Recycling the Obamacare wordplay dishonesty that earned President Obama, the lie of the year status in 2013 and made Obamacare an albatross around Democrat candidates' necks, debate 2020, Biden has repackaged the same law. Amazingly, for some reason now we're buying into Obamacare, ignoring its failures and fatalities, ignoring its unprecedented selling out of the American people.
BIDEN: "What I’m going to do is pass Obamacare with a public option, and become Bidencare. The public option is an option that says that if you in fact do not have the wherewithal, if you qualify for Medicaid and you do not have the wherewithal in your state to get Medicaid, you automatically are enrolled, providing competition for insurance companies."
MEDICAID not Medicare, so Biden's promising that he'll provide the public option of Medicaid for those who meet poverty guidelines (DO NOT HAVE WHEREWITHAL) and who QUALIFY for expanded Medicaid even in states without expanded Medicaid (so if your state doesn't have Medicaid AND you meet expanded Medicaid poverty guidelines THEN you'll get Medicaid).
Anything new here? No it's a RE-PROMISE, simply removing the unconstitutional original Obama aspect of expanded Medicaid making federal funding dependent on adopting expanding Medicaid. Remember in 2012 the Supreme Court declared unconstitutional Obama's strong-arming efforts threatening to cut off all Medicaid funding if states did not opt into expanded Medicaid. (In 2012 National Federation of Independent Business v. Sebelius that Obamacare's provision requiring expansion of Medicaid or loss of all federal funding for Medicaid was unconstitutional.)
Now that we know it's a RE-PROMISE instead of a new promise, remember another unresolved issue for consumers, the MANDATORY clawback of Medicaid funds from the estates of those who receive Medicaid who are over 55. That's still law and states are considering expansions of clawback provisions to recover their contributions to Medicaid payments. OBRA 93, the law REQUIRING states to recover, at a minimum, all property and assets that pass from a deceased person to his or her heirs under state probate law, which governs both property conveyed by will and property of persons who die intestate when people are on Medicaid over the age of 55.
OK, Biden's just promised you a public option that already exists, Medicaid, an assets-based option for those meeting poverty guidelines that can put your assets in jeopardy after death.
Biden goes on: Biden: "Secondly, we’re going to make sure we reduce the premiums and reduce drug prices by making sure that there’s competition, that doesn’t exist now, by allowing Medicare to negotiate drug prices with the insurance companies."
You'd have to live under a rock to avoid knowing that this idea has been floated around for years and that not only is there no legislative agreement on an "answer," but big pharma already has a trick up its sleeve as we've seen with the increase in drug costs…If they lower the price on one drug, then another drug NOT on the government or insurance formulary goes sky high. They're getting their money. Obamacare didn't even touch big pharma also well-known and easily located with a search. So this is an empty re-promise that at best will reduce the price of some drugs while leaving others to reach new highest levels.
Biden re-promises more! Biden: "Thirdly, the idea that I want to eliminate private insurance, the reason why I had such a fight with 20 candidates for the nomination was I support private insurance. That’s why. Not one single person with private insurance would lose their insurance under my plan, nor did they under Obamacare. They did not lose their insurance unless they chose they wanted to go to something else."
This is just a flat-out lie, and you can read about Biden's re-promise of Obama's lie in lots of places like Reason, "On Obamacare, Biden Repeats Obama's 2013 Lie of the Year," Peter Suderman, 10/23/2020.
Biden re-promise: Biden: Lastly, we’re going to make sure we’re in a situation that we actually protect pre-existing. There’s no way he can protect pre-existing conditions. None, zero.
The trade-off for pre-existing condition coverage was proposed by the insurance industry in 2008, (AHIP) and adopted by Obama. The deal: IF OBAMA made the government a partner with INSURANCE COMPANIES and forced people to buy their product THEN the insurance industry would cover pre-existing conditions.
That was the individual mandate that Biden will bring back and quite honestly the insurance companies are so powerful that no one can really UNTEACH THEM THIS TRICK. For Republicans, the gimmick is CONTINUOUS COVERAGE, penalizing people with higher premiums for lapses in coverage, for Democrats it's the individual mandate, penalizing people with a tax expense for lapses in coverage. So right off the bat, we know there is a way to protect pre-existing conditions because we've seen what the insurance companies are willing to do for politicians, charge consumers and force them to buy insurance or pay a penalty.
Then of course, there's the reality that pre-existing conditions ARE penalized as insurance companies have shown us for 10 years where they make up the money with new exclusions to coverage (simply don't have it in the policy whether it's life saving drugs in a formulary, or something else outside the minimal requirements of Obamacare), increased copayments so they cover LESS, increased coinsurance so they cover less, higher deductibles. Come on Biden, as you would say, you're just re-promising the same failed promises.
Finally, in response to the "socialized medicine, run by government" accusation, Biden rightly responds, "I say it’s ridiculous. It’s like saying that the fact that there’s a public option that people can choose, that makes it a socialist plan. Look, the difference between the president and I… I think healthcare is not a privilege, it’s a right."
Biden's simply re-promising Obamacare, not socialized health insurance, unfair health insurance that creates a small entitlement for the max of around 11 million people who have used Obamacare exchange plans at the expense of astronomical cost increases for those purchasing private health insurance through employers, with lower standards and provisions of coverage, preserving the public employee superior benefits off taxpayer backs….It's simply Obamacare.
The last Obama-era lie-promise that health CARE is a right, as you can or should be able to see, of course not. Even Sanders' plan didn't go that far, it gave basic clinic-type services like Obamacare for "free" (taxes) and anything else was subject to sky's-the-limit pricing by contract.
In the words of Joe Biden….Come on.
