Hating On ObamaCare Somewhere In The Pacific

In response to Five Reasons 2.1 Million ‘Enrolled’ Is Not That Impressive:

As disastrous as the ObamaCare rollout has been, and as unimpressive and frankly dubious  the numbers they’re touting are, in an alternate universe, the “biggest losers of the year” are the “ObamaCare haters.” 

That’s right. On Monday’s edition of MSNBC’s The Last Word with Lawrence O’Donnell, the host asked panelists who the “biggest loser of the year” was, and Richard Wolffe, the executive editor of MSNBC.com, suggested that the improvements at Healthcare.Gov solves ObamaCare’s problems, and called ACA critics “ObamaCare haters”,  comparing them to people still “fighting the Second World War on a lost island.”

Via Newsbusters:

I’m tempted to say these are the biggest “losers” (EMPHASIZING THE PLURAL) because this is the ObamaCare haters. You know, they really thought they had that moment. The health care site was just ready to fail completely, this was the last chance that they could stop this train wreck. (PAUSES) And then it got fixed. And then people started to get better health care.

Wolffe went on to say that the ObamaCare haters are “like those apocryphal people fighting the Second World War on a lost island somewhere in the Pacific. They’ll still be there, but health care will have moved on.”

It’s interesting that Wolffe mentioned a pacific island because it just so happens, as “ObamaCare Hater” Michael Cannon recently reported in Forbes, “In Guam and the other U.S. territories, the Obama administration has seriously undercut its own argument in what Newsweek calls, ‘The Case That Could Topple ObamaCare.'” Uh oh!

If you’re thinking some of those “ObamaCare haters”  might be among the millions of people who lost their health care plans due to the law,  think again. Wolffe made sure to note, “those individual stories” didn’t happen. 

And all of those individual stories that they globbed on to and said, “Look, someone didn’t get the health care,” it turned out to be untrue.

Wow, every one of those stories the right “globbed on to” turned out to be untrue according to the executive editor of MSNBC.com.

So what is untrue about  Debra Fishericks’ story? She’s the Virginia Beach woman who is battling kidney cancer whose work insurance “was fine until ACA came along.”

For 10 years she worked for a company that provided group health insurance with manageable premiums…and then boom! The ObamaCare trainwreck hit and her health care plan will soon be terminated because it doesn’t meet the requirements of the law, and the plans she’s found on HealthCare.gov have premiums that are out of her price range.

There are hundreds and hundreds of individual stories out there of people who have lost their insurance plans and have been forced to replace them with more expensive, inferior plans, or not be covered at all. You can read the definitive guide to how ObamaCare is destroying American lives, here. More Health care cancellation stories, here.

The net result of ObamaCare, thus far, is that more people have lost coverage under ObamaCare, than have gained coverage.

And the worst is yet to come, Lanhee Chen notes at Bloomberg News:

First, some of Obamacare’s least popular provisions go into effect in 2014. This includes a new $60 billion tax on health insurers, which will be levied relative to premiums collected and directly passed on to consumers. And, of course, Obamacare’s requirement that individuals secure health insurance coverage (or pay a tax penalty) kicks in during the coming year as well.

Second, millions of Americans who buy their coverage on the individual market or get it through small employers will be shocked by just how much their premiums go up in 2014. The young and healthy will be especially susceptible to this rate shock, and this in turn will further drive them away from purchasing coverage in future years. 

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Third, not only will millions of Americans on the individual and small group markets who like their plans be unable to keep them in 2014, but many will experience what it’s like to be unable to continue seeing the doctors they know and trust. 

As health insurers face pressure to keep costs down while providing the richer package of benefits that Obamacare mandates, many are limiting their networks of doctors and other health-care providers. A cancer survivor’s opinion article in the Wall Street Journal illustrated the horrible situation that Obamacare will place some Americans in: Being forced to choose between doctors that have been critical to their care or, in some cases, not having access to any of their existing health-care providers.

Finally, Obamacare’s Medicare cuts will continue to hurt senior citizens. For the 14 million people enrolled in the Medicare Advantage program, the ACA’s $200 billion in cuts over the next 10 years will accelerate in 2014 and have tangible impacts on beneficiaries. Insurers predict that seniors in Medicare Advantage plans will see higher premiums, increased cost-sharing for primary and specialist visits, and limits on the doctors they can see. Although the ACA is not solely responsible for the headwinds the Medicare Advantage program faces, it will (and should) shoulder most of the blame.

Nevermind the trauma caused by millions of cancelled plans, and the fact that more unpopular provisions are about to hit in 2014. The executive editor of MSNBC.com Richard Wolffe says, all is well – “people are starting to get better health care.” 

Hey, thanks to ObamaCare, Georgetown law students can now get free contraceptives!