The Affordable Care Act rollout has been the latest speed bump in the disastrous public relations game surrounding the landmark legislation. The ACA has been the albatross of the Obama administration, a prize piece of legislation that has become the deadweight on the White House. The ACA is severely misunderstood, and many of its key policy prescriptions are highly popular, yet the law has been deeply unpopular.
The website debut and policy implementation has been likewise plagued by the same failures of communication. The website launch has been a self-inflicted wound on the ACA, failing to disseminate information on the law’s benefits and specific insurance options. The Obama administration even had the media protection of the government shutdown to fix the exposed problems with the website, and yet the debacle has become one of the most prevalent issues on our political stage.
However, the biggest communications failure of the Obama administration can be encapsulated in the recent cancellations of coverage. Estimates vary, but potentially 3.5 million people have had their health insurance cancelled. Yes, President Obama, throughout the ACA debate and presidential campaign, claimed Americans who liked their insurance could keep it, but that’s not the real communications issue here.
The President also discussed the need to bring the uninsured and the underinsured into the healthcare system. The ACA is simply requiring those who are underinsured to acquire health insurance plans that meet certain benchmarks. The health care debate often centered on the uninsured paying into the system with the government providing tax subsidies for those who could not afford coverage on their own. The underinsured must be held to the same standard that we hold the uninsured: if your policy does not meet the requirements of full health care, then you should be required to get a new one. The fact that the Obama Administration has failed to communicate the rationale for these cancellations, as well as the numerous other benefits of the law, signals the cataclysmic communications failures of this administration. President Obama has been president of the American people for nearly five years now—his administration should be able to communicate with their constituents by now.