Why Obamacare Could Help the Democrats in 2014 (Yes, he's serious)

The Daily Beast ^ | December 5, 2013 | Michael Tomasky

[2ndDivisionVet]

If some Republicans are sounding just a little bit desperate right now, I think I know why. “Obamacare is not just a broken website,” House Speaker John Boehner sputtered the other day in retreat as it emerged that the website is now working well. “This bill is fundamentally flawed.” He sure hopes he’s right about that—and by the way, Mister, it’s a law, not a bill. But I bet late at night, when he’s having that last smoke and thinking back over his day, he fears that he’s wrong and that the central Republican…“idea,” if you want to call it that, of the last three years—get rid of Obamacare—is going to look awfully stupid to a majority of Americans eight or 10 months from now.

If you haven’t gone to HealthCare.gov just for kicks, I certainly recommend now that you do. Pretend that you’re from a state that didn’t create an exchange, if you aren’t, because if you’re from a state with its own exchange, you’ll just be kicked to the state website, and what you want to test here is the federal one. So just choose a yahoo state that didn’t play ball, where the law was mocked as just so much socialism.

I just did, for the first time in weeks, an hour before scribbling these sentences. I was amazed. It was lightning fast. Explanations were clear and straightforward. Instead of bureaucratese, I encountered something I didn’t expect at all: plain English!

And here’s the key thing. It gave me loads of choices. I pretended to be a 35-year-old man from Kansas with a spouse and child. Without even having to enter my fake income, the site delivered me in a split second to a page with loads of plan options.

Choice...

[Lazamataz]

Obamacare Could Help the Democrats in 2014

LOL! OMG! ROFL! Omigah they are KILLING me! LOL! holy crap! HAHAHHAHH! HAHAHHAHHAAHAHHAHH! LOL! WTF! They GOTTA be smoking CRACK! ROFLASC! (gasp) LOL! OMG! ROFL! LAF! HA! This is the FUNNIEST thing I have EVER heard! LOL LOL LOL! Gah, they gotta be kidding! YGBSM! STOP!!! LOL! ROFLASC! This is too much! LOL! OMG! (gasp) HOO HOO HOOOOOOO! ROFL! LAF! HA! They are on DRUGS! LOL LOL HAHAHHAHH! HAHAHHAHHAAHAHHAHH! LOL! YGBSM! What will they think of next! LOL! ROFLASC! LOL! Waiter, check please! OMG! ROFL! This is fantastic material! LAF! (gasp) HA! HAHAHHAHH! LOL LOL LOL! YGBSM! LOL! Wow! ROFLASC! LOL! Amazing they can come up with this stuff! OMG! ROFL! LAF! TRULY spectacular! HA! STOP you are KILLING ME!!!! LOL LOL LOL! (gasp) YGBSM! Elvis has LEFT THE BUILDING! LOL! ROFLASC! LOL! I know who's responsible: ALIENS! OMG! ROFL! This is something *Pelosi* came up with, ISN'T it??? GASPING for breath over here!! LAF! HA! LOL LOL LOL! Wonderful, wonderful comedy! YGBSM! LOL! ROFLASC! LOL! This is much better than 'Cats'! OMG! ROFL! Holy Toledo! LAF! (gasp) HA! I am GOBSMACKED! LOL LOL LOL! Where's Debbie Wasserman-Shultz! She must be the source of this! YGBSM! LOL! HA! HA! HA! FUNNIEST thing EVER!!!! ROFL! LOL! OMG OMG OMG! HAHAHAHAHAHAHHAH! (gasp) LOL! WTF! This is AMAZING! ROFLASC! (gasp) LOL! OMG! ROFL! LAF! HA! How PRECIOUS! LOL LOL LOL! Are they DELUSIONAL??!? YGBSM! STOP!!! LOL! ROFLASC! Who SAYS this s***? !!! LOL! OMG! (gasp) HOO HOO What morons! HOOOOOOO! ROFL! LAF! HA! There they are with their teeth in their mouth and their face all hanging out! LOL LOL HAHAHHAHH! HAHAHHAHHAAHAHHAHH! ^*

^*At this point, all you can do with these people, is point at them and laugh.

[Lazamataz]

The new talking points are that the GOP is responsible for the failure of the ACA.

I don't think it flies this time. Seriously.

[Boomer]

This could have easily been on The Onion as a satire.

The uber wishful thinking some of the hard core lefties have is really something.

Since doctors and hospitals are opting out of caring for anyone on the Exchanges it doesn’t really matter that the cost will be too high for just about any working person to afford since there will be no one to see them within a 200 mile radius. Then get ready to wait for months and face the rationing squad. Yeah. This is a really good deal for someone. Who; I have no idea but it must be ‘cause they said it. Right?

[Paul R.]

I haven’t been there yet - was too concerned about the security angle to risk it. Does the look only option allow one to enter an income figure and get a subsidy estimate?

[jocon307]

“What do you think?”

I think this guy is delusional.

And what’s with the crack about “yahoo states” - it’s MOST of the states, 36, no?

As to “lightening fast”, etc. I don’t know, perhaps they have improved the front end that much. But in any event he was faking, so he’s not going to really buy insurance so he’s not going to be able to see how the back end works, which by all reports is still....not so good.

And even IF the website works great people are still going to be buying worse plans for more money. Or not buying insurance or replacement insurance because it costs too much.

Like the one woman who was at the Obama presser and then found out that the info she’d been given on her subsidy amount was wrong (Oregon or Wash State exchange I believe) and as of last report she still wasn’t going to be able to buy insurance.

Or the other woman (forget where she was) who was shocked at the high price. She was quoted as saying: I thought this would be “a miracle” for me and my husband, but it’s not.

Combine cases of disappointment like these folks (who did not have ins. and were exactly the people who should have been helped by this law) with the cases of sheer rage on the part of people who had insurance they liked, doctors they liked, etc. and who now will lose both, yeah I’m not seeing this as a plus for the Dems, even if the website is the greatest thing since FR.

[Kozak]

No for that you have to enter the other end of the site. Didn’t go there I know I won’t qualify for ObamaBucks. You can estimate if you by looking to see if you earn 400%.of the Poverty level in your county, as that’s the cut off.

[hellinahandcart]

read

[ogen hal]

I’d like to see the DIMs double and triple down. Bwaaaaaaaaaaahaaaaaaa.

[Din Maker]

I’m surprised that Free Republic allows articles from this ultra-Liberal rag to be posted on this website. You asked “What do you think”? I think Liberal crap like this makes me sick to my stomach and I have no desire to read it. “The Daily Beast” should be added to FR’s list of sources not allowed here.

[Yogafist]

Help might be a stretch, but I think there is a very real possibility the damage could be much less than we think. The media is already testing accusations against the Republicans to find something that sticks so they can change the narrative and remind America who are the real bad guys. The Democrat’s seem to have stopped attacking the bill and are all praising it now, which plays on evening news sound bites making the low information crowd think it is all good now. I think there is the potential resistance will subside to a degree once enough people sign up, and accept the notion they are going to have to live with it. Obama moved the next round of cancellations until after the election to prevent reminding low information voters of what awaits them. Republicans seem to be more interested in pushing legislation (amnesty, gun control) that is not only despised by their base, but by the majority of the country, which will depress turn out, at least for incumbents. The Republicans should be taking the lead on this acting like the defenders of the people, but they are content to sit and watch hoping it goes their direction. I think there is a real possibility we are scratching our heads next year wondering why we failed again.

[KeyLargo]

SEATTLE, Dec. 6 (UPI) — Former Secretary of State Colin Powell told a Seattle audience universal healthcare would show the world the United States takes care of “all of our citizens.”

Speaking Thursday at a fundraiser sponsored by the University of Washington School of Medicine and the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center, Powell said he doesn’t see why the United States “can’t do what Europe is doing, what Canada is doing, what Korea is doing, what all these other places are doing.”

Read more: http://www.upi.com/Top_News/US/2013/12/06/Colin-Powell-supports-universal-healthcare/UPI-74721386376795/#ixzz2mnxX1ozF

[goldstategop]

I thin he has a good point about choice - we shouldn’t have a “one size fits all” health insurance because individuals and families are unique, right? I don’t think there is a conservative who would be unhappy with Obamacare if the marketplace actually worked!

The problem is that it doesn’t deliver on that promise. For poor people facing private health insurace sticker shock, the only real option is Medicaid. For the middle class many of them can’t be on Medicaid unless they spend down their assets and then private health insurance would become a rich man’s game in this country.

And where does that put us? On the path to single payer health care! When the only choice is government-run health care, when affordably priced private health insurance might as well not exist, that’s exactly the intent of Obamacare! Michael Tomasky can try to pretend there are loads of choices on the website he looked at and if I was a socialist, my objection is going to be that Obamacare worsens rather than fixes the problem of health care affordability and accessibility. And the Left never thinks the market is a good thing.

When your entire solution is built around a lie and people know the goal of Obamacare isn’t to give them the tools to make the best decisions for themselves and their families - that is a turn-off. Its more than about problems with a website. And if private health insurance is still unaffordable, then we should go single payer. But let’s not pretend the government is doing such a bang up job that in year’s time, the Democrats will be the political beneficiaries of Obamacare.

There is still a lot that can go wrong and we have yet to see a real marketplace for American health care set up and running before next November. Tomasky’s optimism is a tad premature because the jury is still out on if - or when that will happen at all. In the meantime, Obamacare is still a political albatross upon the Obama Administration and the Democratic Party that voted for it.

[TigersEye]

Good grief! It’s just amazing who all wants to sell out America and trade it in for some second rate system.

[VRWC For Truth]

FUBAR

[Paul R.]

Noted / thanks. I know about the “400% of poverty level”, but the amounts of the subsidies for different situations are what I am curious about. It seems like that would be crucial to anyone at an “under 400% level” who is trying to figure out whether to sign up or pay the fine, particularly if they figure their risk is low. (That last is not me.)