The Affordable Care Act’s “rollout debacle” has claimed headlines over the past six weeks—just ask the average nightly news viewer what’s going on in Syria right now. However, the most poignant aspect of the hoopla surrounding website malfunction and coverage termination was the apology issued by President Obama during his interview with NBC’s Chuck Todd: “I am sorry that they are finding themselves in this situation based on assurances they got from me. We’ve got to work hard to make sure that they know we hear them and we are going to do everything we can to deal with folks who find themselves in a tough position as a consequence of this.”
I don’t find the statement’s poignancy in that it was timely or particularly moving. In fact, it was neither of those. But the apology was very telling; we were given an astute glimpse into why the ACA’s launch seems to be falling so flat. There’s a disconnect between the mythicized version of universal health care reform and what reform actually entails. Both result in the same effect—to give every American complete health care coverage—but through very different mechanisms. In essence, President Obama was telling the American people: “I’m sorry you didn’t understand the ACA well enough to know that your losing coverage is actually going to result in better coverage. And I’m sorry I neglected to say so on the campaign trail, where it might have been twisted well enough by Republicans to lose the White House.”
Americans losing their existing coverage so that it can be replaced by more effectual coverage should be thankful that they’re no longer pumping money into a plan with little guarantees. Premiums may go up when the ACA tries to get citizens covered properly; why is it surprising that we must pay more to receive more? Detractors of the ACA reference the refrain of Obama during the 2012 campaign: “If you like your health plan, you will be able to keep your health plan.” He said this most likely believing that people wouldn’t “like” incomplete coverage. It’s not “socialist” or “corrupt” for the ACA to force citizens into enrolling in a better health plan; a plan that can save us from bankruptcy should the dire unforeseen illness occur or should a hereditary condition rear its head after we’ve already signed the dotted line.
The “Apology” taught us that President Obama is a savvy politician. What he said on the campaign trail wasn’t a lie; rather, it was a way of selling the ACA so that people would understand its benefits and not focus on the supposed disadvantages (i.e. losing current coverage for better coverage). I haven’t lost all faith in the optimism and hope our President rode into office on but I won’t argue that Washington has changed his modus operandi. The rollout of the Affordable Care Act could have been much better—any IT officer or CS major will tell you that. But it didn’t fail because people are suddenly losing coverage and President Obama had to issue an apology. In fact, those two aspects of the past six weeks are actually the disguised successes of the Affordable Care Act: Americans are finally shedding inadequate coverage and the nation, if watching and listening closely enough, was able to peer into the engine room of the Obama Administration.