More and more Americans are beginning to realize that they were sold Obamacare on false pretenses. What they are getting in the mail isn’t what they ordered.
Those responsible for saddling the country with this law, including the law’s chief salesman, President Obama, are scrambling to dodge the hammer of growing public resentment over the bill of goods that they have sold the American people. They are coming up with “fixes”, but I caution the buyer, beware.
The president, along with members of his party who are facing elections soon, are busy campaigning for proposals they say do what these architects of the law promised in the first place. But folks should think carefully about relying on the same people who repeatedly promised one thing and delivered something far different. Consumers who liked their health care plans are being forced to give them up. People who were told they would pay less for health care will be paying more. Even fans of Obamacare are upset with an archaic, ready-fire-aim website that took years and millions of dollars to develop, but, to put it mildly, is failing miserably. Will Americans again put their faith in the leaders who said the law had to be passed before it was understood? They shouldn’t.
In 2010 on the Senate floor, I warned that rules published in the Federal Register would guarantee that people who liked their health care would lose it. I warned that health care costs would go up. I warned that employers would be forced to cut back worker hours and jobs. I did more than warn this would happen, I offered senators a chance to prevent these calamities. Proponents of Obamacare rejected and ridiculed my legislation.
These same folks now, fighting for their political lives, are offering patches for their program and excuses for why it isn’t working. However, these folks are the same people who created the problems in the first place. They simply don’t want you to be able to choose the health insurance you want unless it’s health insurance they think you should have. They never did. Their plan was and is for policy makers in Washington to make what the experts believe are the best choices for you.
The Washington Post reported recently that the president said his administration could not in good faith allow people with inferior insurance plans to keep them. That’s not what he said dozens of times before the law passed and it doesn’t sound like a person ready to fix a problem. This isn’t about a fumbled roll-out or a computer glitch. This law’s problems are inherent within it. The way to get our country out of this bad situation is with the earnest help of people who recognize the benefit of individuals being able to make their own choices.
I’m a cosponsor of Senator Ron Johnson’s (R-Wis.) “If You Like Your Health Plan, You Can Keep it Act”. The House passed a bill that would allow insurers to continue offering policies that don’t meet the expensive Obamacare mandates. So far we haven’t received much positive feedback from the president or majority in the Senate. Instead, the president announced another exception to a law that is already riddled with them, while the Senate majority proposes more federal mandates to “fix” the mandates they already have imposed on America. But as the Wall Street Journal has pointed out, there is a real difference between letting people keep their plans by unshackling them from federal rules and working with state frameworks versus forcing insurers to comply with more new requirements.
My dad used to say that if you keep on doing what you’ve been doing you are going to end up with what you’ve got. I’ve heard the Senate majority leader say the definition of insanity is continuing to do the same thing over and over and expecting a different result. Unless people demand a new approach to health care — bona-fide inclusion of ideas from those who want a new approach — then we’re going to end up with what we have now: broken promises. We can do better.
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