Don’t Blame Trump for Obamacare’s Collapse

 

Sarah Kliff loves Obamacare. Despite being a journalist for the Washington Post and now Vox, Kliff boosted the program harder than anyone not on the DNC payroll. For years she pushed headlines assuring voters that the ACA was on the brink of success:

Alas, the longer we live with the Byzantine legislation, the harder it is to cheerlead for it. Since November, Kliff has abandoned her PR duties, unable to spin the increasingly dire news:

In the past week, the number of counties with zero health plans signed up to sell Obamacare has doubled. There are now 38,000 Obamacare enrollees scattered across 47 counties where no insurers want to participate in the marketplaces.

In these places, Obamacare’s coverage expansion could vanish regardless of whether Congress passes a repeal bill. People with Obamacare subsidies would still technically get that help, but would have no place to actually buy coverage.

Anthem announced last week that it would exit the Ohio marketplace, leaving 20 counties and 15,000 Obamacare enrollees with no 2018 option.

Anthem has been lukewarm on the 2018 marketplaces. Reports earlier this spring from analysts who follow the company said it was “leaning towards exiting.” But Anthem has decided to stick with a few marketplaces. An Anthem exit in the rest of the states where it currently sells would be devastating to the law, leaving 300,000 Obamacare enrollees without coverage.

When Blue Cross Blue Shield Kansas City quit on May 24, it blamed the “uncertain direction of this market.”

That last sentence indicates where the blame lies to Kliff and other Obamacare dead-enders. ACA’s predicted failure isn’t due to the thousands of pages of unread legislation, the sleazy backroom haggling, government ineptitude, or the hubris of a former president thinking DC could commandeer one-fifth of the US economy.

No, Obamacare is only failing because of Donald Trump and those mean old Republicans.

The possibility that Republicans will repeal Obamacare or drive it into collapse is an increasingly real one. That’s a reality where millions fewer have health insurance and lower-income Americans struggle to afford coverage.

“Slowly but surely, I think we’re gonna get there,” Sen. John Cornyn (R-TX), the No. 2 Republican, told reporters on Thursday, regarding Obamacare repeal. “We’re coming together.”

Behind closed doors, Senate Republicans have worked out a path toward Obamacare repeal. The plans under discussion would end Medicaid expansion, causing millions of low-income Americans to lose health coverage. They may allow health insurance plans to charge higher premiums to people with preexisting conditions, too.

…Under the Trump administration, it has become increasingly difficult for health plans to make the decision to participate on a marketplace that the president says is “exploding.” Who wants to build a business around a law that the White House is actively trying to tear down?

Not one Republican voted for Obamacare. A Democratic Congress passed and a Democratic president signed the legislation over the loud objections of the GOP. Conservative activists and legal groups fought tooth and nail to prevent its roll-out, and when that failed, they repeatedly warned it was doomed to failure.

Yet Kliff and her fellow press flacks spent years mocking the doomsayers and insisting Obamacare would be a rousing success.

They don’t get to blame a Republican Congress or White House for this disaster. It’s all on them.

Published in Healthcare, Politics
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  1. Bryan G. Stephens Thatcher
    Bryan G. Stephens
    @BryanGStephens

    Jon, you know it will be the fault of the GOP, and the majority will believe it. I have run into people before Trump was elected who blamed the GOP for Obamacare’s faults.

    The Left controls the narrative for most people. “Everybody knows” means the left’s story. That is just the way things are.

     

    • #1
  2. Judge Mental Member
    Judge Mental
    @JudgeMental

    Back before the guvmint got involved I didn’t have to find a new company every year as the old one flees the market.  Thanks Obamacare!

    • #2
  3. rgbact Inactive
    rgbact
    @romanblichar

    Whats funny (or not) is the real ACA disaster area is Medicaid, which was a horribly financially irresponsible freebee to states….which is unsurprisngly led to massive costs.  And nobody talks about it because they don’t get a bill.

    The Kliff lady was OK early….but Vox pretty much forces you to be a fulltime DNC lacky eventually.

     

    • #3
  4. Eustace C. Scrubb Member
    Eustace C. Scrubb
    @EustaceCScrubb

    It doesn’t help, though, that the President in his campaign promised magical fairy dust health insurance as well. Who knew it would be so complex?

    But I agree it’s the Dems fault, not Trump’s. Though the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court gets a tiny piece of the blame.

    • #4
  5. tigerlily Member
    tigerlily
    @tigerlily

    Jon Gabriel, Ed.:

     

    Behind closed doors, Senate Republicans have worked out a path toward Obamacare repeal. The plans under discussion would end Medicaid expansion, causing millions of low-income Americans to lose health coverage. They may allow health insurance plans to charge higher premiums to people with preexisting conditions, too.

     

    I’ll bet Ms Kliff never once wrote a column, let alone acknowledged, the 4-6 million people who lost health insurance plans they were happy with due to Obamacare. I don’t need lectures now from her or any other pundit and/or Democrat who ignored the critics who correctly foresaw and warned about the damage that would be wrought by the Obamacare law. The whole lot of them can go to blazes.

     

     

     

     

    • #5
  6. blood thirsty neocon Inactive
    blood thirsty neocon
    @bloodthirstyneocon

    It’s not our fault. We opposed it. They called us liars. So no, we don’t have to take the blame for its collapse. We should let it collapse and take our sweet time replacing it. We should also allow Democrats exactly as much input in replacing it as Republicans were allowed in its creation.

    • #6
  7. Dr. Bastiat Member
    Dr. Bastiat
    @drbastiat

    Since progressivism invariably leads to failure, progressives must measure any policy by it’s intentions, not it’s results.  Democrats mean well (according to Democrats).  Republicans are mean (according to Democrats).  So that’s it.  Bad things happen because of Republicans.  Good things happen because of Democrats.

    It’s hard for me to imagine how a progressive really sees these things, from Obamacare to Venezuela.  In their heart of hearts, it must be hard to reconcile at times.

    But that’s it.  Republicans are mean.  So if something bad happens, it’s because of Republicans.  You don’t need data or evidence to prove that.  Just perceived intentions.  That’s it.

    Hard for me to imagine how closed minded you would have to be to insulate yourself from the overwhelming evidence to the contrary of your preconceptions.  I can be stubborn sometimes.  But geez…

    • #7
  8. Dr. Bastiat Member
    Dr. Bastiat
    @drbastiat

    blood thirsty neocon (View Comment):
    It’s not our fault. We opposed it. They called us liars. So no, we don’t have to take the blame for its collapse.

    True.  But we will take the blame for it’s collapse.

    • #8
  9. Gumby Mark Coolidge
    Gumby Mark
    @GumbyMark

    Sarah Kliff is the “journalist” who refused to cover the Gosnell abortion scandal because it was “local news”.

    • #9
  10. DocJay Inactive
    DocJay
    @DocJay

    Medicine goes under in either 5 or 9 years.   It’s going to be ugly. It will be ‘solved’ with socialized medicine from a democrat who runs and wins on this platform.

    • #10
  11. Gumby Mark Coolidge
    Gumby Mark
    @GumbyMark

    When will they apologize to the millions who lost their insurance, despite their repeated promises that you could keep your plan if you liked it?  And Obama’s own HHS admitted after passage that up to 93 million Americans might ultimately lose their coverage.

    When will they apologize to the millions who lost their doctors, despite their repeated promises that you could keep your doctors if you liked them?

    When will they apologize to the millions who saw premiums and deductibles rise sharply, despite their repeated promises that average annual savings would be $2500?

    When they make full and public apologies for their fake news and lies, they can participate in the public discussion again, but not till that happens.

     

    • #11
  12. tigerlily Member
    tigerlily
    @tigerlily

    DocJay (View Comment):
    Medicine goes under in either 5 or 9 years. It’s going to be ugly. It will be ‘solved’ with socialized medicine from a democrat who runs and wins on this platform.

    • #12
  13. Kevin Schulte Member
    Kevin Schulte
    @KevinSchulte

    Eustace C. Scrubb (View Comment):
     

    But I agree it’s the Dems fault, not Trump’s. Though the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court gets a tiny piece of the blame.

    Yes, that tiny atom he split. It unleashed hell.

    • #13
  14. danok1 Member
    danok1
    @danok1

    Dr. Bastiat (View Comment):

    blood thirsty neocon (View Comment):
    It’s not our fault. We opposed it. They called us liars. So no, we don’t have to take the blame for its collapse.

    True. But we will take the blame for it’s collapse.

    100% true. I had a “discussion” yesterday with my daughter (who just finished her sophomore year). She claimed the problems with the ACA are because of the changes Republicans demanded. She flat out refused to believe me when I told her the Republicans, who were in the minority, were not allowed to offer amendments, nor did a single Republican vote for it. The Dems made no compromises to get Republican votes; any changes were to get moderate Dems on board. Pulled up articles, etc. She still blamed the Republicans.

     

    • #14
  15. Cato Rand Inactive
    Cato Rand
    @CatoRand

    I hear this meme from a lot of my lefty friends.  100 days of control of both the White House and Congress is more than enough for them to claim the Rs own this flaming turd.  The fact that it has been on fire, reeking, and going up in smoke since almost the day it was signed, and was showing unmistakable signs of imminent collapse before last November, is hand waived away.  “It’d all work out fine if Trump would just support it.”  It’s sort of like communism to the true believers — unfalsifiable.  “It’s never been tried” they say (as the body count mounts).

    • #15
  16. blood thirsty neocon Inactive
    blood thirsty neocon
    @bloodthirstyneocon

    DocJay (View Comment):
    Medicine goes under in either 5 or 9 years. It’s going to be ugly. It will be ‘solved’ with socialized medicine from a democrat who runs and wins on this platform.

    Let the democrat implement what he ran on. Let our current president do the same.

    • #16
  17. Larry3435 Inactive
    Larry3435
    @Larry3435

    California is on the verge of passing a bill that would replace all private health insurance with single-payer.  It is going to pass the legislature, but I doubt it will be implemented immediately, since the plan for funding it is massive tax increases on businesses, hundreds of billions in aid from the Feds (that will not be forthcoming), and an internet deal with a Nigerian Prince.  Even Jerry Brown may decide that he wants the state to last through the end of his term without becoming Venezuela.  But it is troubling personally, since it would mean that I would lose my health insurance (I am a Nevada resident, but my insurance is through a California firm).  On the other hand, if they do it and all the illegals and deadbeats in the country rush to California, then they can go ahead a secede from the Union.  Whether they want to or not.

    • #17
  18. Z in MT Member
    Z in MT
    @ZinMT

    Larry3435 (View Comment):
    California is on the verge of passing a bill that would replace all private health insurance with single-payer. It is going to pass the legislature, but I doubt it will be implemented immediately, since the plan for funding it is massive tax increases on businesses, hundreds of billions in aid from the Feds (that will not be forthcoming), and an internet deal with a Nigerian Prince. Even Jerry Brown may decide that he wants the state to last through the end of his term without becoming Venezuela. But it is troubling personally, since it would mean that I would lose my health insurance (I am a Nevada resident, but my insurance is through a California firm). On the other hand, if they do it and all the illegals and deadbeats in the country rush to California, then they can go ahead a secede from the Union. Whether they want to or not.

    The California legislature is quickly becoming an surreal experiment in denial of reality. When  Jerry “Moonbeam” Brown is a voice of reason then you know that something is not right.

    • #18
  19. bill.deweese Inactive
    bill.deweese
    @bill.deweese

    Precisely. Piecrust campaign promises aside, you don’t need to repeal Obamacare. It will self-repeal, or rather self destruct, on its own.  As painful as that sounds, as lives and healthcare are in the balance, nothing is going to change the pain, but you can sidestep the blame and not be bound by some newfound responsibility (due to meddling with it), to attempt to rebuild its replacement by somehow rearranging its ashes and rubble differently.

    Obamacare’s​ key issue is that it suffers from a classic inventory problem. It’s out of smoke and running low on mirrors.

     

    • #19
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