Tuesday, August 16, 2011

Does Obama Care What’s in Obamacare?

During a campaign-style event yesterday in Minnesota, the President criticized opponents of the health care law who have dubbed it “Obamacare,” claiming that while he cares about the American people, his opponents don’t.

Of course, Republicans DO care about health care, and put forward numerous solutions during the last Congress – solutions that were promptly ignored by President Obama and Democrats.  But the real question is, does Obama himself care about what’s in the bill he signed into law – how it breaks so many of his campaign promises, and will only stifle America’s economy and its health care system?  Here’s a list of ten questions asking how much Obama cares about what’s actually in Obamacare…

  1. Does Obama Care that the Congressional Budget Office concluded the law’s mandates will raise premiums by up to 30 percent?  Candidate Obama repeatedly promised to cut insurance premiums by an average of $2,500 per family, but the legislation he signed will result in massive premium increases because of all the new mandates and federal regulations associated with it.
  2. Does Obama Care that taxpayers will face massive tax increases scheduled to take effect over the coming years – destructive taxes on job creators that will harm an economy struggling to grow?  After promising the squeezed middle class during his campaign that he would not raise “any of your taxes,” President Obama’s health care law broke that promise no fewer than 12 separate times.

  3. Does Obama Care that the projected cost of his new entitlement has already quadrupled, before it even takes effect?  Candidate Obama promised his health care plan would cost “$50-65 billion a year when fully phased in.”  However, the Congressional Budget Office now projects that the REAL cost of the coverage expansions will be $229 billion in 2020 and $245 billion in 2021 – four times the levels of spending candidate Obama promised.
  1. Does Obama Care that half of all employers – and as many as 80% of small businesses – will be forced to give up their current coverage within the next two years?  Candidate Obama promised that “for those of you who have insurance now, nothing will change under the Obama plan – except that you will pay less.”  But the Administration’s own estimates reveal that its onerous regulations will force most businesses to give up their current plans, thus subjecting them to costly new mandates that will increase premiums.
  2. Does Obama Care that middle-class families will face a new 40 percent tax on insurance policies the government will force them to buy, a tax that will hit more and more families over time?  Candidate Obama promised not to “tax health benefits,” but his law FORCES people to buy insurance (yet another broken campaign promise), so the federal government can tax it.
  3. Does Obama Care that millions of seniors will lose access to Medicare Advantage plans?  According to the Medicare actuary, millions of seniors will have to give up health care plans they have and like.  Many other seniors will lose extra benefits provided by Medicare Advantage plans.
  4. Does Obama Care that thanks to his law, the American workforce will SHRINK by an estimated 800,000 jobs because the perverse incentives included in the health care law will discourage individuals from working?  At the White House health summit, Speaker Pelosi claimed the law “will create 4 million jobs – 400,000 jobs almost immediately.”  But in reality, the non-partisan Congressional Budget Office found that the law “will encourage some people to work fewer hours or to withdraw from the labor market,” and said that “on net, [the law] will reduce the amount of labor used in the economy.”
  5. Does Obama Care that national health spending will go UP by $310,800,000,000, according to the Medicare actuary?  In June 2009, President Obama claimed that any health care legislation must control costs: “If any bill arrives from Congress that is not controlling costs, that’s not a bill I can support.  It’s going to have to control costs.”  However, the health care law the President signed will raise national health spending, not lower it.
  6. Does Obama Care that states will be forced to shoulder the burden of what a Democrat Governor called the “mother of all unfunded mandates” – another massive expansion of government-run Medicaid at a time when states cannot afford their existing Medicaid programs?  The size of these unfunded mandates – at least $118 billion – could force states to cut other funding priorities like education, or pass even more tax increases on top of the ones already being imposed at the federal level.
  7. Does Obama Care that the “most transparent” Administration passed a 2,700 page bill into law using secretive negotiations conducted behind closed doors?  Candidate Obama promised to televise all health care negotiations on C-SPAN, but the process leading up to Obamacare was plagued with notorious backroom deals.  Worse yet, Obama adviser David Axelrod received a multimillion dollar severance package indirectly paid for by the pharmaceutical industry, as part of its “rock-solid deal” with Democrats in Congress and the Administration.