The mainstream media is abuzz with the latest Obama care enrollment numbers as the last “official” enrollment day comes to a close. The administration touts that over 6 million people have now enrolled in Obama care and as a result the program is a success and should be claimed such by everyone involved, especially Democrats running for reelection. An interesting thought occurred to me as I listened to these numbers.
If the ACA shoe were on the other foot, what would the Democrats be saying was the real result of the healthcare law? We’ve been treated to so much deception regarding the number of “jobs saved or created” by Obama’s stimulus, unemployment figures, annual deficits and the national debt for instance that democrats would surely use more creative math to counter the 6 million figure. I suspect that they would argue the following.
The number of enrollees is only a very superficial measure to grade its success. Sadly this law was doomed from the beginning and its disastrous implementation has only been kerosene thrown onto a fire.
Note: Many people actually predicted that this would happen, but none of them were democrats.
Here’s the reality of that 6 million number and what’s missing in all the discussion, Democrats would say. Nearly 6 million people lost their insurance policies immediately after Obamacare was implemented. By those figures if we were to use Democrat math we have a net zero sign-up they would argue. The cost to sign up ZERO net people is $2 trillion across 10 years, or $200 billion each year. Democrats would say that some of those people who signed up are likely illegal aliens who are not eligible to sign up. In fact the administration has actively recruited the illegal alien population to sign up in order to bolster the numbers. They should be subtracted, and dis-enrolled we would be told! They’d also say that of the 6 million enrollees at least 20% have not paid. Subtracting that number out and we have a net of 1.2 million people who’ve lost their insurance.
Now here’s where the Democrats would focus the fight. They’d say “All of the experts report that there’s an eventual 100 million people who have yet to be impacted by this law because of the delays enacted by the President.”
Note: These delays were of course made by President Obama to protect democrats up for reelection. Many argue that he had no constitutional authority to do so.
Sorry for stating the obvious; now back to what the democrats would argue. Of those 100 million people who get their insurance through their employers, impacts will range from changes to their plans and providers to outright insurance cancellation. We must account for them and using democratic math, the real impact is a net loss of over 101 million people signed up for insurance or able to keep their policies. This is not quite the success story that the White House is touting, nor does it solve the problem of the 30 million uninsured that we were told was the reason to pass Obamacare in the first place.
Yes, they would say, the number that matters is 100 million Americans hurt by the ACA. Repeal the law and do the fair thing for the American people. If the situation was reversed, the Democrats would be right, just as Republicans are right to make, and keep making these points. Obamacare needs to be repealed, before it’s too late.
