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| "Okay. So, I lied repeatedly about dozens of ObamaCare issues. Just remember, that without my presidency we'd all be going to bloodletters. Also it's eventually going to be totally free. Trust me." |
There's so many that when I argue with Leftist friends and family, I get confused. Reason has a handy list here. I just have some highlights are below, so check out all twelve at the article at the link below.
From the Reason.com article by Peter Suderman:
The persistent misrepresentations and outright lies were in fact integral to the law's passage, to its implementation, and to the damage-control phase that began with the botched launch of the online insurance exchanges in October. Judging by how badly the rollout has been managed thus far, it is possible that the president's apology tour has only just begun.
1. "If you like your insurance plan, you will keep it."
The most notorious of Obama's promises was arguably the most critical for Obamacare's passage. Here is how he put it a week after signing the ACA into law: "If you like your insurance plan, you will keep it. No one will be able to take that away from you. It hasn't happened yet. It won't happen in the future."
Obama offered some variation on this promise dozens of times even after the summer 2010 release of rules governing which pre-existing insurance plans would be "grandfathered" into legal acceptability despite not otherwise complying with the new law. Those regulations prompted bureaucrats at the time to quietly estimate that between 40 and 67 percent of individual market health insurance plans would not be covered by the grandfather clause. Indeed, the rules were crafted narrowly to guarantee this result, so that healthy people on low-cost plans would end up switching to more expensive insurance, in effect subsidizing sicker people covered by the policies sold on the exchanges.
Obama's advisers knew full well that his original promise could not be kept. As The Wall Street Journal reported on November 13, the White House policy team pushed for more nuanced language than its political staff wanted. The wonks lost out to the hacks.
[...]
2. "What we said was you can keep it if it hasn't changed since the law passed."
[...]
Reality: President Obama promised repeatedly, with no caveats or qualifications, that people who liked their plans could keep them, and that no one would ever take them away, period. Versions of the promise were captured on video at least 36 times.
3. "If you like your doctor, you will be able to keep your doctor, period."
[...]
Reality: People who can't keep their plans often can't keep their doctors, because doctors are affiliated with particular networks and insurers. Many of the new plans offered through the law's insurance exchanges were built with narrow networks to keep costs down. Top hospitals are available under relatively few of the exchange plans, generally those with relatively high premiums.
4. "We'll start by reducing premiums by as much as $2,500 per family."
[...]
Reality: The average annual premium for an employer-provided health plan rose from $13,375 to $16,351 between 2009 and 2013, according to a survey by the Kaiser Family Foundation. Prices for individual market plans like those found on the exchanges are also up, with the average state facing premium increases of 41 percent, according to a November 2013 analysis by Manhattan Institute health policy analyst Avik Roy.
[...]
10. "Take away the volume, and it works."
As the launch of the exchange system continued, top members of the administration began to admit they had a problem. But it was, in the words of HHS Secretary Sebelius, "a good problem to have." The failure, they claimed, was due to higher-than-expected traffic, meaning there was even more initial interest in the exchanges than the administration had anticipated. It would therefore be an easy problem to solve. "These bugs were functions of volume," White House Chief Technology Officer Todd Park told USAToday on October 5. "Take away the volume, and it works."
Reality: Volume dropped, but malfunctions continued. Outside experts contacted by multiple news organizations found many shortcuts, messy construction, and unnecessary functions in the visible portions of the code. And insurers reported that the enrollment information they were receiving from the system was frequently flawed. The system was not just overwhelmed; it was poorly designed.
[...]
12. "[We] follow high standards regarding the privacy and security of personal information."
Beyond the issue of whether the exchanges would work at all, many had questions about whether they would be secure. The exchanges were designed to judge eligibility for Obamacare's insurance subsidies, which would require applicants to submit Social Security numbers, addresses, income numbers, and other sensitive personal information.
The administration insisted that Web security would be tight. "The final Marketplace rule," Gary Cohen, the top exchange official, told the Senate Finance Committee in February 2013, "ensures Marketplaces develop and follow high standards regarding the privacy and security of personal information while following Affordable Care Act requirements regarding the use of data."
Reality: By launch day, the deadline-driven operational demands outweighed security concerns. The exchange went live under a last-minute temporary security authorization signed by Marilyn Tavenner, the head of the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services. It said "aspects of the system that were not tested due to the ongoing development exposed a level of uncertainty that can be deemed as a high risk."
But other than that, ObamaCare is an expensive, unworkable monstrosity. Welcome to just a hint of the American Left's ideal United States.
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