Proponents of the new health care law are facing a potential free-fall crisis right now.
President Obama apologized last week for making the promise, “You can keep your own health insurance plan,” which turned out not to be true. Millions of privately placed health insurance policies were canceled by insurance companies. New health care regulations were the bulk of the reasons to drop people’s insurance.
Obama has lost public confidence, due to the website fiasco on the Affordable Care Act and those insurance policy cancellations. But the Democrats could be greatly affected in next year’s elections because of the health care act problems that have surfaced.
As a result of policy cancellations, 39 Democrats in the House of Representatives crossed the aisle in a bipartisan effort to support a bill by Rep. Fred Upton, R-Mich., that permitted people to be extended a stay for one year on their canceled health plan notices.
The change in public support of the president and his health bill was affected by the promise made, but not kept, by him.
People have to trust their leader. Obama is losing that trust. People question whether President Obama did or did not know how the startup of his health plan would enable cancellations of present policies. Some people felt that he did not know, but others felt he did. Whether he knew or not, the president has apologized for his misleading statements on national TV.
Congresswoman Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., confirmed last week that before the original vote on the Affordable Care Act, she had urged her colleagues to, “vote now (on the bill) because you have to read it to know what’s in it, and we don’t have time for everyone to read it.”
It was a mistake for her to say it, and for anyone to vote for a bill they had not read. Personal agenda items could be slipped in by politicians that have nothing to do with a specific bill, only for their own special interests.
Right now, the Affordable Care Act is not working. There are many mistakes and glitches coming to light, especially the public website that is not working properly to help people sign up for insurance. It is not an easy fix to correct these problems. It takes time to find solutions to problems in any new system, to delete unneeded regulations, changes or requirements.
Glitches come with all major changes. The important question for the Affordable Care Act is whether or not the glitches can be smoothed enough to satisfy a large majority of Americans. It will need to be affordable for all, not just the poor and the rich. The vast middle class is the group that will need the most assurance that the costs and the treatments will be fair.
Millions of people are having their policies canceled, and these are not rich people with lots of insurance options. The administration says that people are being denied policies because the policies are not good enough to meet the new standards. Frequently, that is because these are policies that self-employed people, or people not covered by their employers, could afford to purchase.
While health insurance cancellation notices were sent out to millions of people, of equal concern is the tremendous increase in premium rates by those insurance companies. The insurance companies are being accused of working with the administration on the health care act in order to both increase the number of people who have to buy insurance and to raise rates on their present customers.
According to Forbes, an analysis by the Manhattan Institute shows that the health care act is increasing the cost of insurance for people who buy health care coverage on their own, by an average of 41 percent.
Younger people are the ones who are being hit especially hard. They will have to pay high costs in future premiums to offset senior citizen claims and sick person charges that will increase their government health bills in the future.
The government administration has to search out viable alternatives on tax treatments. Bipartisan oversight will be needed to remove conflicting rules and requirements, minor or major. The administration needs to be sure it has a workable plan to drive down costs and supply sufficient services to cover more than 30 million more people.
More time is needed to make it work. A change in the implementation plan is needed quickly, or the program may fail.
— Bernard Featherman is a business columnist for the Journal Tribune and former president of the Biddeford-Saco Chamber of Commerce.
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