The Not-So Affordable Care Act

New Revelations Show the Government Healthcare Takeover Threatens Patient Care and Wastes Money

• As Americans “find out what is in” the Democrats’ government takeover of healthcare, even Democrat allies are starting to worry about the law’s new surprises that threaten access to affordable care while forcing families to buy insurance.
• Democrats have responded to this criticism by attempting to turn attention to the supposed benefits of new programs created by the healthcare law. But recent reports suggests that the news about these programs isn’t great either.
• As bad news about their healthcare disaster piles up, Democrats continue to issue waiver after waiver from the law. Curiously, a disproportionate number of those waivers have been awarded in Nancy Pelosi’s district.

BACKGROUND:

As Americans “find out what is in” the Democrats’ government takeover of healthcare, even Democrat allies are starting to worry about the law’s new surprises that threaten access to affordable care while forcing families to buy insurance:

PELOSI INFAMOUSLY SAID THAT DEMOCRATS HAD “TO PASS THE [HEALTHCARE] BILL SO THAT YOU CAN FIND OUT WHAT IS IN IT.” (David Freddoso, “Pelosi on Health Care: ‘We Have to Pass the Bill So You Can Find Out What Is In It,”The Washington Examiner’s Beltway Confidential blog, 3/9/2010)

BUT NEW REPORT SHOWS “AFFORDABLE CARE ACT” LEAVES MIDDLE CLASS FAMILIES WITHOUT “ANY AFFORDABLE OPTIONS” FOR COVERAGE THEY’RE MANDATED TO BUY: “A major provision of the healthcare reform law designed to prevent businesses from dropping coverage for their workers could inadvertently leave families without access to subsidized health insurance.

“The problem is a huge headache for the Obama administration and congressional Democrats, because it could leave families unable to buy affordable health insurance when the healthcare law requires that everyone be insured starting in 2014.

“Some of the administration’s closest allies on healthcare reform warn this situation could dramatically undercut support for the law… ‘If they don’t fix this — and by ‘they’ I mean either the administration or Congress — we’re going to have middle-class families extremely unhappy with [healthcare] reform in 2014, because they’ll basically be facing financial penalties for not buying coverage when they don’t have access to any affordable options.'” (Julian Pecquet, “Healthcare Law Could Leave Families With High Insurance Costs,” The Hill, 7/21/2011)

INTERESTING TO NOTE: “JOB GROWTH WAS 10-FOLD HIGHER BEFORE THE DEMOCRATS PASSED OBAMACARE.” (Jeffrey H. Anderson, “Analysis: Job Growth Was 10-Fold Higher Before the Democrats Passed ObamaCare,” The Weekly Standard, 7/21/2011)

Democrats have responded to this criticism by attempting to turn attention to the supposed benefits of new programs created by the healthcare law. But recent reports suggests that the news about these programs isn’t great either:

OBAMA ROLLS OUT $4 BILLION IN LOANS FOR NEW “HEALTH CO-OPS,” BUT “SAYS ONE-THIRD MIGHT DEFAULT”: “The Obama administration on Monday rolled out nearly $4 billion in loans for a program established by the healthcare reform law, but said roughly one-third of those loans could end in default. … HHS’s proposed rule on co-ops, released Monday, estimates a default rate of 40 percent for the planning loans and 35 percent for the solvency loans.” (Sam Baker, “HHS to Loan $4 Billion for Health Co-Ops, Says One-Third Might Default,” The Hill, 7/18/2011)

WSJ: JUST-ANNOUNCED OBAMACARE EXCHANGES COULD SEND INSURERS “INTO A DEATH SPIRAL OF UNPAYABLE CLAIMS,” “REDUCING COMPETITION” AND EMPOWERING GOVERNMENT: “A poorly designed exchange could send many insurers into a death spiral of unpayable claims, hastening consolidation, reducing competition, and increasing the political demand for government to run everything. This was precisely the goal of many Democrats who wrote the Affordable Care Act, and we suspect it is also HHS’s motivation.” (Editorial, ” ‘Exchange’ You Can’t Believe In,” The Wall Street Journal, 7/16/2011)

As bad news about their healthcare disaster piles up, Democrats continue to issue waiver after waiver from the law. Curiously, a disproportionate number of those waivers have been awarded in Nancy Pelosi’s district, represented by the very Democrat who told us we had to pass the government healthcare takeover to “find out what is in it.” What will it take for Democrats to stop defending their new healthcare law?:

OBAMACARE WAIVERS NEAR 1,500: “The Health and Human Services Department granted 39 new waivers last month from part of the healthcare law, bringing the total to just shy of 1,500.” (Sam Baker, “Healthcare Waivers Approach 1,500,” The Hill, 7/15/2011) 

NEW DATA: DISPROPORTIONATE NUMBER OF OBAMACARE WAIVERS ISSUED TO BUSINESSES IN PELOSI’S SAN FRANCISCO DISTRICT. (“Who and Where?: The ObamaCare Waivers,” Office of Rep. Lynn Jenkins (R-KS), 7/6/2011)

FINAL VOTE ON OBAMACARE REPEAL: 245-189, with only 3 Democrats joining GOP. (“Final Vote Results for Roll Call 14,” Clerk of the U.S. House, 1/19/2011)