The Week Just Passed: Thousands in NJ Can’t Keep Health Coverage

“If You Like Your Plan…”

Register Your Unhappiness

Worries About Healthcare.Gov Security: Personal Health Data

Veteran’s “Welcome Home” at Lyons VA Campus

This Week’s Salute: Leukemia and Lymphoma “Light the Night” Walk

The Week Just Passed: Thousands in NJ Can’t Keep Health Coverage

“Since October 1, you’ve seen the headline after headline about the disastrous launch of healthcare.gov, the website established to implement the President’s new healthcare law.

“But this week we saw more evidence that the law may be hurting more than it’s helping.  Here are some facts:

“Fact: premiums are rising all across America;

“Fact: Out-of-pocket expenses are also going up;

“Fact: Taxes are rising among hardworking taxpayers to pay for this mess;

“Fact: The technology has totally and utterly failed.  If Washington cannot figure out how to enroll you, how will they figure out how to take care of you?

“Fact: Families all across America, including 800,000 here in New Jersey, are receiving letters from their healthcare providers throwing them off their current plans.  And that’s not counting the thousands of Medicare Advantage enrollees who received notice recently that their plans may end.

“The President’s healthcare law REQUIRES every American to carry health insurance.  If you don’t have it – or its gets cancelled through no fault of your own – you have to go to the website to buy it.

“But the website does not work!

“Clearly this is inefficient, ineffective, unaccountable government at its worst!

“Genuine choice in healthcare is going down.  Doctors are taking fewer patients.  Hospitals are hiring fewer people.  Employers are cutting hours.  Companies hiring new full-time workers are increasingly few and far between.  And now, hundreds of thousands of our neighbors thought they could keep their policies, but can’t!

“Is this what you thought the President’s healthcare law was all about?”                                           

Rodney Frelinghuysen

If You Like Your Plan…

For five years, Barack Obama repeatedly, emphatically, and unequivocally promised that under his health care scheme, “if you like your plan, you can keep your plan.” That promise has now been proven to be untrue.

On June 15, 2009, President Obama promised the American people, “If you like your health care plan, you’ll be able to keep your health care plan, period. No one will take it away, no matter what.”

On June 28, 2012, President Obama again repeated, “if you’re one of the more than 250 million Americans who already have health insurance, you will keep your health insurance – this law will only make it more secure and more affordable.”

On September 26, 2013, just days before the health law was set to launch, White House Press Secretary Jay Carney was asked, “Does the president still contend that if Americans like their health plan, they can keep it? He did not manage to get that into a 50-minute speech.” Carney replied, “Absolutely, he did get that in his speech.”

Register Your Unhappiness

Call the White House: 202-456-1111

Submit Comments Online: http://www.whitehouse.gov/contact/submit-questions-and-comments

Write the President:  The White House, 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW, Washington, DC 20500

Worries About Healthcare.Gov Security: Personal Health Data

Senior members of the House Energy and Commerce Committee continue to express concern about the basic security of the Obama Administration’s healthcare.gov website in the wake of this week’s hearing with Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius and four government contractors involved with implementation of the exchanges. 

“Americans need to know that their sensitive personal information will be protected if they visit the healthcare exchanges,” Rodney said.  “Unfortunately, each passing day brings about more concern regarding healthcare.gov’s security, as well as the administration’s ability to identify and fix the lingering problems.  The fear is that domestic and foreign ‘hackers’ may be able to access confidential information about your health history and needs.”

Recommended Reading: Wednesday’s editorial in the Wall Street Journal, “The Obamacare Awakening, Americans are losing their coverage by political design.”

Recommended Reading II: Ricardo Alonzo-Zaldivar and Jack Gillam, writing this week for the Associated Press, report that a government document shows administration officials were concerned that a lack of testing posed a "high" security risk for President Barack Obama's new health insurance website.  Read the story here.

Recommended Reading III: Also, another AP story updated security concerns after Secretary of Health and Human Services Sebelius testified before a House Committee on Wednesday.

Veteran’s “Welcome Home” at Lyons VA Campus

Just one year after breaking ground, the first previously homeless veterans have moved into Valley Brook Village, a 16-acre development at the Lyons Veterans Administration campus in Bernards Township, a project Rodney has strongly supported since its inception.

“We owe our veterans everything for their service and sacrifice! And yet, homelessness among veterans has reached crisis proportions across America.  I commend the Veterans Administrations, Community Hope and other local organizations and elected officials in Somerset County for supporting a project that attacks the problem in such a comprehensive way,” he said.  “Valley Brook Village is a model for the nation’s efforts to end the ‘silent crisis’ of veterans’ homelessness.”

According to Community Hope, “the 62 units of apartments and townhouses will be a permanent ‘place to call home’ with no time restrictions on how long the veteran can reside here. Rental subsidy vouchers have been committed to the project to ensure that the housing remains affordable to low-income veterans.”

Residents of the Village will have access on-campus to healthcare and other services. Community Hope will provide on-site support and employment services to help veterans establish independence in their new homes.

Read Linda Sadlouskos’ story in the Basking Ridge Patch here.

Watch the Valley Brook Village video here.

This Week’s Salute: Leukemia and Lymphoma “Light the Night” Walk

Heartfelt thanks to the men, women and children who turned out on a cold Morristown evening to salute survivors and victims of blood cancers last Saturday.