Are people still talking about ObamaCare?
About The Author
BooMan
Martin Longman a contributing editor at the Washington Monthly. He is also the founder of Booman Tribune and Progress Pond. He has a degree in philosophy from Western Michigan University.
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Hopefully Obama’s “fix” takes the steam out of the cancellation problem. His “you can keep your plan” promise has undercut the perception that he is honest and polls show significant slippage. That imperils other aspects of his agenda. One hopes that the website improves to the degree that it can enroll millions in the next few months. This legislation, IMO, is the most important thing to come down the pike in a long time, and its success can reestablish the concept that government can indeed be a force for positive change.
It’s a shame it relies so much on the cooperation of the private sector then.
I worry that a lot of this rollout problem is from the insurance company side of the enrollment interface and that the White House cannot identify this problem with making the controversy worse.
The let me worry you some more.
Democratic advantage in generic ballot is gone. I’m so damn tired of the constant roiling of the Obama era, with at least half of that roiling caused by the man himself.
No way! First he apologized, then he backtracked. Instead of standing firm and giving an honest explanation of why these policies are being cancelled with explanations, he just ran away. His own actions give credence to the charges. This has been mishandled for three years and the mishandling just continues.
I think Barack Obama never understood that this is a blood sport, not the collegial “You give me my graft and I’ll give you yours” that exists in the Illinois Senate. You have to be tough. You have to be strong. Unfortunately, despite good intentions, like Jimmy Carter, Barack Obama is neither. Bill Clinton is both. It’s too bad that Bill chooses to use his talents and strength for evil.
Dems in the House were threatening to support Upton’s bill to undermine the ACA. Dems in the Senate were crafting bills that were only slightly better. Clearly political winds were gathering that seriously threatened the ACA’s viability. Obama’s fix at least seems to have stanched the defections. Standing firm, as the administration has done in private Dem meetings, would have further infuriated those who feel vulnerable politically. The explanations are complicated – the public wants a concise response. “Keep your plan” was always shaky, but there’s a reason health care reform hasn’t passed since 1965 – too many stakeholders, and some will be losers.
He’ll walk it back all the way so that only the mandate remains. Then the Insurance companies will be happy. Watch. You can’t be just a little pregnant.
…until the media gets bored with negative Obamacare stories and talks about something else 24/7 and his numbers go back up.
I understand why the Erin Burnetts of the world pay such breathless attention to the effectively random gyrations of presidential approval polls a year out from any major election, but no one else should.
Considering how badly this has hurt Dems, erasing any advantage gained from the shutddown, I think we’d better.
The Big Dog is fanning the flames.
Karen Ignagni is having a hissy fit over President Obama’s cutting Mary Landrieu off at the pass.
Rep. Fred Upton is muddying the waters on the “keep your current coverage” front.
Yes, folks are talking about Obamacare. My wife is facilitating a session on Saturday for folks to be able to talk with their families over the holidays about what it takes to get enrolled if they are in the individual market.
And if Karen Ignagni is going try to screw up the rollout, it’s a good time to remind her that folks who were previously excluded because of pre-existing conditions are not going back. And the alternative if insurers screw up is Medicare for All.
My drummer was on WHYY this evening, talking about how the plan he liked was canceled, that it’s now grandfathered through 2014, but that the replacement will cost three times as much.
yeah, people better be talking about it and fixing that shit, because right now the dems are freaking, and while I’m not a big fan of the ACA design, it’s better than nothing, and i dn’t wanna go back to nothng at all.
John Kerry, August 2004: “Are people still talking about Swift Boats?”
I wish the President had come out and said..
” You wanna keep your policies that ain’t worth shyt?
Fine.
When you get hurt, and run up bills that you can’t pay…
Don’t whine…pay the bill.”
Reminding folks of the legislative alternative–Medicare for All–might be more salutary as the problem is not the public but the greedy insurers.
I think you mistyped, Tarheel.
You must have meant “greedy usurers,” right?
‘Cuz that’s the real problem. The “insurers” are owned…as is damned near everything else…by the usurers. Fix the whole financial system and the other problems go away.
The corporate usurer-owned media have recently had a minor claptrap going on regarding “PUBLIC EXECUTIONS IN NORTH KOREA!!!” A few well-chosen hangings on the National Mall would fix a lot of things in the U. S.
Bet on it.
AG
There you go AG, going to the rotten roots. But there is more than the financial system that is rotten. There is the whole suspension of civil rights that occurs under the “divine right of managers” doctrine that prevents acccurate information flowing through the system. There is the venality and incompetence of much of the global elite Davos set that goes along with its corruption. And then there are the long-standing habits of informal economies with which folks who are not among the elite use to cope with the poverty that is forced on their communities.
I see the political strain has gotten so intense that you are riffing on Groucho Marx as the Lord High Executioner in The Mikado….”I’ve got a little list…I’ve got a little list”. And there are much more impressive places than the National Mall for such an event. Places with significant precedents and historic overtones.
But the problem, Mr. Robespierre, is the list keeps expanding until at some point everyone is implicated except me and thee. And about thee….
Except for the “informal economies” part, the rest of the things that you mention are essentially owned by big money. And some of those informal economies are “formal” enough to buy into the mainstream financial system. Billions buy respectability. Every time.
Meyer Lansky was actually recorded saying that phrase during a bugged phone conversation with his wife. That was not hyperbole, even 60+ years ago.
Bet on it.
AG
I rather dislike Islam, but I have seriously looked into the concepts and practice of Islamic finance the last few years. A very interesting set of ideas, that.
Yes, that’s what I think. Go ahead, keep your junk insurance, and see how well that works out for you. Nice of some insurance companies lying to their clients about costs/benefits. They need a real kick in the teeth.
I did like the portion of Landreiu’s bill that made the insurers confess their sins. I’d like to strip out that portion and pass that on it’s own. I’d like to rework the wording, though, so it says, “Hey customer, you have literally been paying to be uninsured for years. Your policy doesn’t cover shit.”
President Obama can’t 9/11 his way out of this problem, like W. use too.
Yer kidding right? Obviously this had to lead to chicken shit Democrats abandoning POTUS while the left-wing ‘intelligentsia’ mocked and prattled and concerned trolled, while the media did their best to make it the end of the world and asshole Bill had to inject himself into it.
Jeebus, it’s all so predictable and tired. They never miss an opportunity to shoot themselves in the foot.
As Josh Marshall said yesterday on twitter in a similar vein, “This is why we can’t have nice things…”
‘Twas bound to happen. Republicans needed an out, and any new program was bound to have plenty of them. The issue is, will congress agree to a good fix? I doubt it, so let’s hope things fix themselves on their own. I think in the long run, it’ll be fine. But this is about short run — politics.
Outside the blog world and talking to people in the red, I mean real world, Obamacare is the worst disaster since time began. I work with a lot of older women, mostly retirees, and since most of them already hate Obama, this has given them a new scratching post on which to sharpen their claws.
As usual, the lack of genuine support from Dems who are worried about backing Obamacare as a political issue, and Bill Clinton muddying things up, the whole perception about the plan is that it will take, take, take things away or make them too expensive for seniors.
It’s going to take time to make this work, unfortunately.
Obama could use a change in the conversation, that’s for sure. Since there is nothing else worth salivating over, the press is chasing this particular Pavlovian bell.
In some ways, I wonder if this isn’t like last spring when there was a steady drum beat of “bad news”, except there is a nugget of reality here: the website. Just as the press breathlessly reported on every Benghazi/IRS/there was a third, what was it, oops! development, there was a shred of problem with the IRS scandal, there is more than a shred with the website.
But the problem is largely one that the media has made worse. While the website is a problem, the fact is as many people are really benefiting from ACA, probably more than are getting hurt by the “keep your plan” problem.
To me, the “keep your plan” issue is not that big a deal, because this is largely a perception issue. But the steady assaults on Obamacare for the last four years have prepped the soil for everyone to believe the worst. I’m CERTAIN that half the people currently freaking out that they will lose their coverage have employer based insurance, and their employer is changing plans or something completely unrelated.
I might be changing plans at work from a POS to an HDHP/HSA, and it IS confusing and difficult. But I’m not an idiot, so I’m not blaming that on Obama.
Our politics seems to consist largely of a series of nine-day wonders. This is the latest installment.
Since that is what our politics largely consists of, it is very important.
But since it is nothing but the latest nine-day wonder, it isn’t.
To avoid misconstrual of my remarks: yes, there is a problem; but it is soluble and in the long run will have little effect.
But since the GOTP has just had a near-death experience, and since they still have nothing to do but try to make Obama a one-term president, they are desperate to blow this up as the end of the world as we know it. Could they possibly forgo such an opportunity? Because to them, everything that happens is a sign and portent of the end of the world. (And to much of the left as well.)
None of this changes the fact that the Republican Party is dying, and that HCA is going to improve the lives of millions of Americans.
“the fact is as many people are really benefiting from ACA, probably more than are getting hurt by the “keep your plan” problem.”
This is getting lost in the “national conversation” and I wish we could see a good analysis by Kaiser or someone. After a limited look on my own I would estimate that there are about 2 million adversely effected and 50 million positively effected (or would be if Repub state leaders had any ethics). Furthermore, while those 2 million might be adversely effected financially, they still get something better for their money (such as no lifetime caps) even if they claim they don’t want it.
And then we all benefit to some degree by the numerous things we already enjoy due to Obamacare.
Dunno precisely who’s being fixed to win…Christie, most likely (“You scratch my President and I’ll scratch yours.” Watch.)…but the good ol’ double triplecross is always an option in the fix world. Bill Clinton’s involvement in this was not just “Bill being Bill,” it was a “The King is almost dead; long live the Queen!!!” thing. Hillary’s going to run on competence. I don’t know where we would be if she had won instead of Obama, but one thing for sure…the ongoing political and bureaucratic amateurishness of the Obama reign would not have happened. Talk is cheap, but effective bureaucratic infighting is what gets things done in the
bemusement…err, ahhh…abusementamusement park I like to call DCland.Bet on it.
AG
Not at all. Wait, what?
People here in MN aren’t talking about it (outside news broadcasts) much simply because Minnsure is going well and the GOP doesn’t have much ammunition here. Also, our group plans are seeing the lowest increases in years or (in my case) decreases in premiums right now.
I’m sure next door in Wisconsin people are more riled up if they can’t get into the exchange, and their costs are a lot higher (double, actually) but hopefully that will improve over time.
the wingnuts at my office have clammed up since the health insurance meetings last week when prices came out.
Ah, you too? I live 5 minutes from downtown Minneapolis absent rush hour. Anyhow, the policy itself (as opposed to the politics) has had little effect on me. Only thing has been obvious is that immunizations are covered 100% (preventative care I assume). I got the flu shot as always, and also TDAP so I don’t die because Jenny McCarthy is destructive bimbo.
Bill Clinton is muddying the waters? No, he’s meddling, instigating, intentionally causing trouble for reasons only he might be able to explain, basically sticking his nose in to bask again in the glow of publicity, attention. He acts like an old beauty queen who can’t realize that she’s become old and ugly. Republicans never betray their own: Democrats do it constantly. Apart from all that, Obama owns this and no can deny that he (what is blandly called this administration) has made an absoltue mess of the whole thing, as if he’s not really behind his own policy. The same dynamic can be seen in talks with Iran: they’re for an agreement until they start qualifying everything to please everyone one who might have an opinion instead of sticking to their guns. My god, Kerry must have given at least ten different explanations for what happened in Geneva instead of telling the French minister to take a walk. No, that wouldn’t be diplomatic. So instead there may well still be military action against Iran. And in parallel Obama and Clinton, et al. may be unintentionally setting the Democratic party up for electoral losses. It won’t take much to get the Republicans in on all fronts. The Democrats grossly overestimate themselves, almost as if they dont’t take their opponents seriiously. May Bill Clinton just shut up!
“Republicans never betray their own”
No. they just primary them.
Seriously, isn’t that statement a little out of date?
Yes, you might be right right, you can see it that way. But criticize a president of your own party in such a bitchy, public way on such a fundamental issue? I’m not so sure. In fact Clinton is running for president (or is it his wife?). He creates the impression that he distances himself from the program while not really doing so. He is in campaign mode, almost as if the Clinton’s hadn’t lost the Democratic nomination. No, this is a no-no, Clintons. Stop running against Obama, distancing yourself from him. Instead get behind your party and the president from your party. Or are we going to also get a rerun of Joe Lieberman? It’s sickening.
The more Ol’ Bill talks, the more I’m reminded about a great line from movie history:
As far as I can tell from his interview, Ol’ Bill used about 15 seconds to say positive things about ACA and about 4 minutes to discuss 3 fairly obvious problems. What was notably lacking was that he was given an opportunity to sell ACA and he didn’t. And the media that like to build up the drama are loving this.
I love me some Medicare A and B. Part D – not so much. Mrs. ID’s coverage, including a Plan F supplement, is < $300 a month. So far it has covered everything (except for the crappy Part D drug coverage).
Thanks for the input on Part D. I’ve been seriously thinking of dumping my FEHB for Medicare, in part because they increasing want to pay for only generics and even then by mail order from CVS Pharmacy which has some sort of monopoly. Also disgruntled by the ever increasing need for pre-Certification for damn near anything.
Maybe Michelle should change her hair style. That would perk us all up.
Look at last year’s Republican primaries, vis à vis Romney (and each other). Yes, once nominated they got behind him, but we’re a still a long way out from anybody (notice I didn’t say Hillary) being nominated on the Democratic ticket.
Another reason the situations aren’t directly comparable, is that the president wasn’t, and isn’t, a Republican.
When the president was a Republican, things were very different, true. But the GOP was also very different then, and a lot has changed since the financial crisis, the Obama presidency, ans the most recent debt ceiling stunt. The lockstep unity of the GOP is not what it used to be.