Another ObamaCare tale of woe:
It took 62 days for one man to get a quote from the federal government’s Obamacare marketplace.
Dave Petno, an insurance broker and blogger based in Ohio, wrote Sunday that just over 2 months after first attempting to obtain a health insurance quote for his family, HealthCare.gov finally delivered.
And according to Petno, his insurance costs would shoot up by 52% for a worse plan than the one his family currently has.
“My family currently has an HSA Plan through Anthem with a $6,000 Deductible, and $6,000 OOP Maximum,” Petno wrote. “We currently pay $735/month for this plan design.”
Under Obamacare, for Petno to keep a $6,000 deductible with Anthem Blue Cross and Blue Shield, his monthly premium will increase to $1117.15 — a 52% jump.
A government service with fewer options at higher prices. Inconceivable!
Don’t believe any of Wiggleroom’s claims of innocence — or at least that’s what I’ve decided.
There were two moment from the 2012 campaign which never made sense to me until right now. Both involved his “signature” legislation and conceived and wheedled by Harry Reid. I don’t remember which order they came in, but bear me out.
The first one that came to mind was when Wiggleroom tried, very awkwardly, to claim ownership of what everybody had been calling ObamaCare for two years already. There he was on the stump, with what was perhaps the worst line of any of his campaigns. He said something like, “It’s ObamaCare because, yeah, Obama cares.” Even he was wincing at the sheer awfulness of it, even if slightly below the surface. Besides, a man who once posed himself in front of Greek columns should never, ever refer to himself in the third person. You can get away with one or the other, maybe, but never both.
The second moment was during one of his debates with Mitt Romney. I believe it was the first one, when Romney pretty much swept the floor with him, but I could be wrong. Romney was going on a tear in one of his answers, with ObamaCare this and ObamaCare that. And when Wiggleroom’s turn to answer came, he too used the word ObamaCare. And it dripped bitterly from his lips. You could tell he did not want his name associated with that law.
At the time I was stumped. The law might not have been very popular even at the time, but it wasn’t yet universally loathed and/or a laughingstock. I do remember thinking that the heartless little bureaucrat in his soul probably just wanted everything addressed by its proper name. “Affordable Care Act.” “Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act.” “Equality 7-2521.”
But now I’m certain that’s not even close to right.
Wiggleroom didn’t want his name on that law because he knew, he fully knew by the summer of 2012 just what a stinker it was. He knew the website wasn’t going to work, he knew you weren’t going to be allowed to keep anything you liked, and he knew it was going to be as reviled as ClintonCare — but made real, made the law of the land. People hated ClintonCare — AKA, the Health Security Act — in theory, but they never had to hate it in practice. ObamaCare would get no such reprieve.
And he knew it.
And his response wasn’t to push for fixing legislation in 2011 or 2012. And it certainly wasn’t to get out in front of the law’s problems in the middle of a campaign when everybody was looking.
No.
Wiggleroom’s response was to delay doing anything until after his election, making the problems with HealthCare.gov even tougher to fix on time. And the fixes implemented over the last two months still haven’t made things much better. The site responds much faster when asked to provide you with phony quotes, but it’s still a non-functioning mess when it comes to actually selling people insurance.
And affordable? Don’t make me laugh, bitterly.
Patient protection? Tell that to Dave Petno.
And care? Not one whit.
So just keep saying it: ObamaCare, ObamaCare, ObamaCare.
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