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The Right Prescription
Kathleen the Terrible
Kathleen Sebelius is the most corrupt and arrogant HHS secretary in history.
Among the gifts Nancy Pelosi brings to the House of Representatives is her ability to draw a hearty guffaw from the most jaded observer of American politics. This talent for comedy was on display last Wednesday when she told a group of toadeaters disguised as journalists that she belongs to the anti-corruption party. The Orwellian absurdity of the claim, combined with her trademark vapid expression, was enough to make a cat laugh. I do, however, wish C-SPAN would flash some sort of warning on the screen when the former Speaker is about to deliver one of these howlers. That one caught me unawares with a mouth full of coffee and I had to spend the next ten minutes cleaning off my keyboard and monitor.
In reality, of course, Pelosi and the rest of the Democrats who infest Congress and the Obama administration constitute the most corrupt gang of grifters ever to have descended on Washington and the hapless American electorate. The only real question is: Who is the worst? Many would bestow this dubious honor on Pelosi herself. Others would favor her Senate counterpart, Harry Reid. More than a few would, of course, nominate Eric Holder. And still others would push the suit of President Obama for the “most corrupt” award. All are tough contenders, without a doubt, and each has certainly earned at least a dishonorable mention. Nonetheless, for my money, HHS secretary Kathleen Sebelius wins the prize.
While all of the above-named candidates have demonstrated contempt for generally accepted codes of ethical conduct and the rule of law, none has done so with the former Kansas Governor’s consistency and arrogance. Before the advent of Commissar Sebelius, the typical Secretary of Health and Human Services has maintained such a low profile and remained so far from scandal that most voters would be hard put to name any of the 20 people who preceded her in that office. Sebelius has been a noisome exception. The stench of corruption has followed Sebelius from her confirmation hearings, during which she admitted that she had made “errors” on her tax returns, to her “inadvertent” violation of the Hatch Act last February.
Nor did revelations of the latter outrage stem the steady stream of skullduggery that has flowed from her office. Even as her Hatch Act violation came to light, she launched a program that illegally postponed Obamacare’s cuts to Medicare Advantage until after the recent election. And it hardly needs to be said that her behavior since November 6 contains no hint of moderation. Since then, Sebelius has put in place a legally dubious pay-to-play program for selecting which health carriers can ply their wares in Obamacare’s insurance exchanges, and it has been discovered that a crucial contract involving the exchanges was awarded to a company that employs a former Sebelius underling who ran the very agency that awarded the contract.
The pay-to-play scheme for the Obamacare exchanges is the result of widespread reluctance among the states to set up the insurance “marketplaces” through which the uninsured will theoretically purchase “affordable” care. The New York Times reports, “The Obama administration said Friday that more than half the states had rejected its pleas to set up their own health insurance exchanges.” The Times insinuates that this is nothing but a mean-spirited GOP refusal to “join a White House campaign to provide health insurance to all Americans.” But the real problem is that the push for states to create their own exchanges is a scam designed to trick them into enabling and enforcing the worst of Obamacare’s provisions.
As I wrote last month, if the states refuse to set up exchanges, they cut off the subsidies and tax credits that are the lifeblood of Obamacare. Moreover, states that decline to set up these enabling bureaucracies will also be protecting their business communities from job-killing federal penalties — even if the federal government comes in and sets up its own exchanges. Why? Because the hilariously titled “Affordable Care Act” forbids the federal government from funneling premium assistance or levying employer fines through a federally-created exchange. In other words, a federally-created exchange has no legitimate funding mechanism and will therefore be unable to carry out its ostensible function.
This is why Commissar Sebelius has decided, probably illegally, to charge insurance carriers “for the privilege of selling health insurance to millions of Americans” via federal exchanges. Will the insurance companies be willing to participate? Perhaps. “Fees charged for use of the federal exchange come on top of a separate annual fee to be imposed on health insurance companies to help offset the cost of expanding coverage under the new law.” But the upside for the insurance companies is that the new Sebelius edict allows them to pass on her new user fees to the uninsured: “The proposed fees could add 3.5 percent to premiums for private health plans.” This is what Sebelius and her boss call “affordable care.”
If this pay-to-play scheme gives off a pungent odor, it smells like Chanel No. 5 compared to the deal HHS cut with a company called Quality Software Services, Inc. (QSSI). QSSI was hired to build a database that will be used to monitor the activity of the exchanges. The deal starts to smell upon close examination of the HHS agency that awarded the contract, the Center for Consumer Information and Insurance Oversight (CCIIO). CCIIO’s director at the time was one Steve Larsen. Larsen now works for a subsidiary of UnitedHealth Group — which owns QSSI. In other words, as Jeffrey Anderson puts it, “The person who ran the government entity that awarded that contract has since accepted a position with a different subsidiary of that same company.”
If the name “Steve Larsen” and that of his former agency sound familiar, they should. This is the gentleman who issued the infamous Obamacare waivers to a variety of Democrat donors in 2010 and 2011. And it was it was also during Larsen’s tenure at CCIIO that it began establishing “information collection requirements” (ICRs) for a government database containing the private health care information of all Americans, including those not enrolled in any government insurance program. Now, having been instrumental in designing the Obamacare exchanges and delineating the private health data they will feed to HHS, Larsen works for one of the best funded and largest “competitors” for customers who will buy coverage through those “marketplaces.”
How can Sebelius and her minions get away with such skullduggery? Because Obamacare grants “the Secretary” enormous “discretion” in her efforts to implement Obamacare. Sebelius has clearly interpreted this “discretion” so broadly that she doesn’t feel constrained by any code of ethical conduct or inconvenient law. So, she does whatever it takes. And if it “takes” your liberty, privacy and money, not to worry. Like Nancy Pelosi, she’s a member of the anti-corruption party.
About the Author
David Catron is a health care revenue cycle expert who has spent more than twenty years working for and consulting with hospitals and medical practices. He has an MBA from the University of Georgia and blogs at Health Care BS.
Letter to the Editor View all comments (30) | Leave a comment
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Aristocat| 12.17.12 @ 7:02AM
This evil woman has sold her soul to the devil in exchange for some temporary political power. She will have to answer before God for all the babies she has killed.
notfooled| 12.17.12 @ 8:17AM
Don't forget all the old folks she will knock off by wrecking Medicare.
Pecos Pete| 12.17.12 @ 9:27AM
A: She sold her soul for more than political power, with the billions involved, you can bet your life that she is storing gold in the Bahamas.
TLP| 12.17.12 @ 9:54AM
I've been saying this for the longest time: I can't be the only one who looks at this Stone Cold Heartless B*tch, as sees the Reincarnation of a Sadistic Female SS Officer, in a Black Uniform, with the Skull on the front of her Hat.
I imagine her standing alongside her Mentor - Herr Mengele - as he sliced the Achilles Tendons from the Children's Feet, Gouged out their eyes and painted them Blue, and Dissected Jewish Twins to see what made them tick.
She Cried like a Living Baby, when she found out about the Execution of this Century's Joseph Mengele - Tiller the Baby Killer.
Can you Imagine?
She might be the Most Prolific Mass Murderer of Americans, that we have ever known. 1.5 Million Abortions x 4? That would be 6 Million.
Whatta ya know? That's the same number as the last Holocaust.
And, that was BEFORE she got her fingers into The Death Panels.
I can DEFINATELY see her in Black.
SIEG HEIL, Frau Sebelious.
SIEG HEIL!
ArmyAviator| 12.17.12 @ 10:08AM
You may have written this as a parody and in a manner to ridicule Sebelius, but the reality of the matter is that Obama and his regime are moving toward National Socialism more and more, everyday. The scenario you paint in your comments may actually come to pass. There is only one way to stop it, if done in time and that's SECESSION.
TLP| 12.17.12 @ 10:20AM
It is in no way meant to "Ridicule" her.
I meant every word.
I always mean every word.
She am become Death. The Destroyer of Life.
(And, yes, I know that's not the exact thing that Oppenheimer said)
The scenario I have written WILL come to pass. It's already started.
Taxguy| 12.17.12 @ 7:46AM
Notice how her face is full on contempt for everyone and everything.
Von Mises Jr| 12.17.12 @ 8:53AM
She looks like she needs a good stiff one. And I don't mean a cocktail.
Moe Blotz| 12.17.12 @ 10:25AM
More likely Mzz. Sebelius would benefit from a healthy one, and I recommend Senekot to help her achieve same.
TLP| 12.17.12 @ 10:26AM
What was that?
First Occam goes full bore Potty Mouth, and now You? You guys are supposed to represent the things that are Good and Decent, around here.
Leave that other stuff to Me, Colonel mike, and Pesco's extremely creepy Man-crush Love Interest.
We're already damaged goods. (especially, mike)
Von Mises Jr| 12.17.12 @ 10:45AM
Even Jesus drove the money changers from the Temple.
But I am no Saint Tim. Just an old guy sick and damn tired of stupid people, liars and garbage destroying the great country I had the privilege to grow up in.
I think we are about the same age, and I fear for the next generation. We remember when most knew communism sucks. Now many think it would be cool if they get a few free trinkets.
Taxguy| 12.17.12 @ 7:47AM
That should read "full of".
notfooled| 12.17.12 @ 7:55AM
Head of HHS smoking? Heaven forbid.
She has always reminded me of a female character who played the lead in some SS concentration camp movies back in the 70s-1970s not 1870s.
The letters she sends to Medicare folks are written in a haughty manner reminiscent of the marching orders a banana republic general might issue.
Very unpleasant person.
Kwan| 12.17.12 @ 8:35AM
Good observation. Put a black leather uniform of the SS-Totenkopfverbande or Death's-Head units -This was the SS organization responsible for running the concentration camps for the Third Reich.- on her and a riding whip in her hand, and you have the makings of a top-notch Death Camp Kommandant.
notfooled| 12.17.12 @ 7:58AM
Oops, my bad-that's a pencil in her hand not a cig.
Stephie| 12.17.12 @ 8:07AM
The angel of death, plain and simple.
Cobalt| 12.17.12 @ 11:08AM
Satan's handmaiden
ata777| 12.17.12 @ 8:23AM
Americans haven't got a clue what Obamacare did for this harridan. One could make a reasonable argument she has more unfettered power than any other gov't official in the nation.
Bob K| 12.17.12 @ 8:34AM
Look at it this way. Women politicians, led by leaders like Hilary Clinton, have finally and officially sunk down to the level of all politicians! It's a victory (of sorts) for feminism and the equality of the sexes!
Joellen| 12.17.12 @ 9:08AM
Lets not forget this so called Catholic defended Tiller the Baby Killer.
Once again I call out our Catholic Bishops to publicly challenge as Stephie so wisely called her the "angel of death, along with Pelosi, Biden, every Kennedy, Kerry and any other PRO DEATH CINO.
Call them out Bishops - do your jobs as disciples of CHRIST!
Al Adab| 12.17.12 @ 10:29AM
Agreed. All that is required for evil to prosper is for good men to do nothing. It is time ALL religious leaders stand to the fact that the worship of the goddess Choice is idolotry and speak against it at whatever cost.
CJW| 12.17.12 @ 10:48AM
Al and Joellen,
I agree.
It starts at the top. Obama appointed her to carry out his policies. Still do not understand how over three million voters stayed home, or voted third party, and some then complain about the state of our culture and country.
florin| 12.27.12 @ 5:29PM
Dec. 27th: Sebelius has been told by her Bishop not to present herself to receive Holy Communion unless and until she publicly retracts her anti-life agenda and goes to confession. She has obviously refused.
ArmyAviator| 12.17.12 @ 10:04AM
Sebelius, like all of the political hacks Obama has assembled gets away with it because CONGRESS does nothing to stop them. The Obama regime is corrupt, arrogant and operates below the table at every turn. It is, after all, the "Chicago Way." However, once the Democrats seize the House in 2014, the nation's problems will be solved. There will be no more corruption. The regime will simply waive all the rules.
Jacob McCandles| 12.17.12 @ 10:29AM
I try to be a Christian in both my thoughts and deeds, but this b---- and other democrats challenge me on the former.
Albert Constantine Jr.| 12.17.12 @ 10:57AM
Just as Miss Gulch (prior to her incarnation as the Wicked Witch) wanted to take away Dorothy from her aunt and uncle for her own good, this severe woman from Kansas only began to reveal herself when she tried to force everyone else to change how they covered their mouths when they sneezed.
When is someone going to hit her with a bucket of water to see if she will melt?
loulou| 12.17.12 @ 10:57AM
Where are the Republican eunuchs regarding the lawlessness of the Obama admin??
Too busy crying, tanning, shuffling feet and hand wringing. Who oversees the exec branch?
David Shoup| 12.18.12 @ 2:41AM
I LOVED the lead paragraph!!! LOL!!!
Tim the Enchanter| 12.20.12 @ 10:55AM
We have found ANOTHER witch! May we burn her?
florin| 12.27.12 @ 5:26PM
Dec. 27th: Let not forget the word 'evil' ...Sebelius was a friend and colleague of the late George Tiller, nicknamed 'the baby killer' because he specialized in late-term abortions where he would partially deliver a baby and when the baby's head appeared, he would plunge a sharp object into his brain and suck the brain out; or he would dismember the baby before birth and suck the pieces out; and Sebelius not only approved of his monstrous killings then, she continues to fight to keep the extermination of human babies in the womb legal. Mother Teresa of Calcutta used to ask: "If we would kill the baby in the womb of the mother, what would we not do?" Indeed, what would we not do, what have we not done? Evil is the word to use...she has a face that looks as if it is being eaten away by evil...