Sebelius gets in on the intimidation game

Looks like the entire White House has gone to war with American business over health care reform. Last week, the insurance industry pointed out that the ObamaCare bill didn't require them to cover children. Alarms were quickly sounded across Pennsylvania Avenue and Capitol Hill.

Under the new law, insurance companies still would be able to refuse new coverage to children because of a pre-existing medical problem, said Karen Lightfoot, spokeswoman for the House Energy and Commerce Committee, one of the main congressional panels that wrote the bill Obama signed into law Tuesday.

However, if a child is accepted for coverage, or is already covered, the insurer cannot exclude payment for treating a particular illness, as sometimes happens now.

That an error like this could slip through simply proves that no Democrat actually bothered to read the bill before it passed, including Obama himself. Democrats attacked Republicans constantly by drawing the cloak of The Children around them. The implication was that conservatives who opposed ObamaCare for any reason were opposing children's health. It took the insurance companies to point out that they completely forgot to extend the ban on preexisting conditions to children without health care.

Secretary of Health and Human Services Kathleen Sebelius was not pleased...with the insurance companies for embarrassing her. She fired off a threatening letter to Karen Ignagni, head of the insurers' trade association.

Unfortunately recent media accounts indicate that some insurance companies may be seeking to avoid or ignore a provision in the new law that prohibits insurance companies from excluding children with pre-existing conditions from coverage.

Health insurance reform is designed to prevent any child from being denied coverage because he or she has a pre-existing condition. Leaders in Congress have reaffirmed this in recent days in the attached statement.

Sebelius indicated she would provide additional regulations in the coming weeks to clarify that all children with pre-existing conditions must be covered.

But the insurance companies weren't planning on further denying coverage. If they wanted to, they wouldn't have announced the loophole to the entire American press. They were merely seeking clarification on a new regulation. Sebelius can beat up the insurers all she wants, but she might try actually reading the bill next time.

Obama's abortion executive order is completely useless

Last night, ObamaCare passed the House of Representatives for the final time after the president persuaded Bart Stupak's pro-life Democrats to vote yes. Obama wooed Stupak with an executive order that will supposedly prevent taxpayer money from funding abortions. Unsurprisingly, the president hasn't signed the order yet, and it's just as well because it's total bunk. The text has been released already and the entire document is a big loophole.

The order would supposedly require insurance plans in the newly-created federal exchange to be segregated from private ones that provide abortions. This would prevent abortions from being funded by any public money. But the text never specifically establishes this segregation. Here's what it says instead:

"I hereby direct the Director of OMB and the Secretary of HHS to develop, within 180 days of the date of this Executive Order, a model set of segregation guidelines for state health insurance commissioners to use when determining whether exchange plans are complying with the Act's segregation requirements, established in Section 1303 of the Act, for enrollees receiving Federal financial assistance."

In other words, the executive order doesn't segregate the funds. It just asks OMB Director Peter Orszag and Secretary of Health and Human Services Kathleen Sebelius to figure it out. Sebelius is stridently pro-choice and gained notoriety when she defended radical abortionist George Tiller in her home state of Kansas.

It would have been very easy for the president to simply type, "Under absolutely no circumstances shall federal funds be used for abortions except in the cases of rape and incest, and where the life of the mother is threatened." Instead we get this:

The Act maintains current Hyde Amendment restrictions governing abortion policy and extends those restrictions to the newly-created health insurance exchanges.

In other words, if the Hyde Amendment is ever overturned -- certainly a possibility given how pro-abortion Obama is -- then this act enables federal funds galore to be used for abortions. When Massachusetts implemented its universal health care plan, abortions ultimately ended up being covered thanks to the bill's loose language. It will only be so long before the same thing happens here.

And of course, at the end of the document, we have the usual closing print that concludes all executive orders.

(c) This Executive Order is not intended to, and does not, create any right or benefit, substantive or procedural, enforceable at law or in equity against the United States, its departments, agencies, entities, officers, employees or agents, or any other person.

The executive order isn't the law of the land. No executive order ever has been the law of the land. Bart Stupak held out for months on the principle that siphoning federal funds to abortion doctors is wrong. He wanted specific legal protections in ObamaCare to this effect. Instead he got a loosely-worded executive order that becomes irrelevant if the law is changed or if the president decides he doesn't like it anymore. When Stupak's deal was struck yesterday, the House Pro-Choice Caucus stayed silent. Later every one of them voted in favor of the bill. They understand what eluded Bart Stupak: this ultimately means nothing.

Mark Levin plans to sue if ObamaCare becomes law

Mark Levin, the popular conservative radio host and constitutional lawyer, announced on his radio show yesterday that he would immediately file a lawsuit if Democrats passed ObamaCare using the Slaughter Solution.

Levin's legal complaint quotes Article I, Section 7, clause 2 of the Constitution, which necessitates that, "But in all such cases the votes of both Houses shall be determined by yeas and nays, and the names of the persons voting for and against the bill shall be entered on the journal of each House respectively.” Levin plans to argue that because the House will vote for the reconciliation sidecar rather than the actual Senate bill under the Slaughter Solution, health care reform will have been passed unconstitutionally. The lawsuit, which will be filed by Levin's Landmark Legal Foundation, directly names Barack Obama, Timothy Geithner, Eric Holder, and Kathleen Sebelius.

Levin won't be alone. C.L. "Butch" Otter, the governor of Idaho, signed a bill today mandating the state's attorney general to sue the federal government if ObamaCare becomes law. Otter is specifically targeting the individual mandate, the unconstitutional provision that would force every citizen to buy health insurance or face a punitive fine. As we reported yesterday, other states are actually considering nullifying health care reform if it becomes law.