Americans United for Change TV spot: "Hands off Obamacare"
President Obama and his allies are betting on the good stuff Obamacare will bring to a large segment of the population winning out in the end over Republican attacks, but at the same time, they're not going to just sit back and let that happen. They're now involved in a big push to highlight those benefits, as President Obama
did this week in a White House speech highlighting cost savings. There's
much more to come from the White House.
It was the latest move by the administration and its allies in an escalating campaign to defend the law, sell it, and strike back against ceaseless attacks by Republicans with their eyes on the 2014 midterms and the 2016 presidential race. Another is the new cable TV ad “Hands Off Obamacare,” a play on the classic “hands off my Medicare,” sponsored by the liberal group Americans United for Change. [...]
If Democrats manage to make a decent pitch, health tracking polls by the Kaiser Family Foundation show receptivity to the idea of buying insurance and some room to change opinions.
Many people who will benefit from the law don’t realize it yet, for a start. Among those who report that someone in their household has a preexisting medical condition, four in 10 don’t know the new law requires insurance companies to cover them, and at non-inflated rates.
In addition, young people ages 18 to 25, whose participation is essential to offset older, sicker people in the pool, seem inclined to want insurance. About three-quarters in the Kaiser polls said that it is “very important,” they need it and it’s “worth the money it costs.” Also, among uninsured people aged 18 to 64, only 11 percent said they don’t need insurance.
For the majority of the American population, having—or not having—health insurance isn't a political issue, it's just one more aspect of daily life to deal with. It's key for Obama and supporters of the law to reach these people with the message of what's going to make having health insurance easier or cheaper, how it's going to make life just that much better. It will show the Republican hysterical obsession about Obamacare for what it is: poison politics.
But to get there, Obama and his allies have to do precisely what they are now doing: fighting back and getting the word out about the benefits of the law. But they also have to make it work, particularly in the 26 states that refused to participate by setting up their own health insurance exchanges. That's where the federal government's work to prove Obamacare works really has to be done.