If You Like Your Healthcare Plan - Well, You Can't Keep Your Healthcare Plan

Got a letter from my health insurance provider.

Due to Obamacare regulations, the grandfathered status of my health insurance plan expires in 2025, and I can longer keep my plan.

The plan that I had, while a high deductible one, had a $4,000 individual out of pocket deductible after which practically everything was covered moving forward.  I only hit that cap in two of the years I've had the plan.  Very simple - hit the cap and no copays for in-network care moving forward. As plans go, it did what it needed to do at a relatively (for definitions of relatively) reasonable cost, would cover what I needed, has a good network, and does provide some useful discounts.

But, as a result of this ending of the grandfather period I need to switch to an Obamacare-approved plan.

All of the approved plans have higher individual deductibles, around $7,200-$8,000 rather than the $4,000, and all now have copays or coinsurance after the deductible is met. And some have much higher coinsurance, up to 100% to be covered by me for certain tiers (whatever the heck a tier is) compared to 0 now. So I have a out-of-pocket cost that is pretty much 100% more than I had before add in the new copays and it's over 100% easily.

The new plans offer more costs and less coverage. But hey, they offer maternity coverage - which I really don't need.

On top of that, these compliant plans are at a minimum 20% (with  potential out-of-pocket costs that are staggering) to 60% more per month (with  potential out-of-pocket costs that are less staggering but much more than I need to pay now) to again get less coverage and have to pay more out of pocket than my current plan.

So under the new Obamacare plans, I will pay more per month for the insurance, and more out of pocket when health care is actually delivered.  

I will be paying way more than double my current costs for health care to get less, whichever plan that I choose.

What a really wonderful deal.

Another Way Obamacare Will Harm The Youth

It'll hit 'em right in their employment.

Abby, being a bookworm, and a chip off the ol' block at that really wants to have her first job to be working at Barnes and Noble. The kid loves that store.

Not a bad place to work and she'd get some real life work experience along with some discounts on books.

Obviously she's not of an employable age yet, but as we went to the cash register and she paid for her book with money she had saved up I asked the cashier, who was being very patient with her as she counted out her coins, how old you need to be to work at Barnes and Noble.

I figured I'd give Abby something to look forward to and after all I figured they'd take high school students and that is coming up in a few years.

The answer: "18".

Why 18, that seemed a little high. After all, I had worked in a bookstore, at a country club as a short order cook, a catering company, and at an ice cream shop all long before I turned 18.

Well, due to Obamacare and the requirement to provide health insurance, Barnes and Noble will now only be hiring 18 years and up.

Imagine this trickling through to other businesses - where the heck will kids under 18 get decent jobs to start building up their work experience, sense of responsibility, and life skills not to mention save up for college while they're going to high school?

This is going to seriously hurt the employability of under 18-year-olds.

Maybe they'll grow up and not vote Democrat as a result of this follishness, or the Democrats will convince them it's all the fault of the mean Republicans that they're not employed.

Oh, Look! The Freep Is Carrying Free Ads For Obamacare!

Well it's as close as you can come to free advertising for the Obamacare train-wreck as you can get - a feature by "guest writer" to the Detroit Free Press - none other than the US Secretary of Health and Human services herself - Kathleen Sebelius.

The Detroit Free Press: Kathleen Sebelius: Time running out to enroll in Affordable Care Act

To call it a rah-rah puff piece would be an insult to rah-rah puff pieces.

Maybe the Freep got a waiver from Obamacare in return for running this piece of dreck.

Hard to claim the mantle of media objectivity when you run administration propaganda as a feature from a guest writer.

Why Thank You So Bloody Much Obamacare

Just received my Health Insurance Co's bill for this month.

The bill jumped 23%.

Why? Well, the premium didn't change but all sorts of new Obamacare ACA and related taxes and fees listed below did, including retroactive taxes:

Other ACA fees $43.36

Retroactivity Other ACA fees $65.04

Federal and State Taxes and Fees PHIC $16.03

Retroactivity Federal and State Taxes and Fees PHIC $.88

Retroactive Adjustments $38.50

Sadly I certainly did not receive any retroactive benefits.

Some of the fees hidden under the line ACA fees include paying for other taxes for Obamacare including:

An Annual Fee on Health Insurance Carriers; the Transitional Reinsurance Program; the Risk Adjustment Admin Fee; the Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute (PCORI) Fee; and the Marketplace User Fee which is used to fund the operations of the Health Insurance Marketplaces.

In other words, my plan is becoming a 23% less affordable in order to subsidize affordable care for others and for supporting a broken marketplace I don't use.

Thanks oh so very much.

Here's to hoping the Obama true believers got hit with these fees as well and that shakes them out of their love fest with Obamacare.

Obamacare Helping Make Sure Small Business Stays Small

Small Businesses, as claimed by politicians of all stripes, help drive America. Indeed Obama himself lauded them as as “the lifeblood of our economy".

So the Obama administration, courtesy of Obamacare, is driving them into the ground with increased costs and administratrivia.

The Detroit News: Small business already sick of Obamacare

Read the whole article, but here's the rub: To keep offering the same health plan to their employees that they were offering before Obamacare would cost American Gear & Engineering Inc an additional $107,000 per year.

For a small business, an additional $107K is not an affordable added expense to bear and be able to keep in business, especially in this economy.

As Emerson says:

“That’s a helluva change. I’ve got some guys out in the shop whose wives have serious health conditions. How do any of us get ahead? How do you get motivated to come to work? How do I get motivated to come to work?”

Motivation will likely be in the form of an IRS audit after daring to speak out about this unaffordable Obamacare train wreck.

An Unwanted Christmas Present From Obama

I'm sure the timing was just a coincidence.

Just grabbed the mail today, it was delivered late yesterday and we didn't get around to it until today.

Inside was an invoice from my health insurance company.

The invoice was for some reason higher than we were used to, and reading the invoice we found out there was an extra charge being applied for coverage stating January 1, and why:

Under the Affordable Care Act (ACA), all health insurance companies are required to collect and pay new taxes and fees to help pay for programs that are mandated under the ACA. These taxes and fees have been added to your invoice and range between 5 to 7 percent of the total premium that you pay. For more information, go to _______ and search keywords: taxes and fees.

So not only are the insurance rates going up in general under Obamacare, but my plan is now, on top of those increases, being taxed 7% to further subsidize those who don't pay for their own health care and cover more of the unsustainable costs of Obamacare, so I'm getting dinged twice for this boondoggle and paying more to get less.

Merry Christmas, right?

Obamacare Will Bend The Health Care Cost Curve - By Raising Costs, And Taxes Too

Remember the heady days when it was promised that Obamacare would be just awesome; that if you liked your insurance you could keep your insurance; that there would be no tax increases; that it would have a super-efficient and easy to use website; that it would bend healthcare costs downward; and that the entire thing would be funded on Unicorn farts and skittles?

Well, it seems that costs are instead going up, due to taxes and costs imposed by, you guessed it, Obamacare.

The Detroit News: Workers' health care fees may rise under Obamacare

Health care costs are expected to rise in 2014 for many workers, including those at one Royal Oak company, because of new, obscure federal fees and taxes imposed on insurers and employers.

Across the nation, the fees and taxes imposed next year through the Affordable Care Act will generate about $20 billion, based on Joint Committee on Taxation estimates, and could affect nearly 60 percent of Americans who receive insurance through their workplace.

It’s uncertain how many employees could pay the higher fees and taxes because employers are deciding whether to absorb the cost or pass along all or part of it.

Sadly, while the Democrats and credulous fools (but I repeat myself) voted for Obama and his lie-powered healthcare plan (twice), the rest of us get to suffer under the government and healthcare plan they deserve.

You Can't Make This Up - Dysfunctional Obamacare Head To Visit America's Most Dysfunctional City

Fresh off the most dysfunctional government website and program roll-out in history, Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius is coming to Detroit to visit America's most dysfunctional city for an event promoting Obama's most dysfunctional program, Obamacare.

The Detroit News: Sebelius plans visit to Detroit for Affordable Care Act event

A spokesman for her department did not immediately provide the location and time of the upcoming event, but sources confirmed she is planning a visit to the Motor City.

                                                                 ..............

The event in Detroit is designed to draw attention to the benefits of the health care act and encourage enrollment, sources said.

Has Obama been watching the Kentucky Fried Movie in between ongoing ACA fiascoes lately or what? He's sending quite a lot of the higher-ups involved in Obamacare to Detroit lately.

Send Him To Detroit!

Vodkapundit notes that the Whitehouse's Chief Technology Officer, Todd Park is very reluctant to testify before Congress about the Obamacare fracas.

 Darrell Issa is eagerly trying to compel his appearance.

So what does the Whitehouse do?  Apparently the solution is get him out of town and to send him to Detroit to "improve" the city's services. 

The Detroit Free Press: White House sends 'Tech Team' to Detroit to help improve city services

The Obama administration has sent a team of five experts in government technology from cities across the U.S. to Detroit on a two-day mission to improve municipal services.
....
The Obama administration at the time also promised to send its chief technology officer, Todd Park, to Detroit to help analyze and improve city systems. Park has recently become embroiled in Congress’ ongoing investigation into problems surrounding the launch of Healthcare.gov, the administration’s website to enroll people under the Affordable Care Act.

It could have been worse, they might have sent him to Afghanistan to "improve" tech there to get him out of the reach of Issa's subpoena. Being sent to Detroit to avoid testifying is pretty darn similar in terms of conditions and statistically more dangerous.

Even worse for Detroiters, who really have suffered enough already, they're about to get the brain trust that brought us the Obamacare website to work on improving the city's backwards administration and technology processes.  Great.

Thanks to Vodkapundit for the link, and should the Vodkapundit ever be in the Detroit area, whether to track down the elusive Mr. Park or otherwise, let me know and I'll buy you the drink of your choice. 

Thanks to all of you for visiting and I hope you look around the blog - the Renisha McBride story is getting interesting and there's lots more to see here, and your comments as well as your views are indeed welcome.

Maybe Obamacare's Failure Is Just The Democrat's Strategy For 2014?

One should generally not attribute to malice that which can be attributed to stupidity.  When you're talking about the Obamacare fiasco, there's a ton of stupidity to go around.

Instapundit monitors this train-wreck that is leading to millions of people having their health insurance cancelled and their rates increased for inferior Obama-approved plans. Each bit of news he finds is even worst than the last.

Can the Democrats and Obama, heralded by the media as being so very, very smart have made this many incompetent and negligent mistakes? Probably.

On the other hand, it may be the most brilliant rope-a-dope in history - The Democrats create a government-dominated and implemented system designed to fail, then blame the free market and Republicans for it's failure. 

After all, Democrats have always been wanting government-run and paid healthcare, not this hybrid dog's breakfast that is Obamacare.

So Obama and the Dems can campaign in 2014 that they need to retake the House because, due solely to the Republican's intransigence and greedy insurance companies of course, Obamacare has failed to deliver. After all, it can't be the Dmeocrat's or the government's fault.

Since it is the Republican's and insurance companies' fault for all this misery, the only cure for this (in reality government-caused) fiasco is more government control and a move to their fabled single-payer system of government healthcare, which will make everything all better.

To do that of course they need to take the house and dominate both the legislative and executive branches to get their agenda run through so we can see what's in it.

With their lapdog journo-listers running the media narrative and selling the Democrat's line, they just might pull it off too.  After all as Democrat California Governor Jerry Brown stated recently: "Government can best solve the problems it first created itself."

Nah, they really can't be that cunning, now can they?  Let's just chalk it up to some of the most incredible displays of governmental incompetence extant and move on.

More Democrats Experiencing Obamacare and Cognitive Dissonance At The Same Time

Sadly, we get the government and policies they deserve, but they're starting to get it too, and they're surprised and unhappy about it.

Propublica: Loyal Obama Supporters, Canceled by Obamacare

San Francisco architect Lee Hammack says he and his wife, JoEllen Brothers, are “cradle Democrats.” They have donated to the liberal group Organizing for America and worked the phone banks a year ago for President Obama’s re-election.

Since 1995, Hammack and Brothers have received their health coverage from Kaiser Permanente, where Brothers worked until 2009 as a dietitian and diabetes educator. “We’ve both been in very good health all of our lives – exercise, don’t smoke, drink lightly, healthy weight, no health issues, and so on,” Hammack told me.

The couple — Lee, 60, and JoEllen, 59 — have been paying $550 a month for their health coverage — a plan that offers solid coverage, not one of the skimpy plans Obama has criticized. But recently, Kaiser informed them the plan would be canceled at the end of the year because it did not meet the requirements of the Affordable Care Act. The couple would need to find another one. The cost would be around double what they pay now, but the benefits would be worse.

Well you organized for him and Obamacare, you voted for him twice, now you're reaping the benefits of what you've wanted. Surprise!

“From all of the sob stories I’ve heard and read, ours is the most extreme,” Lee told me in an email last week.

Remember, when you as a loyal Democrat have your insurance cancelled its extreme. When it happens to anyone else it's a faux outrage.

The whole article is quite fun to read. These poor loyal supporters having their insurance costs doubling as a result of their blind unquestioning support for Obamacare and Obama. Many small violins are heard wailing in the distance.

Of course as good Democrats they think this is merely a mistake and the benevolence of their leaders will fix it for them. After all, this stuff is supposed to happen to other people, not loyal party Democrats.

Continuing the Democrat's cargo cult beliefs that all good things come from DC, they did as any Democrat would do - they wrote to Nancy Pelosi for help.

That’s little comfort to Hammack. He’s written to California’s senators and his representative, House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., asking for help.

“We believe that the Act is good for health care, the economy, & the future of our nation. However, ACA options for middle income individuals ages 59 & 60 are unaffordable. We’re learning that many others are similarly affected. In that spirit we ask that you fix this, for all of our sakes,” he and Brothers wrote.

What fix? Perhaps a special dispensation for anyone that can prove they were a registered Democrat prior to the 2008 election and voted for Obama twice? Pelosi isn't going to "fix this". This is exactly what the law she pushed for was designed to do and you voted for the Democrats to do it - twice!, you poor useful idiots.

Expect more Democrats to go around with cognitive dissonance in the near future: Anyone complaining about their insurance being cancelled or their rates rising astronomically is clearly suffering from right-wing inspired faux outrage and partisanship and the wreckers are trying to disrupt the beauty that is Obamacare. But, when it affects a Democrat, it must be an oversight of our benevolent leaders and if only Comrades Obama and Pelosi knew, they would fix it!

Desperate Shilling For Obamacare Reaches Hollywood

In the face of abject failure of the exchange website and millions losing their coverage, more propaganda was badly needed.

Some "What you gonna believe - What I said then or what I say now." from the President isn't going to do it.

So the progressives are going to pay Hollywood to insert pro-Obamacare propaganda into your weekly sitcom, dramas and relaity shows.

The Detroit Free Press: Boosters of health care law turn to Hollywood for help

The California Endowment, a private foundation that is spending millions to promote President Barack Obama’s signature law, recently provided a $500,000 grant to ensure that TV writers and producers have information about the Affordable Care Act that can be stitched into story lines watched by millions.

The aim is to produce compelling prime-time narratives that encourage Americans to enroll, especially young and healthy people, Hispanics and other key demographic groups needed to make the overhaul a success.

“We know from research that when people watch entertainment television, even if they know it’s fiction, they tend to believe that the factual stuff is actually factual,” said Martin Kaplan of the University of Southern California’s Norman Lear Center, which received the grant.

The statement that young people believe that the "factual stuff is actually factual" whether from the media or the Democrats, but I repeat myself, explains a lot of the problems with Obamacare and the stat of our nation right there.

But worry not, Hollywood will keep right on taking the Democrats' money and carrying the Democrats' water and lying to you. For your own good.

Detroit's Pro-Obama Union Members Suddenly Find Out Obamacare Sucks

Yep, some of the most supportive Obama backers just found out what they get for backing Obama.

The Detroit News: Obamacare haunts Detroit union retirees

Yes, the bankrupt city is throwing workers and retirees onto the exchanges, as the city certainly can't keep them on its gold-plated healthcare plans any longer as it doesn't have the money, and they're not happy about the sticker shock.

The unions are suing to block Emergency Manager Kevyn Orr’s plan to reduce the city’s $180 million retiree health bill by replacing benefit plans for retirees under 65 with a $125 per month stipend to shop for coverage on the Michigan health insurance exchange.

Pensioners aren’t happy, and not just because the federal government can’t tell the state’s Department of Insurance and Financial Services whether anyone has yet been able to sign up on the glitchy state exchange. Michigan retirees will likely face sticker shock on the Obamacare exchange relative to their present plans.

While current coverage promises deductibles as low as $175 with an $825 cap on out-of-pocket costs, the city’s stipend would enable retirees to buy basic bronze or silver plans on the exchange that come with higher deductibles, more cost-sharing, and a narrower choice of doctors. A study of Michigan exchange plan options by the Heritage Foundation also found retirees age 50 will see average premium hikes of 43 percent.

Detroit Unions, you voted for Obama and Obamacare and now you're getting exactly what you wanted, right? Enjoy it.

Obama's Reformatory Failures

Obama loves to push for bills that have to be passed before they can be read, and the results are a string of failures and unworkable legislation.

His and the Gang of Eight's push for Immigration reform is a case in point - push through a bill to reward Democrat constituencies before anyone has time to realize what a mess of a bill it is and the mess it will create. Of course, Republicans in the Senate also bear a lot of responsibility for this ridiculous bill: The Detroit news: Immigration reform disappoints

Republicans were able to keep their heads down in part because there wasn’t a lot of pressure coming from the anti-reform conservative base. That owed a great deal to the Gang’s decision to dispatch Rubio, elected as a Tea Party favorite in 2010, on a mission to allay conservative suspicions about the bill.

“(Sen. Robert Menendez of New Jersey)told me that Rubio’s role was to ‘work over the conservative universe, particularly the conservative opinion-maker universe,’ in order to ‘neutralize them’ and, in some cases, ‘proselytize them,’” The New Yorker’s Ryan Lizza reported recently.

The plan worked. Conservative talk-radio hosts who might have instinctively opposed immigration reform as conceived by Schumer gave Rubio a respectful hearing and a lot of room. When Rubio told them the bill would secure the border first, they believed him.

Later, when it became unavoidably clear that the bill would first legalize millions of currently illegal immigrants, and only then start the work of securing the border, some conservatives began to express skepticism, disappointment and opposition.

So Rubio, to put it charitably, at best got rick-rolled on immigration reform, or at worst decided to throw both the Country and the Republicans under the bus in the name of bi-partisanship.

Meanwhile Health care reform is on the rocks, pending the mid-term elections: Small business stricken by Obamacare mandate. So, Obama decided to ignore the law that states clearly that the implementation will be in 2014 and he unilaterally moved it to 2015, safely after the mid-term elections.

But don't worry, since Obama's done such a bang-up job on immigration and health insurance reform, he's now announced he's going to unilaterally push ahead on government reform:

What could possibly not go wrong?

Immigration And Health Care Reform Euphemisms

Obama and the gang of Eight's Amnesty plan under the guise of Immigration reform is about to run right into upping the costs of Obamacare.

After all, what could go wrong with normalizing 11 million illegals and then trying to put them into Obamacare?

The Detroit News: Some immigrants excluded from health care overhaul

The headline should add (For Now) to the end of the title, for as with anything in this immigration legalization debauchery, its likely to not last as Mickey Kaus illustrates how the American people are being sold a bill of goods on this "reform" bill - legalization and millions of new Democrat voters and welfare and tax credit recipients today and border security maybe, someday, sometime.....

What the GOP members on the Gang of Eight are thinking is quite the mystery - perhaps its they illogically think that while they'll have a net loss of GOP voters with legalization, they'll make it up on volume?

Also, notice how the headline and article dances around the fact the issue is illegal immigrants and access to Obamacare, not immigrants per se:

But many immigrants will have to wait more than a decade to qualify for health care benefits under the proposed immigration overhaul being debated by Congress, ensuring a huge swath of people will remain uninsured as the centerpiece of Obama’s health care law launches next year.

Don't expect that restriction to last for long. Like many other promises in this bill, it seems quite illusory and will be subject to further "reform".

The politics behind the bill offer little solace to immigrant families struggling with growing medical bills.

Isabel Castillo came to the U.S. illegally with her parents when she was a child. She’s now 28 and has not gone for an annual physical exam since 2007. Every pain triggers debate over whether it’s worth a medical visit or not.

“You are like, ‘God, should I go, should I wait? The bill is going to be so high,’” Castillo said. “You just wait until you can’t tolerate the pain anymore and then you go to the emergency room.”

There is a solution for this illegal and many others with similar sob stories recounted in the article - after all the Left touts the greatness of Mexico's universal health care coverage - she can go back to Mexico for treatment and its a win-win for everyone!

Between Obamacare, Obama-Gang-of-8-Amnesty and a very shaky economy, it's going to get ugly with a high likelihood of irreparable harm.

Obamacare - The Gift That Keeps On Giving

Even more of Obamacare's taxes are due to hit upon the stroke of midnight on December 31.

The Detroit News: New year, new taxes arrive with health act

Taxpayers, especially businesses, will be hit with billions of dollars in new charges starting in January under provisions of the Affordable Care Act that will be ushered in with the new year.

Among the new provisions is a surtax on investment income for those earning $250,000 or more, a $2,500 cap on flexible spending accounts and a 2.3 percent excise tax on manufacturers of medical devices that has led Kalamazoo-based Stryker Corp. to slim its workforce.

The looming health taxes have taken a back seat to the expiration of the Bush-era tax cuts set to automatically increase Jan. 1 unless Congress takes action to avoid the recession-threatening "fiscal cliff." While the biggest provisions of the health care act — namely the individual mandate — won't take effect until 2014, notable tax provisions have taken hold, and some businesses say the coming wave will exacerbate an anemic business climate.

Obamacare is predicated on taxes on the front end paying for benefits to occur later. Thia is, of course, unsustainable in the long run as benefits don't suddenly stop for a few years so the taxes can catch up.

Businesses are already trying to figure out both the arcane and complicated regulations and how to handle the rules that dictate their requirement to provide health care for workers once they reach over 50 employees.

There's also a lovely little tax increase on anyone doing well these days:

The 2013 tax that likely will have the biggest disincentive on business expansion, Miller believes, is a new 3.8 percent Medicare payroll tax rate on wages and self-employment profits above $200,000, compared to 2.9 percent.

"You are not just hitting more affluent individuals; you tend to hit the unincorporated smaller businesses," said Miller, co-author of the book "Why Obamacare Is Wrong for America."

If you think the assorted taxes and regulations are not going to lead to higher unemployment and a reduction in business hiring and expansion, you're kidding yourself.

But at least you'll be required to buy comprehensive health insurance, so there's always that.

To Be Fair, Obama Didn't Say "If You Like Your Hospital, You Can Keep Your Hospital"

Just announced, a $6.4 billion merger of two of the biggest hospital networks in Michigan - Henry Ford and Beaumont.

Why now? One word - Obamacare.

The Detroit Free Press: Obama's health care plan, cost savings drives merger of Beaumont, Henry Ford

Several long-term trends help explain why the merger of Henry Ford Health System and Beaumont makes sense.

One is the coming implementation of the nation’s new health care law, known informally as Obamacare. The law, and particularly the individual mandate to obtain health coverage in 2014, will swell the number of people seeking health care.

The expected Medicare reimbursement cuts that will necessarily go hand-in-hand with the Obamacare expansion are also a reason:

At the same time, the financial stresses facing the nation’s Medicare and Medicaid systems means hospitals that provide care are facing shortfalls on reimbursement for their services. For hospital systems that treat a lot of poor people in places like Detroit, cutbacks on Medicare and Medicaid reimbursement can be particularly worrisome.

There's no such thing as free health care.

Hospitals can look ahead and see that under Obamacare, they'll be one of those taking the hit with reduced Medicare reimbursements to keep the true costs as distant and opaque as possible to the American health consumer/voter and they're planning and acting accordingly.

Three Certainties: Death, Taxes, And Having To Repay Your Student Loans

Student Loan Debt is non-dischargeable in bankruptcy, which means you can't get rid of it once you incur it.

Considering the rough economic times here in Michigan, its no wonder we rank up there in student loans in default.

Te Federal government under Obama, courtesy of a section in the Obamacare bill (yes, really), have taken over student loans with the expected efficient results from such a government takeover.

Now Ex-students with loans who are in poor financial health are going before, shall we say, death panels that seek to recover on the non-performing loans.

The Detroit Free Press: Beware, metro Detroit: The feds are out -- and looking for payback on late student loans

If you live in eastern Michigan and owe the federal government money from a student loan, your chances of being hauled into federal court are greater than anywhere else in the country, except the Los Angeles area.

Over the past two decades, eastern Michigan has accounted for, on average, 13% of all federal student loan recovery lawsuits nationwide.

With Americans carrying more than $1 trillion in college debt -- and $76 billion of that delinquent -- some economists fear the huge debt burden will be the nation's next devastating economic crisis, much like the mortgage bubble that sparked the recession. So the federal government is adopting eastern Michigan's get-tough tactics in other parts of the U.S.

One bit of non-legal advice to anyone with a student loan in default - do something. Putting your head in the sand and trying to avoid service doesn't help. Instead contact the loan servicer and document your problem. There probably is some deferment or different repayment options that may help you and help you avoid being sued.

As Instapundit has been known to say regarding student loans: Something that can’t go on forever, won’t. This can’t go on forever.

Unfortunately, due to its featured non-dischargeability, your obligation to repay your student loan will last at least your lifetime even though that only feels like forever.

Former Rep Stupak Discovers Obama's Promises Come With An Expiration Date

And the promise he received just expired.

Via Right Michigan.

Former Democrat Rep Stupak, who lost his Congressional seat over his grand deal with Obama for Stupak's vital vote needed to pass Obama care, just found out that the promise Obama gave for that vote has now expired.

I believe when confronted by Stupak's umbrage, Obama may have replied - "I am altering the deal, pray I don't alter it further." That is if he deigned to reply to it at all. After all, a con man has no sympathy for such an easy mark.

Unexpectedly? You keep using that word. I do not think it means what you think it means.

Both Vodkapundit and Transterrestrial Musings note a newly discovered, unexpected "glitch" in Obamacare that will add another 450 Billion, give or take, to the deficit.

If you see Obamacare not as an insurance reform measure but merely a planned step towards government-controlled and “paid”-for health care, it all makes much more sense.

These “unexpected" costs aren’t unexpected at all, but a step on the path to get more and more people on the taxpayer funded program, to drive the insurance companies out of the market and get employers to dump their employees into the government exchanges, leading to a mandatory single-payer regime.