I’m sure I speak for many when I say that after (and maybe during) Obama’s press conference announcing a “fix” for the millions of insurance policies cancelled due to ObamaCare requirements our reaction was this:
For those who didn’t watch, or haven’t heard what the “fix” is, Obama is now “allowing” insurance companies to extend the policies that were being canceled. Some are asking how the Executive Branch can do this without the Legislative Branch being involved since we’re talking about a law. But everyone knows that the rules don’t apply to the Lightbringer, so save it.
The details aren’t actually important. ObamaCare can’t be fixed. It is designed to upend the health insurance market. Everyone who has looked at the issue for more than five minutes knows this. What Obama did today was try to shift the blame from ObamaCare to the insurance companies. Prior to the presser, Beltway Media types were suggested that this is what was going on and, again, nearly everyone who has paid attention could see it. Now, usually, things like this – the narrative shaping – are done behind the scenes and through “off the record” / “on background” conversations where the media dutifully pushes the narrative as if it were something that just is instead of something that the White House would like it to be. It doesn’t make sense to flat out say “Oh, this is intended to shift the blame from the White House to insurance companies” when you want people to simply blame insurance companies. I mean, telling people that this thing you’re doing is designed to shift blame from the people who created the law to the people who have to comply with the law (i.e. insurance companies) would be dumb. It would be something someone who is panicking would do, by mistake.
Guess what happened?
POTUS says that this allows him to say that it is not ACA preventing you from getting your old plan.
— Chuck Todd (@chucktodd) November 14, 2013
Specifically, he said this:
But the key point is, is that it allows us to be able to say to the folks who’ve received these notices, look, you know, I, the president of the United States, and the insurance — the insurance model of the Affordable Care Act is not going to be getting in the way of you shopping in the individual market that you used to have.
Except none of that is true. First, it’s almost impossible to reverse the cancellations. Second, insurance companies have spent three years adjusting their policies to meet ObamaCare requirements and work out the pricing so that they can cover more people without going bankrupt. You can’t just say “Oh! Nevermind!” It doesn’t work that way. So those cancellations will have to keep coming and they will be directly attributable to ObamaCare. And everyone knows it.
Will Democrats and their toadies in the media try to blame it on insurance companies and state insurance commissions? Yes. All you need to do is go over to Greg Sargent’s blog at the WashingtonPost.com. It’s already happening. But even the lowest of the low information voters know one thing: ObamaCare was passed by Democrats and when it kicked in, all hell broke loose.
Democrats can’t run away from that. There’s too much video.
There’s going to be an all out civil war among Democrats. One side will be running on ObamaCare and the other will be running away from it as fast as they can. And then there’s Hillary.
Break out the popcorn.