You know a Democrat idea is failing when they stop defending it and start blaming Republicans for the way things are turning out. So you know how bad things have gotten with ObamaCare. When all the Democrats can talk about is how those mean Republicans refuse to “fix” their horrible mistake, it’s clear this has become every bit the disaster some of us said it would back when they were cooking it up seven years ago.
But let’s not fall into the trap of thinking ObamaCare is just having a few momentary problems, or that it just requires a “tweak” as Democrats would have you believe. And don’t think for a second that ObamaCare is “working well overall” but just has a few complications in the mix.
ObamaCare has been a disaster from day one. Even before it passed, things were going wrong. There has never been a time when the law was “working well,” and that’s because it attempts to defy every known principle of economics. And that couldn’t possibly end well.
If you want to track the failure of ObamaCare, it’s happened in nine stages:
Obama and the Democrats shove it down the throats of an unwilling public, with nothing but Democrat votes. Also, don’t forget that Harry Reid had to use a sneaky reconciliation maneuver to get it through the Senate after Ted Kennedy’s death left the Democrats without their filibuster-proof supermajority.
Broken promises emerge immediately. The bill no one bothered to read before voting on it was supposed to reduce premiums and expand coverage options. None of that happened. You were supposed to be able to keep your plan and your doctor if you liked them. You know how that turned out.
Enrollment never hit targets, prompting Democrats to attempt massive (and sometimes absurd) marketing campaigns to millennials urging them to sign up. To this day they don’t have the risk pool they envisioned, and the one they do have is older and sicker than they ever thought.
Exchanges start to collapse. Only 16 states ever set them up in the first place, and of those who did, most struggled financially right from the word go.
Insurance companies report huge losses. At first the states and the federal governments tried to deny insurers the rate increases they sought, but eventually they had no choice but to accept them. By that time, it hardly mattered. Insurers were losing their shirts and bailing out of the exchanges.
The year 2016 saw the biggest premium increases to date, which doesn’t even include the additional cost to the taxpayers to subsidize these higher premiums for those eligible. Remember when media “fact-checkers” said it was “false” that ObamaCare would jack up premiums? Yes, you can feel free to laugh at them. They deserve it.
The blame game begins. Democrats insist this is all the fault of Republicans who are so mean and won’t fix Obama’s fatally flawed law. Meanwhile, the plan’s architect Jonathan Gruber says it’s working great, and ObamaCare shill Ezekiel Emmanuel says you should all just chill about the rate hikes.
As some of us expected all along, some Democrats start demanding we take the “next step” and go to a single-payer system. For those who don’t speak Democratese, that means the government pays all your bills for you, and thus makes all your decisions for you. Remember, whoever pays your bills owns you. And of course, they own your money too, because they need all of it to pay for this crazy idea.
Finally, the voters have had enough and they elect Donald Trump, who works with a Republican Congress to repeal and replace ObamaCare with something that recognizes the reality of economic markets and respects the rights of patients and their doctors.
What’s that? Number 9 hasn’t happened yet? I know. You’ve got your chance on November 8. Make it so.
You know a Democrat idea is failing when they stop defending it and start blaming Republicans for the way things are turning out. So you know how bad things have gotten with ObamaCare. When all the Democrats can talk about is how those mean Republicans refuse to “fix” their horrible mistake, it’s clear this has become every bit the disaster some of us said it would back when they were cooking it up seven years ago.
But let’s not fall into the trap of thinking ObamaCare is just having a few momentary problems, or that it just requires a “tweak” as Democrats would have you believe. And don’t think for a second that ObamaCare is “working well overall” but just has a few complications in the mix.
ObamaCare has been a disaster from day one. Even before it passed, things were going wrong. There has never been a time when the law was “working well,” and that’s because it attempts to defy every known principle of economics. And that couldn’t possibly end well.
