WELL NOW, one down, dozens to go. Maybe a lot more, if the past is but prologue. Not that a promise made by a politician should ever be depended on, but the most popular one since “Read my lips, no new taxes” has now proven about as durable as a string of Mardi Gras beads. And a badly made one at that.
Here’s this week’s promise made, promise broken:
If you like your health insurance, you’ll be able to keep it.
Riiiiight.
What a load of … well, you decide the proper term for it. Not that many of us ever bought that promise in the first place. It made only political sense, and only if you define politics as the lowest form of salesmanship. Remember when Obamacare was in the hurry-up stage of being rushed into law? It would make it past the U.S. Senate by only one vote. Like poor Mark Pryor’s. (He’s still twisting in the wind trying to justify it.) This great reform wouldn’t get a single vote from the other party, which speaks well of the GOP, and now everybody’s going to have to live-or die-with it. Even back then, in the long-ago year 2010, you doubtless knew, as so many of us did, that once the government got into the health insurance business, it wouldn’t be long before private companies were dumping employees into the public exchanges. That day can’t be far off. It may already be here.
This week a news outfit not exactly known for being staffed by right-wing types-it’s known as NBC News-reported that millions of Americans have received, or will soon receive, cancellation letters from their health care providers. NBC says four sources “deeply involved” in Obamacare, Lord help them, say millions of Americans will have their insurance policies canceled because those policies don’t meet all the standards of Obamacare, which has more clauses in its fine print than one of those periodic 18-page notices (in agate type) you get from your credit-card company.
What happened? It seems that Obamacare was supposed to grandfather in many insurance policies that people had before Nancy Pelosi and her fellow Democrats passed the Affordable Care Act to see what was in it. Something tells us Pelosi and Associates still haven’t got to the bottom of this mine shaft. And that when they do, they’ll find still another sea of fine print buried under all those waivers for labor unions, favored states and FOBs. (That last now stands for Friends of Barack).
UNFORTUNATELY for the rest of us without that kind of clout, if your health insurance policies changed after 2010-maybe the deductible, maybe co-pays, maybe what the plans covered-Shazam! no more grandfather, no more clause, no more health insurance policy. Welcome to the wonderful world of our new European-style social democracy that M. de Tocqueville warned us about so long ago.
A spokesperson for the White House told NBC News that, yeah, that’s happening, but . . . Obamacare will offer folks other policies, and folks-well, some folks-will get subsidies to help pay for it! So just sit back, relax and enjoy being a ward of the federal government. It’s so much easier than being a mere citizen of the United States. Get used to it.
But the nagging thought persists: That regimented vision of government-issue health care isn’t exactly what “If you like your health insurance, you’ll be able to keep it” used to mean. Plain English never was this president’s forte. At least Bill Clinton always included a clinton clause, an escape hatch, when he made a promise or gave sworn testimony. Just as fair warning. The current president has dispensed with that formality.
This week, in response to a question about folks being dropped from health plans, a top Democrat in the House, Steny Hoyer, told National Review: “We knew that there would be some policies that would not qualify and therefore people would be required to get more extensive coverage.” Let’s hear it for Steny! At least he has as much as admitted that the president had committed a little, uh, terminological inexactitude, to borrow a phrase from Sir Winston himself.
Brother Hoyer “explained” that the president’s promise should have been more, uh, “precise” and accompanied by a qualifier-that you could keep your health care policy if it had all the bells and whistles that were mandated by Obamacare. Yes, but then who would have voted for it? Not even Mark Pryor might have been fooled.
Forgive us for lapsing into what’s left of the poor, bedraggled English language, but that’s not what the president promised, Mr. Hoyer. The president said that if you were happy with your health plan, you’d be able to keep it. We didn’t hear any ifs, ans, buts or qualifiers in his promise, which he made again and again. (Falsifying can be addictive, especially if it gets a pol applause every time.)
Can you imagine what would’ve been said if George Bush the First had wormed his way out of breaking his famous No New Taxes pledge by telling the American people (1) yeah, my promise could have been more precise, sure, but (2) you’ll really like the alternative-higher taxes-if you’ll only give it a try.
If George H.W. Bush would have tried that, he might have come in third in the presidential election of 1992.
DRIP, DRIP, drip, drip. Another day, another story about how Obamacare might affect you. And not for the better. This time the story was on the front page of Tuesday’s Arkansas Democrat-Gazette. And you won’t be surprised that the news wasn’t good.
The state’s congressmen, now Republicans all, have questions for Health and Human Services. (Who doesn’t, if only they could get through its cockamamie email system?) Our U.S. representatives don’t like some of the details in Obamacare now that folks are (very slowly) signing up for it.
Tom Cotton’s people say insurance on the government’s exchange can cost a lot more money than in years past. They cite this example: A 30-year-old man with a $2,500 deductible could have bought a policy for $65 a month last year. Now it could cost him closer to $275 a month. Why? Partly because this new law and snare called Obamacare requires insurance companies to offer more benefits-whether you want ’em or not. This 30-year-old’s bill could skyrocket. And not just his.
Ouch.
Something tells us the road ahead for Obamacare will turn out to be fully paved with broken promises. Even the name of Obamacare itself is turning out to be Empty Promise No. 1: The “Affordable” Care Act.
Yeah, right-again.
Editorial, Pages 14 on 10/31/2013