Obama Clueless About What's Wrong with Obamacare

by John M. Curtis
(310) 204-8700

Copyright November 29, 2013
All Rights Reserved.                                      

            Taking a beating in the polls, President Barack Obama hoped getting the Obamacare website working, HealthCare.gov, would improve his sinking approval ratings.  Interviewed by ABC’s Barbara Walters, Obama waxed philosophical about the ups-and-downs of office, not addressing substantive problems with his signature legislation known as the March 21, 2010 Affordable Care Act.  Proving that no good dead goes unpunished, Barack hoped giving some 40-million uninsured health insurance would earn him another Nobel Prize or at least gratitude of the American public.  Instead, the public hasn’t been too kind to the 52-year-old president.  “I’ve gone up and down pretty much consistently throughout,” Obama told Walters, blaming his flagging approval ratings on the sputtering website.  Obama hasn’t come to grips with fatal flaws with his health care program.

             Pushed by former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) and House Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.), Obama acquiesced to the Democratic Party’s long-standing dream of national health care.  Instead of running the program through the reliable Medicare system, Obama was forced to go to the private insurance industry.  Defensive about Obamacare’s added costs, the private insurance industry preemptively cancelled millions of subscribers, satisfied with low-cost, bare-bones policies. Under Obamacare guidelines, private insurers were required by 2014 to load-up the benefits, fearing a loss to the bottom line.  When Obama promised in 2010 that subscribers could keep their old policies and doctors, he didn’t anticipate widespread cancellations and rate hikes.  Obama claims he didn’t know that the Affordable Care Act would increase premiums across the health insurance industry.

               Focused only on fixing HealthCare.gov doesn’t begin to stop the insurance industry from gouging consumers and canceling policies.  When Obama hosted insurance industry executives at the White House Nov. 15, they offered no assurances about price-gouging and policy cancellations.  “But the good thing about when you’re down is that usually you to nowhere to go but up,” Obama told Walters tongue-in-cheek.  While downplaying damage to the Democratic brand, Barack tries to find a silver lining to what’s looking more and more like a train wreck.  Signing only 27,000 folks up in the first two months, it’s an understatement to call Obamacare a failure.  Addressing only the troubled website, Obama misses the real problems with Obamacare, namely, that he can’t stop the insurance industry from price gouging and cancellations.  Pretending that things will somehow get better prolongs the suffering.

             Obama’s talking points on the Affordable Care Act have worn thin.  Insisting that Obamacare will someday bring down rising health care costs haven’t borne out.  “I continue to believe and (I’m) absolutely convinced that, at the end of the day, people are going to look back at the work we’ve done to make sure that in this country, you don’t go bankrupt when you get sick, that families have that security,” said Obama, citing what’s good about the intent of Obamacare not its failed practice.  While there’s nothing wrong in giving folks a right to affordable insurance, Obama doesn’t recognize the damage done by Obamacare to the overall insurance market.  Fearing a drop in the bottom line, insurance companies have taken defensive steps to cancel policies and raise rates.  “That is going to be a legacy I’m extraordinarily proud of,” said Obama, refusing to address the real issues.

             Obamacare jumped out of the starting gates without bipartisan support.  Not a single Republican supported the plan, fearing what’s come to pass:  That the touted affordability has backfired.  If Obamacare continues to cause the price-gouging and cancellations, the Democratic Party can expect a backlash at the polls in 2014 and beyond.  Like his predecessor, former President George W. Bush, the only legacy he left the Republican Party was one of failure.  Democratic Party leaders should sit down with the White House and plot a realistic strategy.   If Obamacare continues to drive the Party into the cellar, then something must be done with the president’s self-deluded legacy.  More damage to the Democratic brand won’t make Obama proud.  While national health care was the holy grail of liberal politics, the Democratic Party needs to face the music or pay a draconic price at the polls.

             Fixing the HealthCare.gov website won’t correct the insurance industry’s aversion to Obamacare.  More price-gouging and cancellations won’t get corrected until bipartisan legislation restricts the industry’s greedy practices.  Insurance commissioner in California dealt harshly with price-gouging, forcing insurance companies to pay bigger percentages of profits in subcriber benefits.  Federal officials could fix the problems if both sides of the aisle worked together.  “Obviously my most recent concern has been that my website’s not working . . . and were evaluation why it is exactly that I didn’t know soon enough that (it) wasn’t going to work the way it needed to,” said Obama, ignoring the most important failure of Obamacare:  The lack of bipartisan support. Unless Obama can find ways to stop insurance industry price-hikes and cancellations, the Democratic Party will have hell to pay.

John M. Curtis writes politically neutral commentary analyzing spin in national and global news.  He's editor of OnlineColumnist.com.and author of Dodging the Bullet and Operation Charisma.