"What I'm asking you is to keep making your voices heard. To keep holding me accountable." --Barack Obama, Netroots Nation 2010
In a prime time news conference in July, 2009, President Obama made the case for healthcare reform and explained that reform was essential to the economic recovery and to control skyrocketing premiums and out-of-pocket costs.
"If we do not control these [health-care] costs, we will not be able to control our deficit," Obama said. "If we do not reform health care, your premiums and out-of-pocket costs will continue to skyrocket."
If you want to see President Obama re-elected in 2012, as I do, then it's time to hold him and whichever Democrats survive in November accountable for skyrocketing healthcare costs.
As Progressives, we must make him deliver on his promise of real healthcare reform--which includes a whole lot more than slapping a happy face on a deeply flawed bill.
Tragically, there's nothing, zero, zip, nada affordable in the PPACA
If you can't afford the chocking God damn premiums, you go without. Period. Where's the affordable, Mr. President? It doesn't exist.
A few days ago, JDWolverton had a great diary about health insurance premium sticker shock.
That's what it is, premium sticker shock, and it's a gift from the Democratic Party. How could they have done this to us--in the name of 'reform' no less. Well they did.
But hey, we should be grateful, it's better than nothing.
It seems that the insurance industry template for premium increases post the passage (with great fanfare) of PPACA--that right say it loud, the PATIENT PROTECTION AND AFFORDABLE CARE ACT, is to try for say a 39% increase then settle for say a 20% increase. This is exactly what's happening in California.
The UCLA Center for Health Policy Research just released a study which shows that 1 in 4 Californians does not have insurance. The number of uninsured in our largest state is over 24 million! Ah yes, I know, be patient, sick Californian, help is on the way (if you, and Democrats survive)--in 2014.
The report backs up the findings of a previous study the center released in March that showed nearly one in four Californians lack health insurance. According to the latest estimates, the state's uninsured population has reached 24.3%, or about 8.4 million, up from 6.4 million in 2007.
. . .The study notes that the major elements of national healthcare reform legislation aimed at helping middle- and lower-income families will not take effect until 2014, including the expansion of Medi-Cal and federal subsidies for purchasing health insurance through a state-based exchange.
Lavarreda stressed that policymakers need to come up with solutions to caring for the uninsured in the interim.
Those of us deeply concerned about 2012 and the 2010 midterms need to confront these realities and make Democrats begin the long slog of fixing this very bad legislation.
But it seems they are clueless. They're in recess trotting around trying to keep their jobs while millions of newly unemployed will no longer get COBRA subsidies, hence they'll just join the ranks of the uninsured.
As many of us predicted, the ranks of the uninsured will continue to grow despite the passage of so-called reform. This is not a welcome development for Democrats.
And if you still have a job and some semblance of employer coverage, fasten your seat belt for big time cost shifting in the 2011 renewal period--huge premium increases and big benefit cuts. Also seriously bad news for Democrats.
You'll be paying a lot more for a lot less. This is reform, I kid you not.
If you are concerned that the PPACA is poised to fail in myriad ways, I urge you to read Jacob Hacker's excellent article in the American Prospect about what we need to focus on going forward.
So here's what Democrats plan to do on the campaign trail. They're going do what politicians always do, put lipstick on the pig.
Have a look.
The first thing Democrats are going to do, per Politico is "retreat on healthcare cost pitch". This makes sense. When angry voters in Ohio opens his premium statement and sees yet another 25% increase, he has every right to turn to his soon-to-be unemployed Congressperson and ask, "where's the affordable healthcare you promised?"
Here's a link to the PowerPoint presentation from the Democratic pollster Celinda Lake, about how Democrats need to stay far away from things like cost control and skyrocketing premiums, if voters express anger over the bait and switch PPACA.
One slide is particularly galling, the Congressperson is supposed to say that PPACA gives the American people what Congress has. This is simply a lie. Congress receives taxpayer subsidies of 70% for their health insurance.
As long as funds hold out, I'll continue to tell the stories of the millions of Americans left out of healthcare reform, certainly now and maybe even down the road.
There are two more free clinics scheduled New Orleans on August 31st and September 1st and Charlotte, North Carolina on December 7th.
With your support and if finances permit, I will go to the Charlotte clinic on December 7th. If you live near New Orleans and can volunteerthere, it is a life changing experience.
If you want help us with a small donation we're immensely grateful to you.
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