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Success Of Obamacare Might Translate Into Political Success
The Moderate Voice ^ | April 18, 2014 | Dr. Ron Chusid

Posted on 04/18/2014 9:15:44 PM PDT by 2ndDivisionVet

The number of people signing up for private insurance coverage under the Affordable Care Act has now reached eight million. While primarily symbolic, it does represent a victory after initial projections of seven million were reduced to six million due to the problems when the exchanges opened. We know that if they failed to meet these projections, Republicans would be making a big deal of them. In addition, late enrollees included a high percentage of young people.

Good news means more positive head lines, such as National Journal writing that Obamacare is on a Winning Streak. The political climate is changing, with some Democrats now being more willing to run on its success. I think it is essential that they do this to reduce the risk of the loss of a large number of seats this November. The evidence shows that Obamacare is a success but if Democrats don’t defend it, voters will only hear Republican attacks. Hiding from Obamacare will only make Democrats look weaker, and will not protect them from voters who vote against Democrats based upon Republican misinformation.

Ezra Klein writes that the right suffers from Obamacare Derangement Syndrome, being unable to admit that it is working:

Republicans used to talk about Bush Derangement Syndrome. Washington Post columnist Charles Krauthammer defined it as “the acute onset of paranoia in otherwise normal people in reaction to the policies, the presidency?— nay — the very existence of George W. Bush.” Republicans like Krauthammer understood that BDS helped the Bush administration in two ways: it fired up their supporters and it distracted liberals from more modest, but effective, critiques.

Today, the right struggles with Obamacare Derangement Syndrome: the acute inability to see Obamacare as anything but a catastrophic failure that the American people will soon reject. For those suffering from ODS, all bad Obamacare news is good news, and all good Obamacare news is spin. In this world, delays of minor provisions in the law prove that the entire structure is collapsing, while surges of millions of people enrolling in insurance don’t prove anything at all…

But it’s coming at a moment when Obamacare’s successes are getting tougher and tougher to deny. The law signed up more than 7.5 million people in the exchanges, more than 3.5 million people in Medicaid, and it led millions more to get health care through their employers or directly through insurers. Premiums are lower than the Congressional Budget Office predicted when the law passed, and insurers are already thinking about how to compete for applicants in 2015. The White House has a much better story to tell than anyone — including me — thought possible in December.

For Republican pundits it might not matter that Obamacare is a success. Republicans show more intensity in their views, and very little concern for the truth. Campaigning against Obamacare might still motivate Republicans to get out and vote.

Andrew Sullivan might be a bit overly optimistic about the political effects of the success of Obamacare, but I hope he is right:

There’s simply no denying that the law has been rescued by an impressive post-fiasco operation that did to ACA-opponents what the Obama campaign did to the Clintons in 2008 and to Romney in 2012. Obama out-muscled the nay-sayers on the ground. I have a feeling that this has yet to fully sink in with the public, and when it does, the politics of this might change. (Since the law was pummeled at the get-go as something beyond the skills of the federal government to implement, its subsequent successful implementation would seem to me to do a lot to reverse the damage.) There are some signs that this is happening. A new Reuters/Ipsos poll finds the following:

Nearly one-third of respondents in the online survey released on Tuesday said they prefer Democrats’ plan, policy or approach to healthcare, compared to just 18 percent for Republicans. This marks both an uptick in support for Democrats and a slide for Republicans since a similar poll in February.

That’s mainly because of renewed confidence and support from previously demoralized Democrats. But it’s also a reflection, it seems to me, of the political vulnerability of Republicans who have failed to present a viable alternative to the law, and indeed seem set, in the eyes of most voters, merely to repeal ACA provisions that are individually popular. And this bad position is very likely to endure because of the intensity of the loathing for Obama/Obamacare among the Medicare recipients in the GOP base. It seems to me that right now, the GOP cannot offer an alternative that keeps the more popular parts of Obamacare without the air fast leaking out of their mid-term election balloon. And so by the fall, the political dynamics of this may shift some more in Obama’s direction. By 2016, that could be even more dramatic. One party – the GOP – will be offering unnerving change back to the status quo ante, and the other will be proposing incremental reform of the ACA. The only thing more likely to propel Hillary Clinton’s candidacy would be a Republican House and Senate next January.

It’s that long game thing again, isn’t it? Like the civil rights revolution of the Obama years, it seemed a close-to-impossible effort to start with, and then was gradually, skillfully ground out. It also seems true to me that the non-event of the ACA for many, many people will likely undermine some of the hysteria on the right. The ACA-opponents may be in danger of seeming to cry wolf over something that isn’t that big a deal. Yes, they may have premium hikes to tout as evidence of the alleged disaster. And every single piece of bad news on the healthcare front will be attributed to the ACA, fairly or not. But the public will still want to know how premiums can go down without people with pre-existing conditions being kicked out of the system, or without kids being kicked off their parents’ plan, and so on. I think, in other words, that the GOP’s position made a lot of short-term political sense in 2010 and even 2012. But it’s a much tougher sell in 2014, let alone 2016. Once again, they have substituted tactics for strategy. Every time they have done that with Obama, they have failed.

Sullivan described how he has benefited from the Affordable Care Act and concluded, “Yes, I am just one tiny, and rare example. But for me, at least, Obamacare has over-delivered and over-performed. If my experience is replicated more widely, then I suspect the polling and politics will shift yet again.”

Dr. Ronald Chusid


TOPICS: Business/Economy; Culture/Society; Government; Politics/Elections
KEYWORDS: 2014; democrats; obama; obamacare
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To: jsanders2001

They probably gave free computers and free internet service for life to anyone who signed up. For those who already get free internet service they probably just gave cash.


41 posted on 04/18/2014 10:58:09 PM PDT by VerySadAmerican
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

What ObamaCare “success” is he talking about? The boy thinks and talks like he might live in Colorado or Washington state, if you get my drift.


42 posted on 04/18/2014 11:29:42 PM PDT by FlingWingFlyer (Obama's smidgens are coming home to roost.)
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To: FlingWingFlyer

And vacations in Amsterdam, if you catch my drift.


43 posted on 04/18/2014 11:33:48 PM PDT by 2ndDivisionVet (I will raise $2M for Cruz and/or Palin's next run, what will you do?)
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

This is Hugh!!!

Don’t check intobthe numbers and see how many are actual paid customers and how many were formerly insured


44 posted on 04/18/2014 11:56:08 PM PDT by Vendome (Don't take life so seriously-you won't live through it anyway-Enjoy Yourself ala Louis Prima)
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

His first delusion among many is that 8 million people have signed up.


45 posted on 04/19/2014 1:04:02 AM PDT by fwdude ( You cannot compromise with that which you must defeat.)
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

Anyone who believes that ObamaCare has been, in any sense, a success is too mentally defective to credit.


46 posted on 04/19/2014 1:45:57 AM PDT by Jack Hammer
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

Most places showcase leftist nutcases and use them as part of their arguments - FR posters use them for a good chuckle.


47 posted on 04/19/2014 3:42:22 AM PDT by trebb (Where in the the hell has my country gone?)
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

Meet your new doctor, Dr. Dre.


48 posted on 04/19/2014 3:48:49 AM PDT by windsorknot
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To: umgud

You are only looking at the financial aspect of Obamacare at the beginning. There are a sparse amount of doctors and hospitals, long waits, not to mention lousy care.


49 posted on 04/19/2014 3:52:28 AM PDT by dforest
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To: 2ndDivisionVet
IF every FreeRepublic member emailed or called the HHS Inspector General's office (see below) and asked for some detail on the "8+ Million Enrollees" in OBozoCare, maybe we might actually get some serious stats about its success(?).

Details; Like...how many new enrollees were previously insured but lost their insurance due to OBozoCare's new 'standards'; Like...how many of the new enrollees are first time Medicaid participants; Like...what is the total cost (and average cost per enrollee) of government subsidy to get new enrollments in OBozoCare.

Maybe, just maybe, if the HHS OIG office gets inundated with requests for detail they will get the message that it ain't gonna be pretty when the REAL facts about OBozoCare finally see the light of day.

Bottom line; we have much to do before the mid-term elections.

From the HHS OIG Website...

For questions of a general nature regarding the Office of Inspector General, please contact Public Affairs.

Phone: (202) 619-1343
Email: Public.Affairs@oig.hhs.gov

50 posted on 04/19/2014 3:58:17 AM PDT by harpu ( "...it's better to be hated for who you are than loved for someone you're not!")
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To: Sarah Barracuda

I wonder if Obamacare covers loss of control of your bladder..

You may want to check in to that ;)

Ask for pack of Depends over the pain pill.. maybe.. just maybe, they will give you a roll of paper towels you can stick in your underpants ;)


51 posted on 04/19/2014 4:56:30 AM PDT by cableguymn (It's time for a second political party.)
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To: All

Wellpoint CEO Says Obamacare Premiums ‘Likely’ to Double

http://americanthinker.com/blog/2014/04/wellpoint_ceo_says_obamacare_premiums_likely_to_double_.html


52 posted on 04/19/2014 5:56:14 AM PDT by Hotlanta Mike ("Governing a great nation is like cooking a small fish - too much handling will spoil it." Lao Tzu)
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To: cableguymn

Hey I did say “Almost” LOL


53 posted on 04/19/2014 10:52:16 AM PDT by Sarah Barracuda
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