For centuries we were taught that the three essentials in life were food, shelter and clothing. As we became more aware of the vagaries of life such as changing family patterns and concentrations of urban populations, new rules and legislation were created. Social Security as a safety net became law in 1935 as a part of President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s ‘New Deal.’
President Lyndon Johnson created The Great Society that included the passage of The Civil Rights Act and The Economic Opportunity Act (1964). Over the past generation, healthcare has risen to become one of four essential elements in life’s often-turbulent journey. Recognizing the significance of healthcare, President Obama rushed the misnamed Affordable Care Act (ACA) into law in 2010. Government took control of another 16% of the nation’s economy.
The challenge is to subsidize elderly healthcare costs with the inflated contributions of healthy young people and pick up the tab for low-income people with increased premiums by everyone, mainly the middle class. The middle class isn’t doing that well right now. Here is a quote from a letter to the editor published recently in The Roanoke Times, “Has anyone noticed our middle class is slowly but surely being done away with – and not by accident?” Arthur C. Brooks, President of the American Enterprise Institute comments that the vaunted ‘middle class’ is suffering loss of opportunity.
Many other middle class occupants are not faring too well including minorities. Although the overall unemployment rate in September of this year fell to 7.2%, among Blacks the rate is 12.9% and for Hispanics is 9%. And yet, Blacks gave Mr. Obama a 95% approval in the 2012 presidential race.
In the weeks since October 1, we have heard about the many problems that have arisen in nearly all state programs. Anecdotal evidence suggests that only six people were signed up for insurance the first day of activity. In the first week of November a report from the ‘navigators’ in Delaware indicates only a few people have signed up for insurance at a cost of more than $1 million. Families in their 50’s have reported that they must pay for maternity coverage. Many applicants have found that their premiums and out-of-pocket costs (deductibles) will be higher.
Costs of healthcare navigators, heavily staffed by recent college graduates will be costly. Grants for navigators made to states will be at least $67 million by some estimates. The cost of navigators, consultants, programmers and other workers involved in the implementation of the healthcare law were not included in the cost estimates of Obamacare. This means the overall costs will far exceed the costs reported by the government. We are realizing that the Affordable Care Act was (is) a scam from the beginning. And some estimates project that as many as two thirds of the population may qualify for government (taxpayer) subsidies. We are headed for a single-payer system operated by Uncle Sam.
Hope and Change is not a strategy. These are words of campaign inducement that lead to the realization of exalting dreams or the nightmares of uncertainty, divisiveness and frustration. The speeches read from the teleprompter mesmerized campaign listeners that were seeking unity, peace and Kumbaya as our new national anthem. The false promises about the costs and benefits of the ACA probably sealed the re-election for Obama in 2012.
Mr. Obama is a man with an almost total lack of real world experience and steeped in the glories of academia and Chicago-style influence peddling. He is a profligate campaigner looking to make another speech, a misguided leader with implacable ideas surrounded by admiring go-along sycophants. Most egregiously, he has misled (he lied) about Obamacare provisions for millions of us. Don’t overlook this fact: Our President is indifferent to the current problems because someone else will be in The White House when the huge cost deficits roll in during future years!
– Dick Baynton
