How ObamaCare is Like a Failed Rental Car Reservation

Passing the ObamaCare law was the easy part. Democrats held the White House and Congress with supermajorities in both houses. They negotiated with themselves, wrote a law none of them bothered to read, horsetraded over the law in backroom deals despite Obama’s promise to keep negotiations in public, passed it, and Barack Obama got his “big f***ing deal.”

Anybody in that position could’ve gotten a law passed. Where ObamaCare is breaking down is in the implementation. It just keeps missing deadline after deadline.

[jwplayer config=”pjm_tatler” mediaid=”123322″]

Under President Obama’s 2010 health law, the government officials in charge of keeping Medicaid afloat have until Tuesday to report whether costs for the fiscally foundering program will exceed expectations.

But they won’t have anywhere to send their report.

That’s because the Independent Payment Advisory Board – perhaps the most controversial entity created under Obama’s law – still doesn’t exist.

This 15-member board, denounced by critics as a “death panel,” is tasked under the law with determining which patients ought to receive which treatments and whether taxes ought to be raised to finance the program.

—

Under his law, Obama was to make recommendations for the board last year. The 15-member panel is required to be made up of physicians and laymen, with recommendations made in consultation with congressional leadership. Those nominees would then be subject to Senate confirmation.

It would be a hideous task to ever try to fill that panel, at least without a Democratic supermajority in the Senate. Finding 15 people willing to submit to the confirmation process would be difficult. Finding 15 people who could actually be confirmed would be next to impossible.

And this would hardly be the time to have a conversation about when the government should let people die.

When exactly would be a good time to have that conversation? Other than when the Democrats passed the law against the majority’s will, that is. While we’re having that conversation, maybe we also can talk about why ObamaCare is killing the economy while it’s not actually making health care better, faster or cheaper, as promised. It’s a mess of a law that has managed to infringe on religious liberties while wreaking havoc on families, employers and employees.

Through ObamaCare we see that the death of substance in our politics has produced a government happy to make laws, but incompetent when it comes to making laws that actually work.