President Obama’s new explanation of Obamacare is just as false as his original argument and the political consequences may be unavoidable, according to Galen Institute President Grace-Marie Turner.
Turner believes it will be hard for Obama to regain the public’s trust after violating the central promise behind the Affordable Care Act, that anyone who likes their health care plan and their doctor would be able to keep them. Millions of people in the individual market have already learned their policies will be terminated in the coming weeks. Millions more could face the same situation once business leaders have to make decisions on health care coverage next year.
“I think the American people are absolutely incensed and you also see it through the mainstream media. They’re finally starting to give the president four pinocchios, which is about as many as The Washington Post can give,” said Turner. “A lie is when you say something that’s false and you know it’s false and you do it anyway. It wasn’t like this was a misstep, like The New York Times says. He said it dozens of times off teleprompters and written speeches while his staff knew that millions of people were going to lose their health coverage.”
Obama subsequently tried to claim he always said only plans that didn’t change after the legislation became law would be grandfathered in. He further asserts than anyone losing coverage because it doesn’t meet Obamacare standards will be better off in the new system. Turner vehemently disagrees.
“People are going to see for themselves once they ever do get on the website that the deductibles in the Obamacare exchange coverage is going to be several times higher,” said Turner, noting that deductibles on average run about $1,000 now and on the most affordable Obamacare plans in California they average about $4,000.
Turner says a major reason both premiums and deductibles are soaring is because of what Obamacare requires to be in every policy.
“Chris Conover, an economist from Duke University, believes by the time 2014 is over that 129 million Americans will have lost their policies because they did not comply with this long list of expensive Obamacare mandates. If your policy doesn’t cover drug addiction, rehabilitative care, habilitative care, pediatric dentistry, pregnancy testing, pregnancy care. If your policy does not cover all of those, it’s not a legal policy. The insurance companies cannot sell it. And for the president to be saying it’s the insurance companies’ fault makes me crazy. They cannot sell an illegal policy,” said Turner.
Turner further asserts that Obama summoned Senate Democrats up for re-election next year to convince them not to support any measures designed to extend deadlines, implement delays or anything else as the flawed roll-out persists. However, Turner says those Democrats will eventually buck the White House in an effort to save their own political skin.