Michele Bachmann: Minnesota Democrats need to keep their Obamacare promises

St. Paul Pioneer Press ^ | 12/3/13 | Michele Bachmann

[rhema]

It has now been two months since the Obamacare rollout began, and what do Minnesotans have to show for it?

And more importantly, what are Sen. Franken, Sen. Klobuchar and Gov. Dayton doing to fix these cascading problems?

Already more than 5 million Americans are losing their existing health care plans, including low-income college students; 140,000 of the 5 million people nationwide receiving cancellation letters are from right here in Minnesota.

So far, we have only heard about the millions of individual policies that have been canceled, but it is estimated that somewhere between 50 million to 100 million people could lose their employer-sponsored coverage once the employer mandate kicks in.

Meanwhile, as of a few days ago fewer than 27,000 people have signed up on the federal exchange and only 1,774 on MNsure -- a fraction of their respective October goals.

And President Obama's approval ratings are at an all-time low, dropping six points in a single month.

As the hits kept piling up, President Obama offered an unconstitutional, unilateral "fix" to his broken promise that if you like your plan you can keep it. The move amounted to nothing more than a political Band-Aid for himself that did not actually solve the problem.

Gov. Dayton, who the week before had said President Obama should keep his promise, flip-flopped and rejected the president's proposal. Instead of siding with Minnesotans losing their plans, Gov. Dayton sided with the insurance companies and said "no."

Sen. Franken, himself a leading cheerleader and the 60th vote for Obamacare, started to slowly backpedal away from the law, saying he was open to delaying the individual mandate as long as the website woes continue.

These empty words, coupled with no action, from Sen. Franken, Sen. Klobuchar and Gov. Dayton are of little comfort to the worried Minnesotans I hear from because they are seeing their premiums skyrocket or their existing plans disappear -- the opposite of what they were promised.

Brenda from Otsego was one of 140,000 Minnesotans who lost the plan she hand-picked and now will see a cost increase of $1,500 a year.

Nathan from St. Cloud lost his good employer-based insurance because it didn't comply with Obamacare. Now, the cheapest option is either a plan that is four times as expensive, or to pay the fine and go without health care coverage altogether.

Randy from St. Michael saw his premiums increase 38 percent to an unaffordable $2,160 a year.

If, in fact, our goal is to offer Minnesotans and all Americans the highest quality health care at the lowest possible cost with the greatest number of choices, a government-run model dictated by Washington bureaucrats is the exact opposite of what we should be doing.

True competition means that the consumer needs to be in the driver's seat, not the government.

If we want to stimulate innovation and make health care more affordable, we need to start by allowing anyone to buy any policy they want anywhere they want -- even across state lines. Insurance companies shouldn't be able to have a complete monopoly in a state.

There should be no minimum requirements for health insurance. A healthy man in his 20s shouldn't be told what policy he has to buy; he should be able to choose. A post-menopausal woman shouldn't be forced to buy maternity coverage in her policy. Every consumer should be able to pick a plan that is best for them and their family, without government meddling or referring to their personal choices as "inferior."

There also should be a liability shield for charitable hospitals and clinics. Fears of frivolous lawsuits have kept churches and charities from absorbing the costs of the most vulnerable in our society, which not only has driven up costs of goods and services unnecessarily to cover the damages -- it's encouraged the less efficient government to get involved to "fix" the problems it created in the first place.

These are just a few solutions that would start to form a free-market alternative to Obamacare. A hall of fame list of patient-centered, market-oriented health care solutions can be found in the American Health Care Reform Act, which is cosponsored by more than 100 House Republicans.

But before we can get there, we first need to scrap the unworkable, unaffordable, and unfair train wreck that is Obamacare.

Sen. Franken, Sen. Klobuchar and Gov. Dayton advocated for Obamacare, based on a laundry list of promises that haven't materialized. Now what are they going to do help Brenda, Nathan, David and the many more Minnesotans hurting thanks to the government-run plan they sold?

[MNDude]

only 1,774 signed up for MNSure?? Univision plays commercials with a Spanish speaking Paul Bunyan telling people sign up for that 24\7!

[Venturer]

What happens to all those kids under 26 who are living off Momma and dad’s insurance—when they cancel Momma and dad’s insurance.

[Hardastarboard]

That is an EXCELLENT question.

[silverleaf]

the young will become brand new MEDICAID clients, probably for life (does anyone ever get kicked off MEDICAID?)

if they get jobs that allow them to accumulate wealth, it will be tapped in later life to pay the govt back for their MEDICAID

In effect, by going on MEDICAID unless they spend their lives in poverty they will become indentured to the government

at least the young are healthy and won’t suffer from waiting months to see a doctor that treats MEDICAID

saw a FOX news interview last night with a doctor who said that one FL country with 260,000 children had exactly 7 pediatricians in the network of obamacare plans being offered

[silverleaf]

make that FL COUNTY

[hattend]

Dang, Michelle...don’t retire!

[Colonel_Flagg]

Every consumer should be able to pick a plan that is best for them and their family, without government meddling or referring to their personal choices as "inferior."

Actually, every consumer should have the choice to either be insured, or self-insured, or uninsured, as he or she sees fit, since health care is NONE OF THE GOVERNMENT'S DAMN BUSINESS.