President Obama signing the Affordable Care Act.
Since Sen. Max Baucus stuck his foot in it, whining that the law that he is primarily responsible for creating, the Affordable Care Act,
could become a "train wreck." The latest Beltway parlor game is predicting the demise of the law, and the Democrats'
electoral chances in the next election, when the implementation of the law will have begun. Republicans are doing their best to capitalize on the uncertainty.
WASHINGTON — This month, a political organization aligned with House Republicans sent an e-mail to reporters attacking President Obama’s health care law.
“Young adults on parents’ plan pay more,” said the organization, the YG Network, citing a new employee benefits study. The e-mail’s subject line read “So Much for Popularity.”
Actually, the study did not show those young adults were paying more. It showed insurance companies were, because they had begun providing health coverage to those young adults, as called for under the law.
Not that Eric Cantor's Young Guns Network is going to be telling the truth about any part of the law. Republican opposition to it hasn't waned a bit, so we'll continue to hear those kind of new lies, along with all the same old misinformation on death panels, on Medicare cuts, on undeserving brown people getting insurance. There will still be repeal votes, and Republican governors and legislatures will still fight it every step of the way, sabotaging the implementation of Obamacare to the fullest extent possible. It's imperative for Republicans politically that the law fail.
It's not quite as imperative for Democrats, politically, to see it succeed, but it sure would help. What the White House and congressional Democrats need to do to start with, is to defend the law, as President Obama did in Tuesday's press conference:
But let’s just step back for a second and make sure the American people understand what it is that we’re doing. The Affordable Care Act—Obamacare—has now been with us for three years. It’s gone through Supreme Court tests. It’s gone through efforts to repeal. A huge chunk of it has already been implemented. And for the 85 to 90 percent of Americans who already have health insurance, they’re already experiencing most of the benefits of the Affordable Care Act even if they don’t know it. Their insurance is more secure. Insurance companies can’t drop them for bad reasons. Their kids are able to stay on their health insurance until they’re 26 years old. They’re getting free preventive care.
So there are a whole host of benefits that, for the average American out there, for the 85 to 90 percent of Americans who already have health insurance, this thing has already happened. And their only impact is that their insurance is stronger, better, more secure than it was before. Full stop. That’s it. They don’t have to worry about anything else.
But Obama and Democrats, to the extent that they can, also need make sure that the law is implemented as efficiently and effectively as possible. That should be the primary focus of Obama's White House for the next year.