25 October 2016

Notes form Norm: Craziness of Obamacare

“So you’ve got this crazy system where all of a sudden 25 million more people have health care and then the people who are out there busting it, sometimes 60 hours a week, wind up with their premiums doubled and their coverage cut in half. It’s the craziest thing in the world.” – President Bill Clinton 10/05/2016

 “Ultimately … the reality is the Affordable Care Act is no longer affordable for an increasing number of people…”  – Governor Mark Dayton, Democrat 10/12/2016

In a sign that issues don’t matter in this year’s Presidential election — especially to the liberal media — the news that Bill Clinton said publicly what conservatives have been saying about ObamaCare since the beginning of time was met, for the most part, with a yawn.

That one of the most unapologetic advocates for ObamaCare, Minnesota Governor Mark Dayton, conceded that the system has become too expensive, further underscoring what the former President said about the wrongly named “Affordable Care Act.”

While Clinton and Dayton ultimately walked back their criticism of ObamaCare their initial candid assessment was spot on.

There is no doubt in my mind that if ObamaCare was on the ballot in 2016 Republicans would not only win the White House, but they would increase their majorities in the House and the Senate.

In Minnesota, Republicans would not only keep their hold on the House of Representatives, but surely sweep Democrats from control of the State Senate.

There’s evidence of this happening before when in 2014 Democrats were roundly throttled at the polls because of the deceit that created ObamaCare became clearer in the form of lost coverage, families losing their doctors despite promises by the President that they wouldn’t and higher premium costs for policyholders.

Today, the ObamaCare disaster is coming at the end of an election cycle in which we’ve heard just about everything about the two candidates running for President and heard just about nothing about what they plan to do as President.

Here’s what is obvious, however, if Democrats happen to win the White House, regain control of the United States Senate and make any kind of significant inroad into the existing GOP majority in the House, ObamaCare isn’t going anywhere.

In fact, it’s just going to get worse as liberals double down on a health care plan that was flawed in its inception and has been corrupted by incompetence and dishonesty ever since.

Today, however, it isn’t a failure of a computer program that is bringing ObamaCare to heel.  It is the very economic underpinning of the assumptions that were used to convince Americans that ObamaCare was destined for success.

The Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation estimates that ObamaCare exchange buyers will soon only have one option in nearly one-third of American counties – a 300% increase in single-option counties from last year.

Furthermore, it is estimated that twenty-five states and the District of Columbia have approved rates leading to average premium increases next year of over 26%.

The New York Times, not exactly a fair and balanced voice when it comes to any liberal public policy initiative, mentions that “Even someone who shopped wisely this year and is willing to switch plans to get the best deal next year is looking at an average premium increase of 11 percent, according to an analysis of rate filings in 18 states and the District of Columbia provided by the McKinsey Center for U.S. Health System Reform.”

A headline in the Los Angeles Times screams California Obamacare rates to rise 13% in 2017, more than three times the increase of last two years” while the Chicago Tribune headlines declares “Illinois Obamacare rates could soar as state submits insurance premium increases to feds.”

An Associated Press story about new premium increases reports “Before taxpayer-provided subsidies, premiums for a midlevel benchmark plan will increase an average of 25 percent across the 39 states served by the federally run online market, according to a report from the Department of Health and Human Services. Some states will see much bigger jumps, others less. Moreover, about 1 in 5 consumers will only have plans from a single insurer to pick from, after major national carriers such as UnitedHealth Group, Humana and Aetna scaled back their roles.”

The President and liberals who aided and abetted in the disaster that is ObamaCare want to assure us that success is measured in the fact that more Americans now have health care than ever before.

Yet, last year, Tara O’Neill, Health Care Policy Analyst for the American Action Forum questioned the relevance of that fact by writing that “One primary goal of the Affordable Care Act (ACA) was to expand access to affordable health care. However, in the five years since the ACA’s passage, we have found that while more people have health insurance, they do not necessarily have access to affordable health care.”

One of the first issues the next President, and Congress, will need to address is what must be done to deal with ObamaCare.  It is no longer a matter of simply repealing the system.

The President and his liberal allies made sure of that when they created a big government health care system that was certain to fail with the hope that a big government solution would be needed to save it.

Repealing ObamaCare is a necessary first-step, but not the last step.

Whether a Democrat or Republican sits in the White House is not nearly as important today as whether Republicans or Democrats control Congress.

The next President, regardless of his or her party affiliation, will not be able to ignore the collapse of ObamaCare or the will of a Congress committed to reforming health care in America with commonsense, market oriented solutions.

To think otherwise would be the craziest thing in the world.