The media deserve zero points for covering the rolling catastrophe that is ObamaCare. It is not that I don’t give credit where it’s due; it is that the media have no choice. The smoking guns of lies and incompetence are everywhere, and can’t be ignored. But the media are still engaged in a conspiracy of silence to cover up for the fact that the worst of ObamaCare is yet to come.
Today, the only market being savaged by ObamCare is the individual market — those who buy insurance on their own. That represents about 5% of the population, or about 17 million people. What the media are covering up, though, is that the same catastrophe currently exploding the individual market is about to explode the employer-based market, which covers hundreds of millions of Americans.
Just as the media and the White House knew and covered up the fact that ObamaCare would devastate the individual market, they know and are now covering up the fact that the Obama administration itself has predicted that once ObamaCare’s employer mandate hits in about 14 months, tens of millions could lose the insurance President Obama relentlessly reassured them they could keep:
Contrary to the reporting of NBC, the administration’s commentary in the Federal Register did not only refer to the individual market, but also the market for employer-sponsored health insurance.
Section 1251 of the Affordable Care Act contains what’s called a “grandfather” provision that, in theory, allows people to keep their existing plans if they like them. But subsequent regulations from the Obama administration interpreted that provision so narrowly as to prevent most plans from gaining this protection.
“The Departments’ mid-range estimate is that 66 percent of small employer plans and 45 percent of large employer plans will relinquish their grandfather status by the end of 2013,” wrote the administration on page 34,552 of the Register. All in all, more than half of employer-sponsored plans will lose their “grandfather status” and become illegal. According to the Congressional Budget Office, 156 million Americans–more than half the population–was covered by employer-sponsored insurance in 2013.
Another 25 million people, according to the CBO, have “nongroup and other” forms of insurance; that is to say, they participate in the market for individually-purchased insurance. In this market, the administration projected that “40 to 67 percent” of individually-purchased plans would lose their Obamacare-sanctioned “grandfather status” and become illegal, solely due to the fact that there is a high turnover of participants and insurance arrangements in this market. (Plans purchased after March 23, 2010 do not benefit from the “grandfather” clause.) The real turnover rate would be higher, because plans can lose their grandfather status for a number of other reasons.
How many people are exposed to these problems? 60 percent of Americans have private-sector health insurance–precisely the number that Jay Carney dismissed. As to the number of people facing cancellations, 51 percent of the employer-based market plus 53.5 percent of the non-group market (the middle of the administration’s range) amounts to 93 million Americans.
In about ten months, as this apocalypse starts to unroll, what is happening today is going to look like the good old days. According to the Obama Administration, up to 93 million innocent ObamaCare victims could lose the insurance they like and be thrown into the exchanges and, more than likely, face higher deductibles and premiums.
None of what is about to happen to the employer market is a secret.
None of this is right-wing speculation.
This is what the Obama administration itself has predicted will happen.
The media won’t cover it, though, because they are hoping to buy the White House time by compartmentalizing the fallout into the 5% for as long as possible. The media know that, should the majority of the public become aware of the fact that they are next, the uproar is almost certain to result in ObamaCare being repealed with the help of skittish Democrats.
Just like their cult-leader Barack Obama, the media are huddled in a bunker hoping to keep the dream alive.
Follow John Nolte on Twitter @NolteNC
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