges, so for every one American who selected a plan in the exchanges in October, nearly 40 lost their insurance.

“Implementation of this law has been disastrous – cancelled health care plans, skyrocketing premiums and limited access to doctors they like.

“As these problems were foreseen, it would be wise to look to the future: more than 100 million Americans get their healthcare plans from their employers. President Obama should be asked today about what will happen in a year when the employer mandate delay expires: “If Americans like their healthcare plans provided by their employers, do you promise that they can keep them?”

Rodney Frelinghuysen

Healthcare.Gov Security: A Major Concern

Responding to demands for answers, the House Energy and Commerce Oversight Committee this week conducted an oversight hearing on the security of the President’s healthcare.gov website. 

The Subcommittee heard from four expert witnesses from the private sector and academia.  Some conclusions from the hearing:

• Testimony from online security experts demonstrated significant flaws and vulnerabilities in the healthcare.gov website that put the personal data of Americans at risk.
• In their haste to launch the Healthcare.gov website, it appears the Obama administration cut corners that leave the site open to hackers and other online criminals.  As a result, the personal information that has already been entered into Healthcare.gov is vulnerable to identity thieves.
• All but one witness at today’s hearing said that they would immediately pull down the site in order to address the security flaws.
• All witnesses agreed that the site is not secure today.
• All 4 witnesses agreed that the website will not be safe by November 30th.
• All 4 witnesses agreed that they would not advise Americans to use the website in light of the current security risks.

For more information on the hearing and testimony, visit here.

Recommended Reading: Jim Finkle and Alina Selyukhp write forReuters that several technology experts are recommending that President Obama's HealthCare.gov site be shut down until it is fixed because it is currently riddled with security flaws that put user data of millions of people at risk. Read “Some cyber security experts recommend shutting Obamacare site” here.

Rodney Backs Delay in Flood Insurance Premium Hikes

With an eye toward protecting New Jersey residents from exorbitant increases in their Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) flood insurance premiums, Rodney has co-sponsored newly introduced legislation.  H.R. 3370 seeks to delay premium increases under the Biggert-Waters Flood Insurance Reform Act of 2012 until two years after FEMA completes an affordability study.  Additionally, the legislation would allow FEMA to spend more than $750,000 on the affordability study,  require FEMA to establish a Flood Insurance Rate Map Advocate to answers questions for policyholders while requiring FEMA to certify that the agency has adopted a modernized risk-based approached to analyze flood risk.

“While the Biggert-Waters law was intended to update the National Flood Insurance Program and put it on a path to sustainability, it was not the intent to force unsustainable payments from homeowners,” Rodney said.  “The bill I am cosponsoring assures that federal bureaucrats remain aware that ‘affordability’ is a major concern for many homeowners!”

This Week’s Salutes: Jimmy Vigilante, Nutley Library

Fond farewell to former Parsippany Councilman Jimmy Vigilante who passed away this week.  He served in the Air Force in Afghanistan where he helped in the evacuation of wounded warriors.  Rodney called him a “proud son of Parsippany.”

Congratulations to the Nutley Public Library, celebrating 100 years of service to the community.