Posted on 06/28/2014 11:29:34 AM PDT by SeekAndFind
Have you been following the news about Obamacare? The Affordable Care Act has receded from the front page, but information about how it’s going keeps coming in — and almost all the news is good. Indeed, health reform has been on a roll ever since March, when it became clear that enrollment would surpass expectations despite the teething problems of the federal website.
What’s interesting about this success story is that it has been accompanied at every step by cries of impending disaster. At this point, by my reckoning, the enemies of health reform are 0 for 6. That is, they made at least six distinct predictions about how Obamacare would fail — every one of which turned out to be wrong.
“To err is human,” wrote Seneca. “To persist is diabolical.” Everyone makes incorrect predictions. But to be that consistently, grossly wrong takes special effort. So what’s this all about?
Many readers won’t be surprised by the answer: It’s about politics and ideology, not analysis. But while this observation isn’t particularly startling, it’s worth pointing out just how completely ideology has trumped evidence in the health policy debate.
And I’m not just talking about the politicians; I’m talking about the wonks. It’s remarkable how many supposed experts on health care made claims about Obamacare that were clearly unsupportable. For example, remember “rate shock”? Last fall, when we got our first information about insurance premiums, conservative health care analysts raced to claim that consumers were facing a huge increase in their expenses. It was obvious, even at the time, that these claims were misleading; we now know that the great majority of Americans buying insurance through the new exchanges are getting coverage quite cheaply.
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
Usual crap. Obamacare is a massive failure, massively unpopular. All it has done is sign millions up for Medicaid on my taxpayer dime. Krugman also managed Enron, so best to ignore him
The “death spiral” is a spiral - it doesn’t happen overnight - whether it actually does happen we find out in the future, when we get feedback from how premiums and coverage costs correspond. I don’t even have a Nobel Prize in economics, and I can understand that point.
And at a more fundamental level, what we have now is not Obamacare, it’s a small subset of Obamacare. Mr. Krugman can get back to me with his snark once all the delays, exceptions, cut-outs, and hold-overs have expired, and the entire public has to walk around with this albatross.
The father of a friend on mine has been waiting since March 1 to see a cardiologist, he is still waiting. I am not talking about the VA.
(Martha) RADDATZ: Let me ask you this, I want to go back to this implementation, because we can’t quite go forward yet. Did you feel misled by Obama?
(Senator Kristen) GILLIBRAND: He should have just been more specific, because the point is if you’re offered by a terrible health care plan that the minute you get sick, you’re going to have to go into bankruptcy, those plans should never be offered.
RADDATZ: So, were you misled?
GILLIBRAND: He should have just been specific.
No, we all knew...
I almost feel sorry for Krugman.
FORWARD COMRADES!!!
So it just doesn’t count that people are losing their insurance, their doctors, and paying through the nose for the privilege. Those enrollment numbers are up (forced at the point of a penalty or worse).
Why should they care? They’re exempt.
When should be able to euthanize this creep, under the aegis of the complete lives system.
I’m going to enjoy the look on Krugholes face when Ophonybamacare is declared a colossal failure and is replaced by a FRee market healthcare system!
One thing we can thank God for is that neither Osama Obama nor any of his rich,privileged pals will ever have to wait 4 or 5 *seconds*,let alone days,for *anything*.
How come Obamacare’s biggest champions are people who are exempt?
Since much of this calamity has been postponed until after the ‘14 and even ‘16 elections, it is far too soon for this Obama cultist to hoist the “Mission Accomplished” banner.
How can it be working when all of its key features have been delayed for political reasons?
You can safely ignore the scare-monger’s rumors of Soviet troops and vehicles in Seelowe Heights. We’ve taken Moscow and are rapidly driving east.
I’ll bet Krugman has pinup posters of Barry all over his bedroom walls.
It is working just fine except for the ones who need it or have it. Otherwise..its a winner!
Not even half of Obamacare has been implemented after all Obama’s waivers for favored groups and his putting off many major components, including the biggest component of all which is implementation of the employer mandate.
No one but an idiot or an Obama apologist would be declaring success at this stage.
But wait until they try to turn that into healthcare.
Then they'll find out how much paper is worth.
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