Obamacare: Beating a Dead Horse? Hardly.

Should Obamacare be left to run its course? For consumers, the answer should be, “No,” because Obamacare is a process more than anything else. The process created by Obamacare primarily shifts money from the Federal government, from private business and from consumers into Obamacare in order to implement the provisions of a law that for some consumers creates an entitlement to government money if they meet certain criteria of eligibility for money to pay a portion of their health insurance premiums, and in some cases other expenses connected to healthcare. This money must continue to flow into the system in order to maintain the program.

But our current government seems radically disconnected from Americans. This is where consumers must demand that at some point, representatives of government stop lecturing and begin listening to the people who put them in office.

For instance, little noticed was a 2/22/2013 Pew Research Center for People & the Press stating: “As the March 1 deadline for a possible budget sequester approaches, a new national survey finds limited public support for reducing spending for a range of specific programs, including defense, entitlements, education and health care.” The article continues, “For 18 of 19 programs tested, majorities want either to increase spending or maintain it at current levels.”

You wouldn’t guess that we had so much agreement among Americans based on the news we’re fed by substantially partisan reporting. And you certainly wouldn’t guess it from representatives spouting the most unreasonably extreme views claiming to have voters behind them.

What this really indicates is that we are not a nation of extremists and that more likely than not the majority of us are holding our noses and choosing the least stinky candidate and representative we can during elections.

Hopefully, we can more forcefully frame the conversation in which our representatives and media engage by incorporating the chief lesson of Obamacare, that after all was said and done, consumers were left in the dark about the law created by legislators and passed and that we didn’t like being lied to.

Do not doubt that more changes are coming. Each change implemented by Obamacare, whether part of the current Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (Obamacare) or part of changes to that Act such as those implemented by the Supreme Court regarding the categorization of the individual mandate tax and the disallowing of the provision for mandatory Medicaid expansion in order for states to preserve their Medicaid funding, or even those changes regarding timing of the provisions of the Act, reflects a change that impacts the way the law moves forward, its process.

For consumers, it’s essential to stay aware of these changes and to lend their support or non-support to the evolution of the law before we are subjected to a particular change. This is why information is critical to consumers and why that information must be accurate.

Why was it newsworthy that PolitiFact determined that “If you like your health care plan you can keep it,” was the “Lie of the Year,” (Dec. 12, 2013, by Angie Drobnic Holan, Politifact.com)? It’s because the enactors of the law, the representatives we voted in duped most Americans regarding Obamacare.

Unlike responsible businesses that acknowledge their survival depends on buy-in, our lawmakers assumed that buy-in was only necessary until the law was passed and afterward was unnecessary to consider.

This has been proven untrue as citizens have shown a willingness to continue to fight back against provisions of the law they don’t like. The drama of total repeal or total non-repeal is much less important than an essential refocusing of our attention on the fact that we didn’t and must get the information we need to address how our elected representatives act on our behalf.