I realize I should be writing about the Affordable Care Act nearly every day. So should every blogger and analyst. The issue genuinely is that important.
But there are other important issues, too. And important events capture our attention, like the current debate over military action in Syria. Nearly every blogger, liberal and conservative alike, are debating this chain of events, presidential powers, war powers, red lines and more. This is an important discussion and President Obama's actions could have major ramifications for the region or even the world.
On a brighter note, the Syrian debate has temporarily distracted Republicans from their insanely stupid, "Defund Obamacare" debate in the House and Senate. First it is technically impossible to "Defund" the Affordable Care Act (ACA) and second, the move actually hurts the effort to fix or even repeal this monstrosity of a law.
Democrats know full well the law must be massively altered to become remotely functional. But they don't dare allow any bill to come to the floor fearing (quite correctly) such a bill would bring about nearly complete repeal of the President's most important legislative victory. And, so far, protecting the President is more important than serving the best interests of the American public.
So we continue the slow slog down the hill to a medical insurance disaster. Virtually everyone loses. Two important news articles this week illustrate the misguided nature of the ACA, it's ill conceived provisions and the unintended consiquences of passing a 1,900 page bill without even bothering to read it.
Late last week, the 22,000-member
United Union of Roofers, Waterproofers and Allied Workers withdrew its support for the Affordable Care Act and went one step further and demanded its full repeal. Several other unions have also withdrawn support or demanded exemptions from the law.
The Roofer's Union issue hit the very core of the problem with the ACA. The insanely mercurial ACA forces everyone in America into a one size fits absolutely no one policy and penalizes severely anyone who dares to have better health insurance. This is the dumbing down of American Healthcare. The bottom line is that the Roofers are deemed to have a "Cadillac" plan and must pay a penalty premium in taxes for their hard earned union benefits.
While President Obama said
"If you love your plan, you can keep it," that was simply untrue. What he should have said is
"Many Americans will be forced to accept inferior insurance at much higher rates than they've had in the past." And he might have added,
"My bill will favor non-union workers and give then tax subsidies while taxing Unions for their negotiating skills." That's exactly what ObamaCare (the ACA) does.
On the flip side of the coin
the ACA is even a worse disaster for America's creative culture, hitting artists, musicians, photographers and "gasp" even writers hard by taking away their insurance entirely.
Here I have to quote Nancy Pelosi, the real architect of the ACA (it should be called PelosiCare) who said,
"Think of an economy where people could be an artist or a photographer or a writer without worrying about keeping their day job in order to have health insurance." The sad joke here is that before Pelosi dumped this rotten fish onto the canvas of unsuspecting artists, they had achieved that goal. PelosiCare took it all away.
Once again the enemy is the ACA's dogged determination to create a one size fits absolutely no one insurance template. But for loosely knit groups likes artists or photographers, Congress made it much worse. Ignoring the pleas of Democrat Senator Ron Wyden, Congress outlawed insurance plans from operating across state lines and demanded each individual purchase only through his or her State Insurance Exchange in each individual state. Hence group policies that served creative artists across state lines were made illegal!!! Virtually every policy serving loose knit groups will end this December, forcing artists and musicians and other independent professionals to purchase significantly more expensive policies from their state exchanges.
In reality Nancy Pelosi should have said,
"Under my Affordable Care Act, artists and creative people will be forced into the workplace to accept mundane labor jobs and will no longer be allowed to pursue their dreams. Creativity, whether in Insurance or in the arts will no longer be allowed to exist."
I'll leave you today with this terribly funny ObamaCare parody video produced by the extremely evil Karl Rove Crossroads group. Laugh while you still can because, like it or not, the ACA takes over on January 1st.
