By Mark Esposito, Weekend Contributor
Even as the GOP struggles to hold onto to its wacky Tea Party base and appease the country clubbers who finance the show, it finds it can unite on one thing: It Loves the Affordable Care Act (“ACA”). That’s right, the party who issued dire warnings over death panels and runaway costs, and rationing, and lost jobs just heard from its grass-roots and … they LOVE it. According to the Commonwealth Fund, a private foundation that “aims to promote a high performing health care system that achieves better access, improved quality, and greater efficiency, particularly for society’s most vulnerable,” polling shows 74% of persons who had the guts to identify themselves as Republicans “said that they were very or somewhat satisfied with their new insurance plan.” And even more remarkably for that “sky-is-always-falling” crowd, they’re optimistic .. yes, optimistic, that “new health coverage will improve their ability to get the care they need.” What ? No waiting lines, no rationing of health care ? No shadowy board saying Grandma must die because she needs hormone replacement therapy?
What is this our conservative brethren cry? Well, it’s reality and everything Republican leaders hoped — for purely political reasons — it wouldn’t be. Like the number of uninsured dropping from 15.6% to 13.4% in just one quarter. This is “the lowest quarterly average recorded since Gallup and Healthways began tracking the percentage of uninsured Americans in 2008. ” Oh, then there’s the actual people who now can get the healthcare they need (and that most civilized nations regard as a civil right). Over fifteen million Americans have signed up for coverage by the end of the last enrollment period and about 8 million went through the exchange. A Kaiser Survey found that nearly 6 out of 10 of the 8 million who enrolled in the marketplace were previously uninsured. Maybe that will reduce the 25,000 American per year who, pre-ACA, were dying from little or no healthcare.
And what about the demographics of those recently insured? Those cut across all age groups except those 65+ due to their eligibility to Medicare.
Not seeing the doctor of their choice, I bet. Nope that canard has gone the way of the buggy whip too, according to the Washington Post. “Just about one in five of those with new coverage, though, said they tried to find a primary care doctor — but of those, 75 percent said their search was somewhat easy or very easy.” So 80% kept their doctor, and 75% said getting a new one –if they had to — was easy. That lying Obama saying that everyone will get to keep their doctor and plan. Throw him in jail for that whopper!
And lastly, what about that great Republican bugaboo. You know the one where we’ll all wait years for surgeries or even just to see a specialist under Obamacare? Well, the Commonwealth Fund says that 58% of those newly insured who needed to see specialists did so in two weeks. Two weeks? That’s how long it tales me to get a plumber out to my house!
So, with the dire predictions of the demise of healthcare system via the ACA effectively debunked what does it mean for the GOP’s singular wedge issue? Plan B: The President’s travel schedule? ( He won’t “visit the border,” you know) Well, maybe, but the bigger problem is the disconnect between GOP leadership and its apparently healthy and satisfied membership. Taking away the things that people like by their own government has never really been a winning political strategy. See, Prohibition, i.e. disaster.
Even more politically challenging is that independents love Obamacare more than Republicans. By a 85% to 15% gap, independent voters can’t get enough of quality affordable health care that, for the first time in a long time, actually costs less per month than their mortgage. Try that on for size GOP. Who’s left to vote? Undocumented workers? Oh, sorry, they can’t and well, a lot are Hispanic and … you know … you’re not doing so great on immigration reform. Next subject, please.
Already facing a demographic nightmare in 2016 when even more young people and minorities are expected to vote, the GOP presidential chances stand at a crossroads. Give up the best issue you thought you had: government “takeover” of the healthcare system or change? What would a savvy political party do? Well, change of course. For the GOP? Well, they do love a good collision course with reality sometimes.
Ok, all you political operatives in the making, what do you think:
Source: Commonwealth Fund and throughout.
~Mark Esposito, Weekend Contributor
By the way and for better or worse, the views expressed in this posting are the author’s alone and not necessarily those of the blog, the host, or other weekend bloggers. As an open forum, weekend bloggers post independently without pre-approval or review. Content and any displays of art are solely the author’s decision and responsibility. No infringement of intellectual property rights is intended and will be remedied upon notice from the owner. Fair use is however asserted for such inclusions of quotes, excerpts, photos, art, and the like.
Yes indeed issac! Worth repeating and spelling correctly.
Yes indeed Isaac!
http://scottystarnes.wordpress.com/2010/06/25/oh-the-transparency-obama-administration-officials-meet-lobbyists-at-coffee-shop-to-evade-disclosure-laws/
What else would you expect from the Hope and Change White House. Obama, as a candidate and as President, spoke out against lobbyists and their close ties to Washington. Obama was going to change this status-quo but it is just another lie from the lips of a typical politician.
The New York Times is reporting that members of the Obama administration are meeting with lobbyists across the street at a Caribou Coffee shop and believe this excludes them from breaking the disclosure law.
There are no Secret Service agents posted next to the barista and no presidential seal on the ceiling, but the Caribou Coffee across the street from the White House has become a favorite meeting spot to conduct Obama administration business.
Here at the Caribou on Pennsylvania Avenue, and a few other nearby coffee shops, White House officials have met hundreds of times over the last 18 months with prominent K Street lobbyists — members of the same industry that President Obama has derided for what he calls its “outsized influence” in the capital.
On the agenda over espressos and lattes, according to more than a dozen lobbyists and political operatives who have taken part in the sessions, have been front-burner issues like Wall Street regulation, health care rules, federal stimulus money, energy policy and climate control — and their impact on the lobbyists’ corporate clients.
But because the discussions are not taking place at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, they are not subject to disclosure on the visitors’ log that the White House releases as part of its pledge to be the “most transparent presidential administration in history.”
All this is being done because Obama doesn’t want the taxpayers to know that lobbyist and special interests groups are forming his policies. You know, like his stimulus and ObamaCare. It’s just another example of the Obama pattern. Pick a strawman, like lobbyists, and make the taxpayers believe you are against them. Then in secret, work with them to screw the taxpayers.
We have witnessed this scam in the passing of ObamaCare and the recent financial reform bill. In ObamaCare, Obama railed against insurance companies then turned around and awarded them billions of dollars with his health insurance mandate. Obama railed against Wall Street fat-cats and rewarded them with bailout after bailout. Notice the pattern.
White House officials said there was nothing improper about the off-site meetings.
“The Obama administration has taken unprecedented steps to increase the openness and transparency of the White House,” said Dan Pfeiffer, director of communications. “We expect that all White House employees adhere to their obligations under our very stringent ethics rules regardless of who they are meeting with or where they meet.”
Attempts to put distance between the White House and lobbyists are not limited to meetings. Some lobbyists say that they routinely get e-mail messages from White House staff members’ personal accounts rather than from their official White House accounts, which can become subject to public review. Administration officials said there were some permissible exceptions to a federal law requiring staff members to use their official accounts and retain the correspondence.
And while Mr. Obama has imposed restrictions on hiring lobbyists for government posts, the administration has used waivers and recusals more than two dozen times to appoint lobbyists to political positions. Two lobbyists also cited instances in which the White House had suggested that a job candidate be “deregistered” as a lobbyist in Senate records to avoid violating the administration’s hiring restrictions.
Using personal e-mail accounts to make contact with lobbyists? Now why wouldn’t these most transparent individuals use their personal White House e-mail accounts to communicate with these lobbyist? Could it be the fact that White House e-mails would be made public due to disclosure laws? What do these officials want to hide from the public?
Obama’s goons are holding these meetings outside the White House to escape the visitor’s log. After all, they do not want the taxpayers to know who they are working with to suck money out of their pockets.
Lobbyists say some White House officials will agree to an initial meeting with a lobbyist and his client at the White House, but then plan follow-up sessions at a site not subject to the visitors’ log.
One lobbyist recounted meeting with White House officials on a side lawn outside the building to introduce them to the chief executive of a major foreign corporation.
“I’ll call and say, ‘I want to talk to you about X,’ and they’ll say, ‘Sure, let’s talk at Starbucks,’ ” said another lobbyist who counted six or seven off-site meetings with White House officials on financial issues.
Obama’s brand of transparency is a stinker. It’s simply a walking-talking contridiction. They will continue to lie, pat themselves on the back and continue to mingle with lobbyist. Only the weak-minded Obama Zombies believe anything he says anymore.
Gallup is the Gold Standard as some commenter said a while back. I wonder what those who say they hard a hard time finding a doctor will make of those statistics? I guess it will make some heads explode, please excuse the violent imagery. It was their idea to begin with, they should be happy.
The Commonwealth Fund is populated by Democratic Party operatives, and is one of many organizations in overdrive to convince the public that Obamacare is a rousing success before the 2016 mid-term election. Any survey conducted by them is highly suspect. Surveys are subject to manipulation to achieve the desired result by the way questions are posed. Furthermore, Obama has delayed a significant number of provisions of the law (arguably illegally) to prevent the full effects of the law from being felt until after the 2016 election. The public has yet to feel the full effects of the law on their healthcare options and costs.
Obamacare is a can of worms that still needs refining, however, it is better than the absolute theft by the insurance industry that still exists to a great extent. The next move is to create a single payer system that replaces the private insurance systems with state administered medical health insurance with the option to supplement through the parasites if one wishes. This is how the vastly superior systems in Canada, Great Britain, Germany, France, etc. work. Why do Americans believe that getting ripped off by the private sector, especially the insurance industry is patriotic and written somewhere in the Constitution. It is obviously because we live in a oligarchy and the politicians are bought and paid for, oh and also because too many Americans are simply complacent and perhaps a little ignorant of what it really means to be free: free from religion, free from lies, free from monopolies, free from ignorance.
Obama is a common thief and people are too stupid to see it
http://www.forbes.com/sites/brucejapsen/2013/05/25/obamacare-will-bring-drug-industry-35-billion-in-profits/
Obamacare Will Bring Drug Industry $35 Billion In Profits
http://news.msn.com/us/officials-probe-possible-insider-trading-over-us-medicare-changes-wsj
The SEC sent subpoenas to the House Ways and Means Committee and Brian Sutter, staff director of the committee’s healthcare subcommittee, the Journal said. The Justice Department also has subpoenaed Sutter to testify to before a grand jury in New York.
An official at the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services declined to comment on the Journal report.
The investigation was started after a Journal report last year about a jump in health insurance stocks just before the U.S. government announced news about a change in Medicare payments that was favorable to those companies.
The newspaper said the stock surge was set off by an email from Height Securities, a Washington policy-research firm, predicting the change in Medicare payments. The email was partly based on information from Mark Hayes, a lobbyist who had formerly been a healthcare aide in the Senate and who said his information came from “very credible sources,” the Journal said.
Investigators want to determine if the “credible sources” broke insider trading regulations by passing on non-public information.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/political-intelligence-firms-set-up-investor-meetings-at-white-house/2013/05/26/73b06528-bccb-11e2-9b09-1638acc3942e_story.html
Political intelligence firms set up investor meetings at White House
Wall Street investors hungry for advance information on upcoming federal health-care decisions repeatedly held private discussions with Obama administration officials, including a top White House adviser helping to implement the Affordable Care Act.
The private conversations show that the increasingly urgent race to acquire“political intelligence” goes beyond the communications with congressional staffers that have become the focus of heightened scrutiny in recent weeks.
Their polling would be like a Koch Brothers “nonpartisan organization” polling on the Keystone Pipeline.
Nick, I retrieved your comment at 8:33.
http://www.naturalnews.com/035951_Obamacare_Big_Pharma_health_care.html
More details emerge in Obama’s secret dealings with Big Pharma during health care overhaul
The Commonwealth Fund helped create Obamacare!!
The Commonwealth Fund was instrumental in assisting the creation of Obamacare!! There polling would be like polling conducted by a Koch Brothers “nonpartisan”organization on the Keystone Pipeline.
Nick, I retrieved your comment at 8:32.
Obamacare is a disgusting p.o.s bill that NEVER should have been passed. Forcing people to give money to Wall Street ? Disgusting. I cant believe anyone is dumb enough to support it.
If Obamacare and Obama are so popular why are Dems running in 2016 avoiding both like anthrax? Senator Udall in Colorado didn’t even show for his own fundraiser when OBAMA WAS THERE!
Watch the Bill Moyers commentary at bottom of this link
http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2012/dec/05/obamacare-fowler-lobbyist-industry1
Obamacare architect leaves White House for pharmaceutical industry job
Few people embody the corporatist revolving door greasing Washington as purely as Elizabeth Fowler
You at least get an ‘A’ for effort. But, the Commonwealth Fund?? I’ll have to research them. The increased % covered are the ones not paying, we taxpayers are paying for them AS WE ALWAYS HAVE. You get the Pete Rose Hustle Award, though.
http://www.naturalnews.com/043115_health_insurance_companies_Obamacare_stock_prices.html
So far in 2013, the S&P healthcare sector index has gained 37.5%, making it the S&P 500’s best-performing sector, reports Reuters.
“Healthcare is the place to be. It’s a hot area,” said U.S. Global Investors Inc. top trader Michael Matousek. “People want stocks in healthcare, industrials and consumer discretionary. That’s where tactical investors have been focused, and that’s where the money has been flowing.”
And why not? When you mandate that Americans have to purchase a particular good or service, why wouldn’t stock prices for that particular industry rise? So no matter if the law is terrible public policy and a drag on Americans’ bottom line, hey, as long as the nation can be made to subsidize key industries, meaning Uncle Sam gets to pick winners and losers, what the hell, right?
And Obama is no crony capitalist? Sure.