With the deal that was passed by Congress and signed by the President yesterday, the Republicans did not meet any of their goals. Those goals being getting the same waivers for private citizens that were already granted to Congress and big business by the President. The consequences are going to be disastrous to the average American worker.
Anybody who is actually paying attention knows that a great many companies have already dropped coverage for employees who work less than 30 hours a week, a coverage they were getting prior to the insurance premium hikes that came with the new law. Those who were working more than 30 hours a week have seen their hours cut so they no longer need to be covered by their employer. Two great examples of this are Trader Joes http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/09/11/trader-joes-obamacare_n_3902341.html(a company that was previously known for great insurance options for employees), and State employees. In fact both public and private sector have used health insurance cuts and hours cuts to compensate for the added burden of providing insurance in the wake of higher premiums http://news.investors.com/politics-obamacare/101713-669013-obamacare-employer-mandate-a-list-of-cuts-to-work-hours-jobs.htm.
Then you have the disaster that was launch day, a day where everybody in the nation began to see just how bad the system was. Even a liberal, granted a reasonable liberal, like Reporter Ezra Klien of the Washington Post can point to the failure and disaster that the Affordable Care Act is. http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/wonkblog/wp/2013/10/14/five-thoughts-on-the-obamacare-disaster/ While he points out that the same was said of Medicare Part D, and that at least their the opposition party was Constructive, he goes on to point out all the flaws that go so much deeper with the Affordable Care Act.
The Issues:
- The Websites to buy your new insurance plan don’t work.
“We’re now negative 14 days until the Affordable Care Act and most people still can’t purchase insurance. The magnitude of this failure is stunning. Yes, the federal health-care law is a complicated project, government IT rules are a mess, and the scrutiny has been overwhelming. But the Obama administration knew all that going in. They should’ve been able to build an online portal that works.”-Ezra Klien
2. Even when the Websites do work and people can buy insurance, the administration of these exchanges doesn’t exercise security protocols. http://www.twincities.com/politics/ci_24087664/mnsure-health-exchange-data-breach-affects-about-2 Not only is your information not safe from operator error, but security and background checks have allowed people with warrants out for their arrest and a history of writing bad checks into these key jobs. http://dailycaller.com/2013/10/14/obamacare-navigator-in-kansas-has-outstanding-arrest-warrant/ Yes, the type of person who is most likely to attempt identity theft has direct access to your personal information. Doesn’t this make you feel comfortable.
3. People who do get insurance apparently aren’t getting the right coverage, think they got coverage, or in some cases get coverage for three plans thinking they got coverage for one plan. http://www.marketwatch.com/story/obamacare-woes-widen-as-insurers-get-wrong-data-2013-10-18 Now think about this for a second. According to Yahoo News, http://finance.yahoo.com/news/50-states-obamacare-113318311.html, the average cost of a Bronze Plan costs $249 a month in premium costs. So lets say Joe Schmo accidentally signs up for 3 plans thinking he only signed up for 1 plan. Legally he will be required to pay for all three plans until he cancels two of them a mark up of an additional $500 per month. This of course assumes that he accidentally signs up for three Bronze plans, as bad as the system is he could be signed up for a Brozne Plan and two Gold plans (as I am struggling to find any information on the cost of a Platinum Plan). A gold plan costs an average of $412 per month http://www.mlive.com/business/index.ssf/2013/10/see_how_much_obamacare_coverag.html. This boosts Joes Burden up to over $1,000 per month on health insurance that he might not be able to afford.
Contrast this with my old insurance plan when I worked at Leeann Chin. There the cost was about the same as the Bronze Plan, but the coverage was about equal with the Gold. Mind you I was paying for family coverage and getting more for less. These plans destroyed low rates.
4. The law is not evenly enforced. Large employers and Congress have been exempted but average citizens have not. http://politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com/2013/10/09/fact-check-did-president-obama-exempt-members-of-congress-from-obamacare/ A complicated bit of jargon but the gist of it is, Congress does not have to buy into the Health Exchanges like everybody else does.
5. As I already pointed out the costs are outrageous. Not only are they higher than previous premiums, but waivers and tax credits are practically pointless as they don’t help the people who need it. http://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/sep/30/us-employers-slash-hours-avoid-obamacare A mall working in Minnesota earning only 15,000 per year would only qualify for a government voucher of $349 dollars on a health plan that costs almost 10% of her income.
Look this is only the very beginning. The reason the costs of premiums are going up everywhere is because by getting rid of the pre-existing condition clause now everybody can be covered for anything. This means people who previously had to pay out of pocket for some procedures pay the same price as everybody else. To compensate the rates go up for everybody. What is more, because the costs are going up younger people (you know, the ones who don’t have as many health issues) aren’t buying plans and taking the calculated wager that they actually save money by not having insurance. Heck it is the smart thing to do. If you will be covered anyway when you need insurance why not wait until you need it to get it. This of course only raises rates more because without the younger people in the pool the money available needs to compensate for those infirm who do in fact need coverage.
Mark Stein rightly pointed out that many Conservative Machiavellian types claim that President. Obama designed this plan to be so bad that it would lead to a single payer system. But the system we have that is being run by the government is in fact so bad that it should be a glaring warning to anybody that the Government could actually run a single payer system either.http://www.hughhewitt.com/mark-steyn-returns-reopening-day/
Personally I think the President was trying to address the issue of health coverage for those with pre existing conditions, but that all of the what then questions were probably never asked. Well meaning, good intentions, poorly planned and even worse the execution of the law. It isn’t that Democrats or Republicans don’t care, it is that the law isn’t doing what people wanted it to do, because we didn’t take the time to design, plan, or adjust for the laws failures. When even the Daily Kos is reffering to the roll out as a failure you know this is not a successful government plan.http://www.dailykos.com/story/2013/10/13/1246988/-At-least-110-000-people-signed-up-for-Obamacare-Crowdsourcing-Help-Needed#
Finally on 13 October Kos reports that at least 110,000 have signed up for coverage. How many more will have to sign up per working day in order to reach the administration’s goal of 7 Million? anybody? Well Hugh Hewitt via Hank Adler has an answer http://www.hughhewitt.com/7-million-number/ It doesn’t look good.
