With days until the wider experience of Obamacare comes to a reality near you, it’s almost stunning that the President is still selling Obamacare (9/26/13, Look up on YouTube, Obama, Largo, Maryland). Using a folksy style, the President made fun of Republicans’ conduct regarding Obamacare, which, in fairness, the Republicans have given him ample ammunition for doing so.
At one point, the President started referring to the Republicans' strange argument. But it's at least equally "strange" that the President is parading around selling something that's already law.
But the President’s bravado is more than merely some juvenile poking fun at his detractors, it shows that he has chosen to spend his Presidential time selling something that’s already been sold to the American people, which is currently law. To me his actions are those of a person who knows he’s in a jam with the public, and as he mentioned, the law can be repealed.
But of course, it is too late for a blanket repeal with the changes in the healthcare industry that have been made since 2010. So, what is the President afraid of?
First, he knows that people began doing something recently that they hadn’t done before, they started reading through the healthcare bill and what it means for them.
Second, the reality has hit many in the head, that beyond the feel good philosophy that sold Obamacare, insurance is insurance, it is affordable in one of two ways, raise prices or cut coverage, and many times a combination of the two.
To soften that blow, for at least this year, the ACA provides for credits and rebates. If you’re well, you can come through this year applauding Obamacare as fiscally possible, enjoying your essential health benefits, being angry and trying to outlaw unhealthiness whether it’s from “those” fat folks, “those” smokers, “those” old people. But if you get sick….
Obamacare is not revolutionary, it is simply a codification of a plan basically put forth by the insurance industry in 2008, see my post of 7/15/2013, “The Two Faces of Harry Reid: Obamacare, a Train Wreck or Wonderful?” In that post, I provide cites to the insurance industry plan of 2008.
We’re being distracted again. The premium “savings” that will quiet many objections to the price of health insurance coverage will only work for the healthy. The biggest problem is not that Obamacare is a governmental strategy to get everyone paying for health insurance that they can, but that if you get sick, when your voice will be diminished by your fight to get well, it’s likely that your insurance, my insurance, and most other ordinary Americans’ insurance will prove inadequate to the task of providing you with the choice of medical treatment at a cost that you can afford. That’s the rub.
So, as Obama goes on making fun of the Republicans, consider your health insurance choice beyond the distraction of premium costs, and rate your insurance company beyond the distraction that you are one of the people who got a deal off the health insurance exchange after rebates and credits, and consider the coverage you’re buying. Pay attention.
When you’re well, the cheapest insurance is always the winner. When you’re sick, most of those “options” will prove themselves inadequate and perhaps you’ll understand why Congress is not using the health exchange plans for their own health care.
The most important thing that the President’s campaign shows is his own fear, he’s not certain that Obamacare will work out. His ideas and the reality are so far divorced from the experience of what his policies mean in the real world, that he’s trying desperately to maximize buy-in which is key to the success of Obamacare. Why? Most people don’t become seriously ill during a year so that the well people can carry the costs of the sick people….Same old idea with a governmental twist.
We would all be better off focusing on legislation that will cap costs by limiting what can be charged for health care rather than squeezing the consumer in ways designed by some delusional utopia where people never get sick and therefore they never need to obtain medical treatment, which is the current logic the health environment is using. Without costs of services being limited, we lose, this year and in years to come.
