Latest posts by Mary Parrilli (see all)
- Heartland Daily Podcast: Jay Lehr on Agriculture Appreciation - December 24, 2013
- Heartland Daily Podcast: Balancing Act of an Orthodox Christian School - December 23, 2013
- Heartland Daily Podcast: Steve Stanek- Federal Budget Deal is Meaningless - December 21, 2013
Before the launch of Obamacare, the Associated Press reported that the health care exchanges would be a huge success, and were also very optimistic with their predictions about the number of people who would sign up for coverage.
Well, now we know — the numbers just aren’t there. And still, the technical problems that we were facing on October 1 are still going strong! In fact, the latest data shows a dramatic decrease in the number of visits.
Did you know that only one-half of 1 percent of people have been able to enroll in Obamacare? Heartland Institute Senior Fellow Benjamin Domenech describes this as an “incredible failure.”
So, what is the worst-case scenario for the coming months, if these issues aren’t fixed? Ben answers with one piece of the puzzle; state-run exchanges will be neglected and left behind, causing citizens to be without health plans.
Which leads us to Ben’s next point: If people are “mandated” to buy health insurance, but the website won’t allow them to do so, it will create a giant legal issue for the government. People will have grounds for lawsuits if they get fined. Ben illustrated the point with this analogy: If the government mandates everyone to get car insurance, and the only place you can get car insurance is your local DMV, but it’s always closed, how can you be fined for something you don’t have access to? Hence the “cluster” of legal problems it will cause.
If these problems continue and Obamacare turns out to be a colossal failure — and is delayed — it will greatly influence the coming election season in 2014. Obamacare is going to be very problematic for the people who actually supported the law, when it turns out to be an utter failure.
Ben’s advice to Republicans for the coming year is to be smart and exploit the Obamacare failure to their advantage. Republicans should use this as an opportunity to actually illustrate how a law like this is doomed for failure.
Listen to the podcast in the player above.
[Subscribe to the Heartland Daily Podcast free at this link.]
