Now, why don't you try to figure out why she said that and what she
meant.
She is not alone in her thinking, and more people are realizing that
Obama care is going to sink this economy and do more damage than good.
http://www.thefiscaltimes.com/Columns/2013/05/02/Unravel-Obamacare-and-You-Get-a-Train-Wreck.aspx#page1
Unravel Obamacare and You Get a Train Wreck
Doctors drop out of Medicare; employers turn full-time jobs to part
time; plan premiums skyrocket. All result from Obama’s health care
law.
By EDWARD MORRISSEY, The Fiscal Times
May 2, 2013
Barack Obama held his first open press conference in almost two months
this week, perhaps anticipating that the White House press corps would
be interested in asking him about the sequester.
Instead, the presser began with a challenge to the President over
Syria and the Benghazi attack, ended with a question about a gay NBA
player -- and in the middle put Obama on the spot over his signature
legislative victory from three year ago--the Patient Protection and
Affordable Care Act (ACA), commonly called Obamacare.
NBC’s Chuck Todd reminded the President that a Senator of his own
party, the now-retiring Montanan Max Baucus who helped write and push
the ACA, called the legislation a “train wreck.” Todd asked Obama why
Baucus would say that and how Obama would respond. Obama’s response
proved to be a train wreck of its own.
“For the 85 to 90 percent of Americans who already have health
insurance,” Obama helpfully informed his audience, “they're already
experiencing most of the benefits of the Affordable Care Act -- even
if they don't know it.” Insisting that the implementation has already
been accomplished for the already-insured, Obama claimed, “Now they
don't have to worry about anything else.”
Nonsense, scoffed Washington Post fact checker Glenn Kessler. “There
are a variety of studies and reports that suggest that, beyond those
groups, some 10 million people face the prospect of losing their
current health care,” Kessler said in rebuttal to the President’s
remarks.
A University of Chicago study shows that nearly half of existing
individual plans (as opposed to employer-provided group plans) will
not qualify under Obamacare mandates for coverage. This means that
these already-insured Americans will have to start shopping around
again and spend more--25 percent more or even worse. In Oregon, one
insurer is applying for a 53 percent increase in individual-plan
premiums in order to bring their insurance into compliance with the
ACA, including the pre-existing condition mandate.
Bear in mind that one of the benefits listed by Obama in yesterday’s
presser was for individual policyholders who “are paying exorbitant
amounts for coverage that isn't that great.”
Medicare recipients have even bigger problems to consider. They may
not see huge premium hikes, but they will have fewer providers from
which to choose, thanks to reductions in reimbursements that are the
Democrats’ idea of cost control. The program’s own actuary warned that
15 percent of current providers may stop taking Medicare patients at
all, which will drive up wait times and impact the quality of care
available for those in the retirement system. They certainly have a
few things to worry about, contra Obama’s reassurances.
Besides, the people who really need to worry are those about to be
thrown onto the individual market. Employers are looking for ways to
reduce existing employees to part-time status in order to duck the
mandate to provide subsidized group insurance. NPR reported this week
on the business trend, which would save costs to the company but
massively increase costs for Obamacare thanks to its system of
subsidizing individual plan purchases through the ACA exchanges.
That will create a need for more revenues through Obamacare taxes,
which will already hit most Americans either directly through Social
Security tax increases or through levies on medical devices and more,
which will force providers to raise their prices.
Even the people who will now be able to buy insurance for the first
time through the exchanges have headaches in front of them. The
Department of Health and Human Services’ application process
originally ran to 23 pages when first rolled out, creating “a storm of
complaints” over paperwork and red tape, according to the Associated
Press.
This week, HHS revised the application to just five pages – but only
for single plans. (Obama said it was “about three pages” long in his
press conference.) Family plan applications run twelve pages, and
neither of those count the extensive documentation required on
tangible assets, employment and income, and any alimony, child
support, and even tips from the job. That’s just the start. After
completing all of that – which would not be necessary in a true market
exchange – people still need to navigate the state/federal exchange to
figure out what kind of insurance they need and can afford, as the
Associated Press points out.
Bear in mind, too, that the ACA’s ostensible goal was to insure the
currently uninsured. As Obama admitted in his press conference, we
still have 30 million people uninsured more than three years after the
passage of the bill. Obama called them “a relatively narrow group,”
but they represent “10 to 15 percent of Americans,” according to
Obama.
The pre-existing condition mandate has been in place since Obamacare
was passed, but the bill has not led many uninsured to sign up for
coverage. With several states balking at the expense of expanding
Medicaid to absorb some of these uninsured – which would pass costs to
their taxpayers – most of the headaches, costs, and trouble will fall
on the already-insured.
Moreover, there is one more already-covered constituency to consider –
Democrats in Congress. Baucus isn’t the only Capitol Hill Democrat
worried about a “train wreck,” according to The Hill. Even those not
yet on Capitol Hill have distanced themselves from the unpopular
program. Elizabeth Colbert Busch, a Democrat running for a House seat
in a South Carolina special election, called the ACA “extremely
problematic.”
As 2014 draws ever closer, and the true scale of the problems of
ObamaCare become apparent, expect more Democratic incumbents to
commiserate with their constituents about the “extremely problematic”
“train wreck” they imposed on them. They had better not expect the
voters to let them off the hook, however, no matter how many times
Obama tells them they have nothing to worry about.