Americans have been losing access to their favorite insurance polices, doctors, hospitals, and necessary drugs as a result of Obama Care. Americans have been losing their jobs or having their work hours reduced as a result of Obama Care. The ineptness used to build Obama Care data systems processes is creating unheard of dangers from identity theft thieves. The economic health of the country has been drained, creating chronic under employment and under employment.
Outside of these impacts, everything is going fine. Or are they? Let’s see what disasters we have to look forward to today:
1) First, the President blamed the insurance companies for canceling insurance policies of millions of Americans. But it is clear to anyone with half an interest in current events that the Obama Care legislation was intentionally written in such a way to ensure that millions of current and happy insurance policy holders would lose access to their current policies. The President needed a scapegoat to take attention off of what is turning out to be a horrible experience for individual Americans and the country as a whole.
But according to a report in the Washington Examiner on November 16, 2013, the President also likes insurance companies. The article reports that after meeting with insurance industry representatives at a White House meeting, there was solid speculation and evidence that the President was going to offer the insurance companies taxpayer funded subsidies to cover up his administration's massive foul ups in the rollout of Obama Care.
But supporting insurance companies should come as no surprise for this President or this political class. When running for President in 2008, he got $1.34 million from the “Health Services/HMOs” industry, according to the Center for Responsive Politics. That is the most any candidate has ever raised from this industry in the history of this country, and more than twice what John McCain raised that year. Thus, as a potential payback for past political support, the President may support these political cronies with more taxpayer money as a result of his administration’s Obama Care screw-ups.
The cronyism continued after the 2008 election when shortly after the President’s election, America’s Health Insurance Plans (AHIP), the top lobby for the health care insurance industry, announced a reform proposal that ended up forming the heart of Obama Care: an individual mandate, plus a requirement that insurers cover all comers and all pre-existing conditions.
2) But this cronyism relationship has other aspect also. The Washington Examiner also recently reported on another Presidential health insurance tie in. During the development of the legislation, the health insurance industry pledged a million dollars in advertising buys promoting “reform.” Shortly afterwards, Obama dropped the insurers’ most hated proposal: a government-run insurer, or “public option.” Obama soon also adopted the industry’s Holy Grail: the individual mandate. Of course, insurance subsidies were always part of the proposal.
3) Not only is Obama Care dangerous to Americans' health as Americans lose access to doctors, policies, hospitals, and needed medicines, it also is dangerous to individual opinions and the First Amendment. The Washington Post reported on November 16, 2013 that the Washington D.C. insurance commissioner, William P. White, was fired from his job a day after questioning a fix to Obama Care.
Specifically, Mr. White criticized the President’s plan to try and reinstate the deactivated policies that were terminated as a result of Obama Care. However, such a reversal by Obama rattled the insurance industry, which had already established policy prices for next year, based on the requirement that many of their policy offerings had to change to comply with the health-care law. Mr. White correctly pointed out that allowing some plans to continue beyond January 1 could also run afoul of provisions in laws passed by dozens of states and the District to implement the Affordable Care Act.
He was fired after being called into a Friday meeting in late November with one of Mayor Vincent C. Gray’s top deputies. White was told that the mayor “wants to go in a different direction,” White told The Washington Post the next day.
Who does not think that someone in the Obama White House made a call to a political DC crony and “suggested” that Mr. White be terminated for daring to state the obvious: Obama Care is a disaster? Another side effect of Obama Care: First Amendment destruction attacks.
4) President Obama has claimed that he was not made aware of the myriad of problems and issues that have risen since Obama Care provision went live on October 1, 2013. However, according to a Reuters report from late November, the President DID know about the unfolding disasters that came a reality two months ago:
President Barack Obama, who has portrayed himself as surprised by technical problems with the government’s new health care website, was briefed last spring on a detailed consultant’s report that warned of system failure, White House spokesman Jay Carney said on Tuesday.
Carney said the president’s familiarity with the report and recommendations by McKinsey & Co did not contradict previous statements from the White House that described Obama as surprised by the scope of flaws in HealthCare.gov since it opened for people to enroll for insurance coverage on October 1.
You cannot have it both ways. You either did not see the report and were surprised or you did see the report and have lied about your ignorance. You cannot talk out of both sides of your mouth and verify that he did get briefed on the likely problems AND he was not aware of the likely problems. But in Obama Care’s reality, truth often takes a back seat to political spin. In our reality, it is called being a liar.
5) An editorial piece from the Detroit News on November 24, 2013 does a real nice job of describing how Obama Care, and other current federal government policies, are assaults on the middle class in America, “Obamacare Will Kill The Middle Class.” Rather than try an explain their rationale, I hope they do not mind that I have copied it in its entirety below, they do a much better summary of the assaults on the middle class than I could ever do:
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Obamacare will kill middle class
Obamacare is the biggest assault ever on the middle class.
Obamacare will kill middle class
Obamacare is the biggest assault ever on the middle class.
If not radically altered or repealed, it will diminish lifestyles and increase the financial struggles of average individuals and families. Combined with other costly government meddling in the economy, it will destroy the concept of an American middle
Incomes that over the past decade have barely kept pace with inflation will not absorb the surging cost of health insurance that will come for many, if not most people, on Jan. 1.
We’re painfully familiar with Obamacare’s impact on the individual insurance market.
Those who buy their own insurance are seeing policies canceled and replaced with ones costing two to three times as much. President Barack Obama’s fake fix won’t provide much relief.
But Obamacare’s pain is spread much broader. Those with employer-provided insurance are also getting stung. Policies that previously asked for manageable contributions from employees will now carry either much higher monthly premiums or outrageous deductibles and co-pays, or both. Out-of-pocket costs are leaping to an average $5,000 to $6,000 annually for individuals, and $10,000 to $12,000 for families.
That means a young, middle class couple that decides to have a baby will come home with both an infant and a $10,000 bill for delivery and related care. Maybe it’s a good thing Obamacare mandates contraception coverage. Only the poor and the rich will be able to afford to have babies.
These middle-class workers with employer-provided policies likely won’t be eligible for government health insurance subsidies. Many will face the unsavory reality that they may be better off not working.
Obamacare was sold as a path to making America healthier by giving everyone insurance coverage. But what good is insurance you can’t afford to use? How many people will put off recommended tests and treatments because they don’t have the money to pay the deductible?
This is what it looks like when government tries to create a more perfect society by intervening in the private economy and taking away consumer choice. And it’s just the latest example. Government regulations cost the economy $1.75 trillion a year, according to the Competitive Enterprise Institute.
That shows up in higher costs for food because ethanol mandates make corn more expensive, for utility bills because EPA regulations restrict the burning of cheap coal, for automobiles because relentless hikes in emissions and mileage standards require ultra-expensive technology.
What those regulations don’t do is increase average earnings. While middle class buying power is dwindling, middle class paychecks are standing still because policies such as Obamacare and the war on coal and oil depress hiring and drive down the demand for workers.
The left blames globalization and greedy CEOs for the plight of the middle class. But nothing has hurt middle America more than the government trying to help it
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I could not have said it better, the political class and the Federal government have turned themselves into the masters rather than the servants of the American people, our democracy, and our liberties. You cannot have political and personal freedom without economic freedom and Obama Care, high taxes, EPA overreach, etc. destroy whatever economic freedom that may have existed previously for the middle class in America.
Crony politics, political contributions for favorable legislation, assaults on the First Amendment, and the destruction of the American political class. Sounds bout right for one day of Obama Care disasters. More disasters through at least tomorrow.
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