Posted on 04/03/2014 4:14:25 AM PDT by Cincinatus' Wife
Reaching more than 7 million new enrollments in an unpopular healthcare program, using a still breaking website, is indeed a formidable accomplishment for the Affordable Care Act (ACA). And in touting the positive development Tuesday, President Obama was correct in describing new access to healthcare as “progress,” stating that Armageddon had not arrived and declaring that the debate over repealing ObamaCare has ended. But until Democrats work with Republicans to change it, the ACA will remain their worst political liability and could ultimately become their worst regret.
Four years after a partisan process produced ObamaCare, the program is more political than ever: A new Gallup poll shows support for the ACA is dependent on party affiliation, with Republicans 17 times more like to disapprove than Democrats. Even worse for Democrats is that independent voters are five times more likely to disapprove as well.
No matter the polls, the ACA is a permanent new entitlement no party can take away. In an acknowledgment of that reality, House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) responded to the enrollment news — noting his own premiums have doubled and his co-pays have tripled — by stating that his conference is searching for consensus on how to replace the ACA. Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal, a 2016 presidential hopeful, also just declared his own plans to replace ObamaCare, urging Republicans to “cut and paste from it.”
The president’s political advisers have made clear that now that open enrollment has ended, they want the subject changed. Obama plans to talk up income inequality and the need to increase the minimum wage. But, as the president promised “there will be additional challenges to implementing this law,” he should consider promising changes as well, in time to save his Democratic majority in the Senate.
Obama knows that, should the GOP win a majority in both houses of Congress, or even if Democrats hold a slim majority in the Senate next year, Democrats will move to reform the ACA, and that Hillary Clinton — or any Democratic 2016 candidate — will as well. Why not push for it now?
So far, the administration has made it a practice to only release appealing enrollment data, like the number of new people covered in the exchanges. Though we know it took $52 million in paid media from January through March alone to attract enrollees, we still don’t know how many have paid; how many are in Medicaid; how many are low-risk, healthy patients; and how many are newly insured after losing their original plans. We don’t know how many will make a first payment only to drop off later, how many people have lost their doctor, or how many are now paying more for coverage. Those people might be enrolled — and telling everyone they know, like Boehner, how displeased they are. Time will tell all of that, if not in accurate enrollment data released by the administration with the transparency Obama has promised, then at the ballot box.
Obama is likely hoping, as he always does, that time will change minds. He hopes months or years will bring more coverage to the uninsured, strengthen the ACA and ultimately convince critics the system is not only sustainable but affordable. But in the near term, as long as Republicans and independents can’t stand ObamaCare, Democrats will lose red states, and possibly purple ones, too. If they lose power, they will undoubtedly blame it on ObamaCare.
Convincing Republicans of the law’s merits is far more difficult than working with them to change it. Encouraging Democrats to try and fix ObamaCare now could mean Democrats keeping the Senate instead of losing it. In the long run, Obama’s only hope is change.
Romney and RomneyCARE and the GOPe will save Obama again.
Not for nothing does the G.O.P. stand for:
GAVE. OBAMA. POWER.
Prove to me that 7.1 million people are enrolled.
My thoughts exactly. Like he hasn’t lied before.....
Reaching more than 7 million new enrollments in an unpopular healthcare program, using a still breaking website, is indeed a formidable accomplishment for the Affordable Care Act (ACA).
First line premise is a lie...no need to read further.
7 million new enrollments and 5 people actually paying for it. The rest are subsidized, in prison or illegals.
The problem is that Obama can no longer talk up anything.
He is acknowledged as a serial liar and no one believes anything he says.
Since the only thing he can do is talk and destroy, his days as a changer are effectively over.
There is no hope
Obamacare is a “permanent” entitlement, only in the sense that the military draft is a “permanent” program. Technically, we still have the draft, but its application is much more passive than it was in 1967, when the threat caused a great many more “voluntary” enlistments than might otherwise have happened in the normal course of things.
But the potential for conscription remains, and an overly ambitious (but incompetent) President may be persuaded that the draft is necessary and appropriate, if a program of expansion of “national interest” through the force of arms is advocated and undertaken.
Consider Woodrow Wilson(WW I), FDR (WW II), Truman (Korea), and Kennedy-Johnson (Viet Nam), where weakness in international affairs, and over-management of domestic policy, led to our participation in all those conflicts.
Wrong A.B. - O-holeCare must END!
You mean above and beyond the 47% of the nation that mooch off the rest?
It is possible to kill something with a thousand cuts.
The only idea that needs consideration after this is killed is preexisting conditions.
The 26 year old on a parent's policy is a little a bit over the top. I would change that to a simple "anyone can pay the premium to put anyone on their policy."
Then it's no different than choosing a group telephone package. But you pay for it. That way consumers look for the cheapest way to put together a package that covers everyone they care for.
Ultimately, the market is the best way to handle health insurance. It should have nothing to do with employers or the government. Like your car insurance, you should buy your health insurance, and if you bring that company a group instead of a single household, then they should be fine with that.
Pre-existing conditions could be specialty insurance pools overseen by state insurance oversight bodies, and would include those whose insurance maximums had been reached.
Minimum insurance is left up to each citizen. If someone wants a 10,000 deductible and then insurance kicks in, then that's their business. However, I would permit tax free medical savings accounts, and in the case of any sales tax, medical care and prescriptions would be exempt.
Meanwhile, America's only hope is that ObamaCare be repealed.
I was in the insurance biz for years, and you are absolutely spot on. That would work.
Thanks, AAM.
I’ve always wondered if employers really pay the amounts they say they do per policy. It always struck me that it should include some kind of reimbursement if their group didn’t spend that much.
What makes me wonder is my wife’s policy at her place of employment. I’m a military retiree, so she could easily be on my policy. However, her employer says he pays 15,000 a year for her family policy, but if she goes on mine, they only offer a one time payment of 3,000 to her.
Seems like if they were saving 12000+ a year that that amount would be considerably higher and annual rather than one time. So, it’s made me wonder if they were really paying what they claimed they were paying.
Do you have any insight on that?
‘Mend it don't end it’ line.
He's already changed it, illegally, 38 times.
Very, very wrong.
It is clear to me that the Left in this country cares not if I live or die. A sobering thought.
I cannot describe the degree to which I despise what this country has become under the decades of liberal influence.
That line didn't work for Alex Sink in the FL special election. Polls show it's not working for vulnerable Dems in conservative and swing states, either (Landrieu, Begich, Hagan, et al).
Regarding how many have paid, Blue Cross is reporting that 15-20% of those enrolled have not paid anything. I imagine there will be eventual attrition among those who have paid and come to realize that's it's taking a big bite out of their budget.
Large employers are saying that Nobamacare is going to add $5,000 per employee to their bottom line. So they will have little choice except to 1) lay off people and/or 2) increase employees' contributions 3) and/or cancel coverage and perhaps offer employees a lump sum with which to purchase their own coverage.
Those large employer problems won't hit the fan until after the election by way of The One's decree.
If the ratio of healthy to sick people who signed up is not advantageous to insurers (as is expected), premiums will have to rise. We'll know that as early as summer.
There are going to be some very entertaining Rat town meetings leading up to the election.
Why is 7 million a “formidable accomplishment”? There is so much wrong with this statement. First, who actually believes this number? Ms Stoddard and the rest of the sycophantic press obviously but not most informed people. How many have paid? They can’t or won’t say. How is this even possible when the back end of the website isn’t even built? Are you telling me 1 million people signed up on the last day when the website was down for most of the time? Really? What percent went straight to Medicaid? Can’t or won’t say. How many of the previously uninsured got insured? All 30 million? Can’t or won’t say. Does coverage equal healthcare? Can’t or won’t say.
This is a joke and so are most of the so called “journalists” who continue to shill for the Democrat Party and Obama. 7 million is a pathetic number. If this were a program that was voluntary maybe I would agree with Ms. Stoddard but it is not. As Democrats are fond of saying, “It’s the law.” At the point of a gun and the IRS Americans have been mandated to buy this pathetic product.
And just wait until the full law is enacted and employers begin to dump millions more onto these crappy networks. Wonder what excuse Ms. Stoddard and her ilk will use to continue to prop up these haters of Liberty.
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