Saturday, April 19, 2014

ObamaCare forced a majority of Americans to see the horrors of our Insurance Based Health Care System.

The most uncovered fact about the Affordable Care Act was then sudden realization by most Americans of how screwed up our health care system was, once they had it explained to them with the opening of the exchanges.

No one in the media pointed out that those covered by their employer were also now learning the ins and outs of our dysfunctional health insurance “system.” After 20 years, I already knew about this stuff. Opposition and outrage grew when people suddenly became aware of the costs and power of insurers through the introduction of ObamaCare.

Unaffordable deductibles? Big surprise folks, that’s a major part of the GOP’s push for Health Savings Accounts. If you don’t like high deductibles, ask a Republican why they think you should have what they call “skin in the game,” besides whatever life threatening disease you’re fighting.

GOP Attack Permanent: The vilification of “ObamaCare” is now set in stone. Republicans have soured public opinion enough on the ACA that it's never going to change. Our insurance based system is by nature outrageous, unfair and complicated beyond words. From Bloomberg News:
Paul Krugman is puzzled: "Over the weekend I had dinner in NYC with some very smart, sophisticated people; yes, all of them liberals. And almost everyone in the group was under the impression that Obamacare is still going badly … [H]ere we have smart, pro-reform people living in a state where reform is going really well. And they don’t know it!"-Krugman

The main explanation (sorry to beat this drum again) is more basic: The law is designed to do poorly in polling, at least once Republicans put up a united front against it.
It's what the public doesn't see or will ever notice getting coverage:
(The public) might have noticed if they benefited from the closing of the Medicare doughnut hole or took advantage of free preventative-care doctor visits. Some might have post-college kids who were able to stay on their insurance.

For most of us, Obamacare isn't that visible, and the benefits often are the least visible part. Don’t expect it to get better; it’s going to be less and less likely that people will identify the benefits they are receiving with “Obamacare.” In five years, plenty of those in the exchanges won't realize that under the old system they would have had a pre-existing condition that would have barred them from being insured … they almost certainly won’t realize that their minor medical condition would have qualified.

Given all that, once Republican opposition guaranteed that the ACA would be controversial it was likely that it would poll badly, even if it worked well -- and even if it worked so well it couldn't be repealed … This isn't the result of media bias, or the administration’s failure to win the spin; and it’s not even a sign that the law isn't working as intended. It’s just the logical outcome of the way the law is set up.

No comments:

Post a Comment