Were you told that Obamacare was going to make health care more affordable for you? Did you think that your costs would fall more into line once this historic legislation was passed? Do you remember our president telling us this?
As President Obama tries this week to put his healthcare plan on a fast track toward passage, he's still struggling to persuade Americans that the plan will reduce costs.
"My proposal would bring down the cost of healthcare for millions – families, businesses, and the federal government," Mr. Obama said Wednesday in making his pitch. "Let's get it done."
Well. Guess again. It was all one more lie.
The big question here will be whether Kathleen Sebelius herself will travel to Connecticut to smite the insurers personally, or the state government that approved rate hikes of up to 20% to cover the new mandates in ObamaCare. These rate hike requests won’t be the last, either:
Anthem Blue Cross and Blue Shield in Connecticut requested a wide range of premium increases, which will take effect Oct. 1, to cover the costs of new benefits required by federal health reform. Higher prices mostly affect new members shopping for a health plan on the individual market rather than people who have group plans through an employer or some other organization. The Connecticut Department of Insurance approved Anthem’s request without changes, including a boost of as much as 22.9 percent just to comply with one provision: eliminating annual spending limits per customer.
How much more can your pocketbook take? How many more lies are enough until you will say "Enough!" to politcians who govern - and lie - like this?
Q: Is there any chance that Obama THOUGHT his plan would reduce costs for most individuals and small businesses, but he was wrong? If so, he didn't lie.
Q: Is there any chance that the jury really isn't in yet on the issue of how Obamacare will ultimately affect costs? If so, branding Obama a liar is premature.
Q: Is there any chance that Anthem is trying to get away with something here, and that it'll have to be resolved in court? If so, "another lie" is a rush to judgment.
If you already despise the guy, then everything he says is a lie. If you don't, then the anti-Prez furor seems excessive.
Posted by: Last Liberal Standing | Sunday, September 19, 2010 at 07:35 AM
LLS, if it was not a lie, then how can Obama say this now?
http://www.lasvegassun.com/news/2010/sep/16/fact-check-obamas-tone-shifts-on-health-care/
Said he never expected to extend insurance coverage to an additional 31 million people "for free."
Uh, yes he did say this - at least he did when he was trying to promote this legislation.
And, I'm afraid that the jury is not out in Connecticut. Roughly a 20% hike has already been requested and approved there.
I think that the president was correct the second time around: "how can you add 31 million people and not expect costs to go up?" Just would have been nice if he and other Democrats had been straightforward with the American people about this. Or - better yet, overhauled health care in such a way that it once again became really insurance rather than coverage for everything under the sun - and returned personal responsibility to the system, too.
Posted by: Peg | Sunday, September 19, 2010 at 08:44 AM
From the Las Vegas Sun article you're citing:
Last August he predicted: "The American people are going to be glad that we acted to change an unsustainable system so that more people have coverage, we're bending the cost curve, and we're getting insurance reforms."
On Friday, he conceded: "Bending the cost curve on health care is hard to do." The goal: "Slowly bring down those costs."
If Obama's Friday answer is honest, he's saying that REAL improvements take time. I believe him and agree with him.
For years now, I've suspected that right-siders are less patient than lefties, and your posting might be an example.
It should be obvious that verdicts ought to be delayed until enough data are in. Mission Accomplished, for instance. Another: the argument that we had to invade Iraq because Saddam hadn't PROVEN that he didn't have WMD. We couldn't wait, and let the inspection process continue. We had to go into Iraq quickly, with our shocking and awesome weapons technology a-blazing! We just KNEW he was hiding mushroom-cloud-makers.
Calm down, righties!
I don't mean wait forever. I don't mean there won't be glitches, mistakes, embarrassments, regrets, and shocking new revelations. But you seem to prefer to sweep out the "liars," whom you've identified (I think) by a combination of your own hunches and the earliest data. Seems to me you're verrrrry eager to find "proof" that conforms to your expectations: "Obama's a snake-oil salesman? I knew it all along!"
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