When a government program’s rollout has so many problems that the media can’t decide which one to focus on, it’s not a very good sign for the program’s future. But many of the Affordable Care Act’s issues (most notably the technical glitches with Healthcare.gov) are fixable. What isn’t fixable in the long-term is the fact that millions of Americans are having their health insurance cancelled against their will.
This cancellation has caught many people off-guard, largely because the American people were explicitly promised that it wouldn’t happen. Either a top White House official or the President himself said some variation of “If you like your plan, you can keep your plan” at least 37 times between 2009 and 2013. During many of these statements, the President even discussed how annoyed he was that people were saying otherwise. This wasn’t a gaffe or a poor choice of words. This was a talking point.
President Obama made a very straightforward argument to the American people. He said that the poor and sick were suffering because they could not get insurance, and that his plan would allow the poor and sick to be insured without negatively impacting the middle class in any way. As of now, the second part of that argument is simply false. The White House knew that people would lose their insurance, and many of these people are being forced to choose between significantly more expensive coverage and going without insurance altogether. The middle class is suffering under Obamacare.
While the economic impact of Obamacare has been very negative so far, all hope is not lost. Once the website is fixed, Obamacare will allow many Americans who were being denied insurance to receive the medical attention they need. That is a very good thing. And while we can and should question whether or not this burden on the middle class was a necessary price for this benefit, it is still possible that the negative impact on the middle class will decrease. That being said, given the state of the rollout so far, it is difficult to be optimistic about Obamacare’s prospects for the future.
As a country, we will continue to debate the merits of Obamacare for years. But ultimately, regardless of whether the program is a massive success or a colossal failure, the American people were lied to. This is simply unacceptable. The President of the United States cannot champion a piece of legislation while fundamentally distorting the facts about its contents.
The American people seem to agree with this assessment. In the wake of this lie being exposed, Obama’s approval ratings have dropped to their lowest ever. The legacy of both Obamacare and Obama himself are clearly at risk. It is too soon to know whether or not either of them will recover. But one thing is abundantly clear: the Obama administration’s dishonesty backfired severely, as dishonesty almost always does.