New insurance rates for plans on the health insurance exchanges created under Obamacare are going to be announced this fall and they are almost certainly going to include rate hikes of varying degrees. That will create an inevitable anti-Obamacare narrative for Republicans in the waning weeks of the campaign. But this time, Democrats are
going to be ready.
For months, the half-dozen White House communications and policy aides have been assembling state-by-state histories of health insurance rates before the Affordable Care Act was implemented, the drop-offs between initial rate proposals and final rates, and an analysis of the law’s effects and projections for 2015—all condensed to fit on a two-page background and talking points document tailored for each state.
Then they wait, closely tracking developments in the states in order to be ready to pounce when rates are announced.
When they see a state preparing to announce premium proposals, McGuinness emails Reid’s and Pelosi’s offices, who then connect her team with the chiefs of staff and press aides for every Democrat in the state’s congressional delegation. They put together policy and communications briefings for the members’ staffs, and occasionally the members themselves.
That context is critical—insurance premium rates have
never not increased, in any market. Republicans are going to have to count on general amnesia of that fact in order for their campaign to succeed with anyone other than the rabidly anti-Obamacare base. This time, Democrats are going to be ready to counter.