Okay, just for the record, I’ve always been a proponent of single-payer. Aaaaaaand, moving on …
Last week, it looked to me like Barack Obama needed more of a hug than anything, so I’ll offer to go halfsies on an hour at the Snuggle House for our beleaguered POTUS (any takers?) and leave the cruel jibes to the starboard-leaning scribes in this magazine’s employ (they know who they are).
I’ll just say this: Luckily, “You’re doing a heck of a job, Sebelius-y” doesn’t exactly roll off the tongue, or this administration would really be deep in it.
As chilling as the parallels between the botched Obamacare rollout and George W. Bush’s Katrina response may be, there’s at least one glaring difference: Democrats weren’t traveling to New Orleans to let the air out of the tires of supply trucks or using National Guard helicopters to drop starved spider monkeys on people’s rafts while that disaster was unfolding.
Mightilyaided by our state’s own Cruella De Vil, Scott Walker, conservatives have been working since day one to sabotage Obamacare, and have done so at every turn. Don’t believe me? Check this out: A Koch Brothers-backed conservative organization called Generation Opportunity has been touring the country hosting tailgate parties — complete with hot models, pizza, and beer pong — to convince young people not to sign up for insurance. To repeat: Conservative activists want your children to party the day away — slamming beers, choking down triangles of cured meat and fat, and whipping their hormones to a fine froth — blissfully free of the onerous burden of stupid health insurance.
So while the Democrats, in an attempt to reach across the aisle and fix our broken health care system, were modeling their legislation after conservative Heritage Foundation proposals and Massachusetts’ Romneycare, Republicans — who know that young people’s participation is key to the success of the reform — were modeling their response after Girls Gone Wild. Our country is fast approaching the event horizon of stupid, folks. Who can pull us back from the brink?
So now after dealing with years of intransigence, calumny, and outright sabotage, Obamacare has sputtered out of the gate (who knew that being in a boat in which half the people are rowing and half are punching holes in the hull would be a problem?).
The latest news is that Republicans — who appear to have a severe case of political Munchausen syndrome by proxy — have decided to pretend to help.
Scott Walker, whose original plan was to dump people off BadgerCare and onto the federal exchanges he hates, said last week that he’s going to delay that plan, allowing people to stay on BadgerCare for the time being.
“The whole reason we’re here today is that the federal government can’t get their act together,” said Walker. “We’re not going to let people in this state who are in need fall through the cracks just because the people who pushed Obamacare can’t make it work.”
Yeah, well thanks for that, Florence Nightengale. Your concern for the downtrodden is as convincing as your sincere thank-yous to public workers.
Of course, those people would have been fine had Walker accepted the Medicaid expansion available under Obamacare, but the governor passed, in the process driving up the prices of the plans available on the exchange. (Tell me again how important local control and states’ rights are again?)
The truth is, Walker and his ilk preferred the health care status quo that existed prior to Obamacare, and this is where their sick joke-a-thon really gets funny.
While Republicans are falling all over themselves to come to the rescue of people whose (often dangerously inadequate) health insurance plans were recently cancelled, they’ve failed to mention that their own possible alternatives — either turn back the clock to the status quo or come up with a health reform plan of their own — would also leave people vulnerable to cancellations. If they reform health care on their own terms, those cancellations will come as night follows day.
Josh Barro of BusinessInsider.com explains:
The kinds of health reform plans that conservative wonks favor will also force many people to change health plans — because the problems with America’s health care system today are inextricably linked to badly designed health plans. Reinforcing the expectation that reform shouldn’t mean having to change your plan will make it harder for conservative reformers to promote their own plans.
As a result, argues Barro, Republicans are stuck with the argument that we should go back to the pre-Obamacare health care system.
Now let’s all hop in our Wayback Machines, Mr. Peabody.
Not only could health insurance companies flat-out refuse to insure sick people before Obamacare came on the scene, they’d search for any pretext they could find to justify cancelling the insurance policies of people who became ill.
Where were Republicans’ solemn tears then?
Oh, and it’s not like Americans’ insurance policies weren’t being cancelled before. This piece by Karl Ahlrichs, who works for Gregory & Appel, an Indianapolis-based benefits consulting and brokerage firm, provides some much-needed context:
(Continued)
Frankly, I am not as upset by this issue as the media partisans are. Hearing that policies are discontinued or that prices are going up is old news to those of us that work in health insurance. Health insurance companies have always been quick to discontinue unprofitable plans, cancel coverage for insureds with excessive claims, change benefits or raise prices. This is not very different.
So to the Obamacare critics I can only say this: The health care system was a broken mess before President Obama decided to address its problems. It was cruel, unfair, expensive, dangerous, and capricious.
And you can keep it.
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