But ACA Success Stories? Not Interested!
A couple of days ago, Sen. Marco Rubio put out a request to some of his constituents in Florida. He said he wants to hear stories of any "problems" they've experienced due to the evil that is Obamacare:
...particularly notices from health insurance providers letting them know their plans are no longer available, shocking premium increases, losing access to their current doctors, and struggles with the exchange websites.
Rubio's not one who concerns himself with what his constituents might have to say, (just ask anyone who's tried to contact him with their concerns) so it's telling that suddenly he's soliciting these stories. Rubio's press release continues:
"Behind ObamaCare's numbers and statistics are real people that are being hurt by this law's early failures and broken promises, and we need to tell their stories," said Rubio. "While I continue to pursue common sense relief for the people being impacted by ObamaCare's website failures, rising costs and loss of health plans, their real world accounts must be shared far and wide because they remind us of the urgency to help people right away.
Note that he doesn't want to hear from anyone who isn't having problems, or someone who's happy with their results while shopping for health care plans. He's not interested in those stories, which must never be shared "far and wide" because that would spoil the narrative Rubio and his misery profiteering, obstructionist party cohorts have worked so hard to craft:
"I urge Floridians to share their stories with me and make crystal clear that ObamaCare's problems aren't talking points cooked up by political parties or in some think tank," added Rubio. "They are real, they are hurting people and they are breaking all kinds of promises that were made to get ObamaCare passed."
Rubio isn't interested in talking points. No sir! That's why he used them himself to pave the pathway for those who are scared and more inclined to respond rather than doing their homework or checking the facts first. Sadly for him, people aren't really paying that much attention to the "little Rubio who cried wolf" anymore. But there are plenty more Republicans out there saying the same thing and they would like nothing more than to have you believe their spin.
They, and Rubio, are also well aware that the media isn't quick to fact check these days either. We've already seen this in action in the last couple weeks. Horror stories about "cancelled policies" and "sticker shock" for new ones, and of course the problems with the website. Yes, the ACA website has had its share of problems, but like anything else that doesn't work well at first, it's in the process of getting fixed. Because that's what sensible people do: They find solutions to existing problems. They don't say "well, then, the website is slow, meaning we must now scrap years worth of work, and an entire law. What were we thinking?" But that's what Republicans are saying. (Imagine where Microsoft would be, had they taken that route? People would be saying "What was Microsoft again?")
Because the GOP can't kill the law outright, they're finding ways to create roadblocks, and Rubio is banking on the lazy media and people who don't have the time or the inclination to find the facts for themselves, to sow doubts.
Since Rubio isn't interested in hearing about people who are happy with ACA and haven't met the doom that he's predicted, I'll share one of those here.
We've heard all the fuss kicked up by President Obama's statement that under Obamacare, "if you like your insurance, you can keep it." While some policies have been "cancelled", but replaced with better policies, better coverage, and with varying prices, that statement isn't as black and white as the GOP would have you believe, and it's been debunked. Those with the so-called cancelled policies have junk insurance plans that wouldn't cover what their policy holders need, and they would discover that too late. Those people are being given the opportunity to transition to other plans that give them what they pay for: Insurance coverage. What a concept! That's why it's called The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act.
Still, that statement: "If you like your insurance plan, you can keep it" is true for many, and I happen to be one of them. Here is the letter I received from my insurance company:
Oh. The. Horror. If I like my plan, I can keep it. Just as the President said. Better still, I can shop around and possibly bring down my premiums. From a quick check at healthcare.gov just now, (yes, the website is still working) there were 106 plans with even lower premiums. So yes, my insurance already meets all the essential requirements, but now I have even more options which I plan to look into. (There are many more with similar stories, you can read a great example here.) This, in spite of the fact that Florida passed a law saying insurance companies could simply raise premiums and falsely blame it on the ACA.
But again, Marco Rubio doesn't want to hear about anyone who can keep their insurance as President Obama said. He doesn't want to hear about anyone who is benefiting from Obamacare. He wants people to tell him how Obamacare has "hurt them" regardless of the facts, and to exploit the fear he and the GOP have instilled in people, and take advantage of a lazy media who won't call him out on misinformation.
Rubio is also pushing a bill to further block the ACA, and though he parrots the "repeal and replace" talking points every chance he gets, there is no "replacement." He's got nothing. He wants nothing more than to turn back the clock so that people can go right on dying from lack of health care, and so those people paying a high price for junk insurance can keep on paying for something that will never do them any good. He's not about solutions.
Neither are his fellow obstructionists.
Worse, the Republicans have hate for this President on their side, and they're taking advantage of that too. I've been attacked on Twitter for merely saying that I was able to keep my insurance, and bombarded with hate, foul language, and accused of getting paid to say it. (No, I don't get paid for my writing on this blog, nor for my Tweets, but even if I did, no paycheck would dictate what I write like some who do. I don't work that way.) I've also been attacked by people who not only cheer for failure, but by those who actually complain that Obamacare requires policies to cover things like maternity care, mental health, and prescriptions. You know: health care. Yes, how dare health insurance be required to.....insure those who pay for coverage? I'm not kidding. This was actually an argument slung in my direction by someone who is either woefully ignorant, or entirely dishonest. I suspect it's both.
Republicans have tried every trick in the book to fan flames of doubt, and the media is giving them a hand. Luckily there are a few who have successfully debunked those "horror stories" and pointed out facts that other media outlets ignored. You can read some of those examples here, here, here, here, here, and here. And there are lots more where those came from.
But that was only after all the other efforts the GOP employed to block the ACA every step of the way, including their hand in making sure the website wouldn't work properly. (Yes, they are partially to blame for the roll out they call a disaster. More on that below.) They created havoc during years of planning and legislation, which they all voted against for final passage, wasted time and taxpayer funds voting to "repeal" it over 40 times when they knew it would never be repealed anyway, and took it before the Supreme Court, where it was ruled constitutional, although they did get one part of it thrown out. That meant that Medicaid expansion and the creation of state exchanges would be thrown back to the states. In spite of their claiming that states should have control of such things, what did many of the Republicans in those states do? They said let the feds handle it. Florida is one of them, and while Rick Scott, who made a career out of trying to kill health care reform before he bought his way into the governor's office finally appeared to give in to expansion, Republicans in the legislature refused to do it, thus giving him political cover. Florida taxpayers money will now pay for other states expansion, leaving our uninsured with nothing. So-called "fiscal conservative" Scott has never uttered a word about it since, nor has he made any effort to push those Republicans into doing it. States that have expansion and their own health care exchanges and websites are doing a great job getting people enrolled. Even GOP governors who share a spot on the worst governors lists with Scott like Arizona's Jan Brewer and Ohio's John Kasich, went ahead and participated, and they've had success. But not Florida, which has helped in slowing down the ACA website. More Florida people are scrambling to get covered or see if they qualify, but they have to do so through the ACA site, just as those from other states without expansion do.
To add to all this, Republicans also blocked funding for the ACA website, choking it even more. Todd S. Purdum wrote a comprehensive rundown of the GOP path of obstruction for Politico that should be required reading for anyone who isn't aware of how much Republican sabotage played a role in ACA's problems, but here is a key part of their role in the website problem from Purdum's piece:
“I think my Republican colleagues forget that a lot of people are enrolling through state exchanges, rather than the federal exchange,” Rep. Frank Pallone (D-N.J.) noted last week. “And if it wasn’t for the fact that many Republican governors, including my own,” failed to set up state exchanges, “then we wouldn’t be putting so much burden on the federal system.”
In fact, putting an excessive burden on the federal government was the explicit aim of the law’s opponents. “Congress authorized no funds for federal ‘fallback’ exchanges,” the Tea Party Patriots website noted as long ago as last December. “So Washington may not be able to impose exchanges on states at all.” The group went on to suggest that since Washington was not equipped to handle so many state exchanges, “both financially and otherwise — this means the entire law could implode on itself.”
That same month, the conservative pollster and pundit Dick Morris urged visitors to his website to sign petitions asking their states to refuse to establish exchanges. “If states assume the responsibility for administering this nightmare,” he warned, “the blame will not land on the president’s doorstep.”
Add to that, in Florida, Rick Scott and the legislature passed a law to give insurance companies free reign on raising premium rates and falsely blaming the ACA for it, misinformed people about health care navigator's role in helping fill the gap to aid enrollment, threw up roadblocks and bombarded them with questions and red tape, thus slowing down enrollment at every turn.
The bottom line is that in spite of all the Republicans have done to try and defeat the law, and a rocky start for the website, Obamacare is working, and it's only going to get better.
And that's the real "horror story" for Marco Rubio, the Republicans, and their dishonest followers.
