Obamacare: Trying to fix a problem we didn't have
It started with Schumer, Harkin and Webb. It will very likely grow as more and more Democrats realize that the Affordable Care Act is the political equivalent of the Titanic.
Obamacare's main problem is it tried to fix problems we never had. It looks like Democrats are realizing that now. They are painfully learning that messing with one sixth of our economy will have lots of consequences, especially unintended ones.
In January, we will have majorities, and I mean bipartisan majorities, ready to start "undoing" the law, as W. James Antle III pointed out:
Come January, majorities in both houses of Congress will favor its repeal. Repealing the individual mandate, the employer mandate and IPAB all have bipartisan support.
The health-care law faces another legal challenge at the Supreme Court. The Halbig case could make Obamacare a very expensive proposition if the justices rule people who bought health insurance from the federal exchange are ineligible for subsidies.
Even without Halbig, a Wall Street Journal analysis found that Americans are spending 42 percent more on health insurance than in 2007. Obamacare isn't the only reason, but the law does mandate the purchase of more expensive health plans.
Affordable Care Act, indeed.
We had health care problems in 2009 that should have been addressed on a case-by-case basis. Sadly, President Obama so misunderstood the 2008 election that he felt that the country was ready for something big on health care, but it really wasn't.
We needed simple laws that addressed pre-existing conditions, people who lose their health insurance over job changes or layoffs, and a plan to take care of the uninsured. Most of all, we should have given the middle class tax credits to purchase family plans if they didn't get them at work.
President Obama would have enjoyed bipartisan support for those kinds of solutions. They could have happened in 2009, and the Democrats would have benefited politically from commonsense solutions to the problems.
Instead, they are burdened with Obamacare and not happy about it.
P.S. You can hear CANTO TALK here & follow me on Twitter @ scantojr.