Heritage on Obamacare

                The Affordable Care Act (ACA), also known as Obamacare, is slowly being implemented in our nation.  As the various dates near for implementation of specific parts of the law, changes have been made.  Another change took place recently when the Obama Administration decided to delay the mandatory employer and insurer reporting requirements for a year – until after the 2014 elections.  Their reason: they have been “engaging in a dialogue with businesses” and “have heard concerns about the complexity of the requirements and the need for more time to implement them effectively.”

                The Heritage Foundation published an article entitled “Obamacare’s Dirty Dozen Implementation Failures” in which we are warned against being fooled by the Administration’s “reason” for the latest postponed implementation.  “Even Democrats have admitted the law has turned into a massive `train wreck,’ with delays, glitches, and problems aplenty.”  The article then listed “a dozen more Obamacare implementation failures.”

1.  The CLASS Act was a long-term care entitlement was actually a Ponzi scheme according to one Democrat.  The Department of health and Human Services (HHS) admitted in the fall of 2011 that this program “could not be implemented in a fiscally sound manner;” Congress later repealed the program.

2.  Exchanges:  Most states chose to let the federal government run the required insurance exchanges, and the federal government have missed the deadlines for implementing the exchanges.

3.  HHS mandate for employers to “fund products they find morally objectionable or pay massive fines.  This mandate is under legal challenge by “many employers,” and its implementation has been delayed.

4.  Small business plan choices has been delayed until next year – “a delay that liberal blogger Joe Klein called `a really bad sign’ of `Obamacare incompetence.’”

5.  Child-only plans:  This part of the law has “unintended consequences” because insurers in 17 states “are no longer selling child-only health insurance plans.”  The insurers “fear that individuals will apply for coverage only after being diagnosed with a costly illness.”

6.  Basic health plan has been delayed and is being criticized by at least one Democrat.

7.  High-risk pools:  This is a program for those individuals who have pre-existing conditions; but it is facing “higher costs and lower enrollment than advertised.”

8.  Early retiree reinsurance:  This program is “broke” because it ran out of money “two years ahead of schedule.”

9.  Waivers were given to employers – “more than half the recipients of those waivers were members of union health insurance plans” – because Obamacare’s “new mandates would raise costs so much that employers would drop coverage rather than face skyrocketing premiums.”

10. Co-ops:  “Congress blocked additional funding to this Obamacare program in January.”

11. “Employee free choice:  Under this provision “certain workers” “would have been allowed … to use contributions from their employers to buy exchange health plans.”  It was repealed in April 2011 because “businesses considered it too complex and unworkable.”

12. Medicaid expansion:  This provision was “rejected by many states” under the Supreme Court ruling that it was “optional.”  The states recognized that an expansion of Medicaid would “saddle them with additional, unsustainable costs.”

                These twelve “implementation failures” prove that the Affordable Care Act is actually unaffordable for any of us.  It is a total disaster should be totally defunded and then repealed in its entirety.  It was passed by a Democrat-controlled Senate and Democrat-controlled House without any Republican votes.  Republicans should refuse to bail out the Democrats and simply vote for de-funding and repealing.