ObamaCare? You Bet He Does

Americans have known our health care system was broken for years. During the 2008 Presidential campaign, tragic stories about health care were the number one subject that people talked to then candidate Obama about. So what is the Republican's top agenda now in Congress? To repeal the progress that has been made. Let's take this fight on with relish this time. I am cheering on the House Democrats that will fight this on the floor this week and praying that Democratic Senators don't get cold feet and want to support repeal action if the House passes a repeal bill.

We simply can't run away from a story with so much success and a law that is just now beginning to show some benefits to the American people.

Democrats and Independents need to rally around the president now. We cannot let the Republicans and the tea partiers get away with continuing to lie about the impact of this bill and negating the actual benefits to so many Americans in need.

Let's take the Republican's signature word and wrap it around their ears.

ObamaCare? You BET he does!

• Obama cares if insurance companies can once again be able to drop people when they get sick -- exactly when coverage is needed most.
• Obama cares if children with preexisting conditions are denied coverage, while insurance companies impose devastating annual and lifetime caps.
• Obama cares that young people stay on their parents' plans until age 26.
• Obama cares if pregnant women and breast cancer survivors can be denied coverage.
• Obama cares if seniors face an increase in their prescription drug costs -- millions thrown back into the Medicare Part D Donut Hole -- denying seniors a 50% discount on prescription drugs and re-creating the devastating coverage gap.
• Obama cares if health care repeal explodes the federal deficit by143 billion over the next ten years and1 trillion over the next two decades.

ObamaCares and John Boehner doesn't. Bring it on.

 

Follow Hilary Rosen on Twitter: www.twitter.com/hilaryr

Comments

[Michael C9305]

12:03 AM on 01/11/2011

Hmmm ... Ms. Rosen ... when you wake up from your pink-tinged stupor please go and read Ezra Klein's blog post today in the Washington Post ... it should bring you back to reality ... all the best ...

[Chris1962]

02:09 PM on 01/10/2011

Obama cares about his legacy. Period. Which isn't gonna look so swell after the Supremes get hold of the case.

[Windsock]

09:32 AM on 01/07/2011

Companies don't need "health care" to stay alive, people do.

Get for-profit-immitation health care out of companies hands. All human life support systems that require money to to get, such as water, food, health care, should be non-profit.

[Canthisbe]

10:29 AM on 01/06/2011

Hilary has come up with the most brilliant and factually supported arguments ever presented in support of Obama's and Pelosi's health care legislation.

[Chris1962]

02:10 PM on 01/10/2011

Too bad the legislation is unconstitutional.

[RPLinNYC]

09:27 AM on 01/06/2011

Blue Shield of California seeks rate hikes of as much as 59% for individuals
Insurer says the increases result from fast-rising healthcare costs and other expenses resulting from new healthcare laws. The move comes less than a year after Anthem Blue Cross tried and failed to raise rates as much as 39%.

This would not happen if we had a public option, or better, single-payer.
Obama did NOT care enough to fight for options that would
protect the non-rich from health insurance predators.

[johnmatkinson]

01:46 AM on 01/06/2011

Bravo and you can make a difference by going to stoptherepeal.com Here you can sign the online petition that my wife and I created. We will bring this to the Speaker next week. Please log on and sign the petition at stoptherepeal.com

[mary896]

12:20 PM on 01/06/2011

F & F and signed!!!! Got two more to sign too, so far. Good on you and thank you!

[lemealone]

11:14 PM on 01/06/2011

no thanks!

[Roci]

10:14 PM on 01/05/2011

Now If we could only get some of the same fight into some folks at the White House!

[Laurence Girard]

09:34 PM on 01/05/2011

This post was great. I really loved the part where you gave bulleted points at the end of the article. Republicans need to stop favoring the upper class and start helping people. How would they feel if they didn't have the money to see a doctor? Or didn't have the money to take their kid to get a shot? You can't take money with you to the grave and republicans need to start realizing that. I think Obama is doing a great job of trying to pass these healthcare laws. However, there's something else that I think he should do to help reduce the cost of healthcare in this country. Wana know what that is? I'm going to tell you. Fix the state of nutrition in the US. The food supply in the US is getting rediculous. High in sodium, high in saturated fat and full of trans fats. Hundreds of thousands of people die each year because of this horrible nutrition. We need to get rid of trans fats on a national level, just like the NYC department of health did. Fix nutrition, save lives, save money and lower insurance premiums. The FDA doesn't even require companies to list trans fats on packages if there is less than 0.5 grams. I was shocked. I wrote an article on my blog about trans fats and how to spot them in food. Here it is -> http://applebananacoconut.com/what-is-hydrogenated-vegetable-oil
Laurence
[e-mail]

[Ubikwity]

06:41 PM on 01/05/2011

Insurance companies have never been able to drop people when they're sick. It's a contract that they would be in violation of if they did.

Children are typically covered through their parent's employer plan, or through FAMIS or Medicaid. I work in the health care field (pediatrics) and have never heard of a child being denied insurance due to a pre-existing condition.

"Children" should not be allowed to stay on their parent's insurance until 26. Let them buy their own insurance--it's very inexpensive at such a young age, and well worth it.

Pregnant women can buy medical insurance (but they have to pay more-they COST more). Employers typically pay for pregnancy-related costs.

Seniors are the wealthiest demographic of our society--I don't feel too bad about them paying for some prescription drugs. They already get quite a nice drug benefit as it is.

Obama care will explode the deficit without bringing meaningful reform.

Bring it on!

[emp122]

08:34 PM on 01/05/2011

I certainly have heard of children who have been denied because of pre-existing contitions; in fact some have even been reported in Huffpost.

[Lance303]

09:15 PM on 01/05/2011

So now people can't get child-only coverage at all- great improvement. :/

[SitandStay]

01:39 AM on 01/06/2011

My husband changed jobs a little over a year ago. The insurance company his employer has was one I had in the mid 90's. They tried to deny me coverage and were insisting on documentation of when I had been treated for my diabetes. I was able to "sing, song and verse" of how it was a doctor on their plan in 1994 that tested me and found diabetes but refused to document that I had it (he was trying to keep his costs down and he had not been board certified). When I contacted the insurance company, they said they would handle it internally but I would not be apprised of their findings.Stupidly, I did not report it to the State Board of Examiners. However, this new/old insurance company decided they did not need any further documents. Now, they try to deny my prescriptions being filled for insulin saying I need my doctors authorization. I hand carried the prescription from his office to the pharmacists. After wearing them down, because that's the game, they finally "unblock" it from being filled after being on the phone and many of their departments for an hour. It is required that you waste their time in order to get what shouldn't be denied to you anyway.

[whitewater]

06:39 PM on 01/05/2011

You bet he does as he doles out the patronage booty from this bill. That the middleclass gets little in this is not important.

[Lance303]

05:57 PM on 01/05/2011

LOL- bring it on? So when you tout the requirement that plans cover dependants until age 26, did you mention that that has caused many employers to stop contributing toward dependant coverage, increasing cost for families? Is there a reason that you left out that because of the child mandate that people in many states now can not get child only coverage AT ALL? If the mandates are so great, why has the administration had to issue literally THOUSANDS of waivers to companies in order to keep tens of thousands of people from LOSING their coverage as a result of the Affordable Care Act? .Every surprise offered by this legislation has been a bad one- nothing has worked as promised. I can only wait to see what great surprises we have coming up in the next two years.

[Ubikwity]

07:40 PM on 01/05/2011

Honored to be your first fan!

[lebec]

11:15 PM on 01/10/2011

I am an employer who has to pick up the bill for extending the coverage of dependents to age 26. That costs me money. However, the amount is small potatoes compared to the annual increases in premiums I get hit with and, although irritating, it will be a minor influence on the coverage I offer. I am more hopeful on the effect of other aspects of the legislation to lower premium increases in the future. So I support it on balance.

[lemmyk73]

04:58 PM on 01/05/2011

Hilarious. All Obamacare is is a means to raise taxes on the middle class and give the low class voters crumbs to garner votes.

[TruthBeHeard]

03:21 PM on 01/05/2011

Hilary, Ignore your critics. I think that this is a great idea.
Your critics should focus on the many accomplishments, at least once in awhile.

Dems apparantly got so used to complaining during the Bush years that they haven't been able to break the habit. I for one, am really tired of their whining. That is all they do, they just whine through their computer. Maybe they could do something positive, but they don't!

This is a good place to start. Click 'Expand' to expand each category or expand each category separately by clicking on it:

http://obamaachievements.org/list

[BobJacobson]

01:24 PM on 01/05/2011

It's a suck law. It was written with the "help" of the healthcare industry and it reflects the industry's aims. Don't believe for a second that they -- the industry -- didn't plan on having the Republicans gut the law when the Congress was obviously in play. I can't believe how naive we are taken to be.

As for standing for the President, it would have been nice if he had stood for us. In 2012, if it's Ms. Palin vs. Mr. Palin, I'll have to find another alternative. This administration has dug us in as much as it could in two years, it elected the Republicans to run the House, and it's about to give up the last vestiges of liberalism including entitlements and civil liberties. What does Obama stand for, that deserves our support? Tell me. I don't see it.

[BobJacobson]

01:31 PM on 01/05/2011

BTW, I don't agree at all with the comments that immediately precede mine. Having lived overseas, I've seen that you can't skimp on healthcare and have a system that works. It's one of the few items -- war certainly isn't one, and you don't hear calls from Republicans for economy there! -- that produces tangible positive outcomes per dollar spent, not least healthier families, students, and workers. You can, however, exercise discipline to hold down costs. Unfortunately, Obama's reforms don't do a thing to hold down costs, which means that spending will continue to go to providers at the expense of patients. That's the crux of the matter.

[rightwing927]

09:41 AM on 01/05/2011

Your comment about the deficit in nonsense. The estimates provided by democrats and the CBO were based on preposterous assumptions about future acts of congress, namely the "doc fix" and reductions in hospital fees. The CBO only estimates budget impact based on assumptions that are supplied by the bill's authors (read democrats). Any claim that these reports were impartial, bipartisan, or anything similar is ridiculous. The chief medicare actuary attempted to apply real world standards in his truly independent analysis, and concluded that this law would explode the deficit and debt. But these facts are ignored by most. Try objectivity for a change.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703309704575413263344491010.html

[smpj]

10:44 AM on 01/05/2011

You've kicked this one squarely through the uprights. If repeal or starvation is impossible, the real world effects of this horror will become patently clear to everyone, leaving the purchase of Democratic Party stock a very very risky business.