Posted on 10/24/2013 7:58:30 AM PDT by SeekAndFind
Three weeks after the launch of the Obamacare exchanges that were three years in the making, the Obama administration is in full spin mode trying to contain the damage caused by the flawed $400-plus million Healthcare.gov website.
After myriads of structural problems and security concerns — even shutting down the entire website for repair — there is broad bipartisan agreement that Obamacare isn’t ready for prime time.
Former White House press secretary Robert Gibbs referred to the rollout as “excruciatingly embarrassing.” Jon Stewart said Democrats can’t “spin this turd.” And just 12 percent of Americans believe the launch has gone well, according to a new CBS News poll.
Despite this failure, President Obama remains committed to using the power of government to force every American to buy an expensive product they overwhelmingly do not want. And if they do happen to want it, well, be prepared to wait weeks or months until the website is no longer defective to sign up.
Appallingly, the Obama administration — just not the president himself, we’re supposed to believe — was warned about the troubled website by experts and insurance companies long before the October 1 public launch; yet they decided to go full speed ahead with the exchanges anyway. As we’ve seen from Day One, advancing a political agenda rather than doing what’s best for the American people is this presidency’s top priority.
All of this led to President Obama’s holding a half infomercial, half pep rally at the White House this week, replete with a 1-800 number and the same recycled talking points from the past three years. Unsurprisingly, no personal responsibility was taken nor was a timeline for a fully functioning website outlined.
The president was introduced by the only person in the entire state of Delaware who was able to outlast the website crashes and enroll in the state’s exchange. It only took her eleven days, seven hours of trying, and clearing her computer’s temporary data. Many of the other human props standing on stage with the president hadn’t even enrolled yet, but the White House called them “success stories” nonetheless.
However, one of President Obama’s talking points at the event did ring true: “The Affordable Care Act is not just a website. It’s much more.” Finally, some straight talk.
The disastrous Healthcare.gov website is actually a symptom of a larger disease known as government-run health care.
If government bureaucrats have proven too incompetent to launch a website, then imagine them trying to manage one-sixth of the entire economy by centralizing health-care decisions in Washington, D.C. Obamacare is leading to a doctor shortage, full-time jobs being cut to part-time, workers losing their jobs, and insurance premiums going up or plans being canceled altogether.
Indeed, it’s more than a website.
The sad reality is that Americans will still be suffering under Obamacare long after the millions of lines of broken code on Healthcare.gov are fixed.
Every day I hear from hardworking Americans across the country whose lives have been turned upside down thanks to Obamacare. Jennifer from my home state of Minnesota is just one of the many heartbreaking examples. She recently wrote to tell me her 55-year-old mother-in-law is losing her job at the end of the year and will likely have to sell her home.
I also recently heard from Cara, a stay-at-home mom in Texas. Her husband is the sole provider for their family of four, and their health-care premiums have gone up by 70 percent this year.
These stories of job loss and rate shock have largely been overshadowed by the website debacle, but they are not fixable like broken code. They are Obamacare’s main features.
In the coming months it will become increasingly clear to the American people why the House has consistently held firm on the need to dismantle Obamacare — it seems everyone but the people who voted for Obamacare saw these devastating consequences coming.
As more Americans struggle under Obamacare’s burden, I believe the pressure will build on President Obama to give the same relief to average Americans that he already gave to big business.
There’s no sugarcoating it: Obamacare is forcing every American to purchase a health-insurance policy they don’t want at a price they can’t afford from a website that doesn’t work.
If President Obama is so intent on selling his troubled health-care law to the country, why not sign up for it himself? Until then, why not make it voluntary for the rest of us?
— Representative Michele Bachmann represents Minnesota’s Sixth Congressional District and is the chairwoman of the Tea Party Caucus.
Even if it was voluntary they have jacked up the prices and the deductibles to subsidize others. There are so many other parts of the ACA that are damaging that even if it were voluntary the system is still going to be badly misaligned.
Obamacare will never be made “voluntary” because it is simply another way for the government to reach into the pockets of the citizens who pay the freight.
It’s all about power. Nothing more, nothing less.
If Obamacare is made voluntary, this means it will be a MONEY DRAIN on the treasury.
If there is no TAX ( or Penalty ) for not enrolling, who the heck will be motivated to enroll? ( Just look at the PRICES you have to pay for the Bronze, Silver and Platinum plans )?
I’ll tell you who — Only the sick and those who don’t earn enough such that they would need a subsidy.
In which case, this will simply be money down the sinkhole.
Might as well throw everyone into MEDICAID and be done with it.
I fully support Multiple-Payer health care, so this is a great idea.
I've been asking that question and haven't gotten a good answer back yet. Why should it be mandatory?
She probably knows that it has totally screwed up “the system”. It’s because it claims for the government power over so many aspects of the healthcare insurance and delivery system, not just individuals.
But I have this thought. If truly voluntary, that would mean voluntary for the health insurers and the care providers and individuals and Hobby Lobby and the Catholic nuns and on and on.
If there was no compulsion in obamacare, but it was voluntary up and down the line, THAT’S when it would truly fall of its on weight.
Socialism can never be voluntary, because the makers will opt out and the takers will opt in.
This is why the left gets so outraged at any talk of secession.
I support “Individual Payer” health care.
Those who get it free and heavily subsidized will enroll and you know this will end up being another welfare program, if its not already.
The laws about what has to be insured, laws against expansion of physician-owned hospitals, laws making them take pre-existing etc etc will still be in effect if this was made voluntary.
It Already is to some degree Michelle Babe.
I had a much better idea I posted many times here that was completely ignored.(just another poster)
Instead of repealing Obamacare for ALL states which was a battle designed to lose and did, the GOP should have made a case for a bill to allow individual states to completely opt out including the taxes. Completely.
Romney and Ryan should have debated that.
But no, GOP just had to keep passing imaginary repeals for ALL states including blue ones, accomplishing ZERO.
GOOD IDEA!
Then all 57 people that actually think that they want it will get it and the rest of us 300 million won’t have to suffer.
Too bad Democrats don’t know math
When she says make it voluntary, I don’t think its because she thinks it will work as a voluntary system. I think that’s really her underlying point that she’s making.
But instead of her dealing with your point of throwing everyone on medicaid - which was that it would be better than allowing obamacare to remain intact as a drain on the treasury - her single minded focus has always been to achieve the demise of obamacare, and making it voluntary would actally assist in that (in her mind, is my opinion of what she’s trying to do).
As for what to do with the poor who are uninsured who need or want insurance, that’s another story because medicaid could be expanded, yes, but is already broken.
Perry and other governors have long tried to get waivers from medicaid so they could design their own in-state systems for the poor’s healthcare.
No surprise - the FEDS say no.
Making it voluntary does not resolve many of the issues.
For example, what about those who have already been dropped by their current insurances?
It is the ‘mandated’ coverage that is one major issue. Would that continue under a ‘voluntary’ Obamacare? If so, then premiums still rise for private policies. If not, then basically it nullifies Obamacare.
Also, who is going to pay for the ‘mandated’ provisions of Obamacare? Right now, they want young workers to pay in for a year or more before they are even eligible for benefit coverage — to create a slush fund for Obamacare.
Rep. Bachmann’s solution is simplistic and probably not workable. It is probably too late to turn it into a voluntary system — since it is now in effect. Obamacare is like the alien with tentacles that wrap around all aspects of the healthcare industry. Once it takes hold, you cannot extract just parts.
Rep. Bachmann has put about as much thought into her solution as Pelosi did into Obamacare [and we know Pelosi didn’t even read the bill before it was passed].
Also part of the obozocare ploy; make health insurance so unaffordable for millions of baby boomers that it leads to early death so the government won’t have to pay them SS benefits. Since the government (Congress) has spent SS funds on themselves and things other than SS benefits, how to pay for the baby boomers has been a problem for decades. Not any more!
Nothing the Marxists have ever invented has been voluntary. In order for the collective to function properly, all citizens must be required to participate even if it takes a wall to keep them from escaping.
She feels compelled to open her mouth but as she frequently does, she emits blather
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