Health Care Reform fails again according to CBO
“But we have to pass the Bill for you to find out what is in it…” – Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi, March 2009
Before these words were uttered, there was mass confusion about what the Health Care Reform would do, and how much it would cost. After then-Speaker Pelosi uttered this statement, even more questions arose – and the majority of Dems avoided town hall meetings to prevent being asked about the Health Care Reform that summer.
Initially, Obamacare (as the law has come to be known) supporters stated that 47 million people would gain health insurance – a figure that was later debunked and reconfigured to 32 million. Obamacare was set to cost under $1 trillion (around $890 billion), and then was revised to $1.2 trillion. It was proposed to cut healthcare costs – and since passage costs of healthcare have done nothing but risen nationwide.
But all of that could be claimed to be the fault of the question of legality of the law. As challenges rose up from 26 States, and the majority of Americans opposed the law since July 2009 (on average 60% opposition across major polls), the uncertainty required an answer from the Supreme Court. Now that we received that decision, placing clarity before the American people, the CBO has determined a more realistic opinion on the who and how much of Obamacare.
Obamacare still will not provide health care coverage for everyone. 23 million were expected to remain without healthcare coverage (out of a guesstimate of some 55 million that arguably included illegal aliens), but with the certainty of legality the latest finding by the CBO is that 26 million will be without coverage. The cost of covering fewer people means a decrease in the cost of Obamacare – a net decrease of $84 billion from $1.25 trillion.
So 26 million, half of those without health insurance today, will continue to go without health insurance. The cost to completely change the health care system is $1.17 trillion. Compared to the promises of October 2009 three million more will get health insurance coverage, at a cost of an extra $423 billion. Not exactly what was promised, not by a longshot.
Thus, in looking back at what Rep. Nancy Pelosi told the nation, the Bill was passed to law and certified as legal by the Supreme Court. It will cover almost all the people promised (depending on the date you go by), and cost more than promised (no matter what date you go by). Which does not address the widespread issues with Obamacare (companies dropping healthcare coverage rather than comply with the law), nor improve many of the underlying issues (fraud, nuisance lawsuits), nor make it any more appealing to the public (31% want repeal entirely, 21% want partial repeals – after Supreme Court decision).
Once again the CBO has confirmed that the Health Care Reform has failed in its promised reward to the public. Once again we are reminded that Obamacare requires reforms to its reform.
Now that it has been passed, and we know most of what is in it as well as most of the cost, why can’t the Obama Administration and Dems understand why the public still continues to want it repealed?
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