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EXPLANATORY JOURNALISM: The TerryReport
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News, commentary, opinion on politics, government, books, social trends, American life, travel, cycling, books, other stuff
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In the NY Times:
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By MICHAEL D. SHEAR 34 minutes ago
The problems with HealthCare.gov have lit a fire under the West Wing staff, but some Democrats close to the White House think that the Obama administration is not sufficiently panicked.
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From the article:
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Some Democrats close to the White House, however, think that the administration is not sufficiently panicked by the health care problems and urgently needs to step up its response. They say that the president and his staff do not recognize the full threat to his legacy, and they worry that Kathleen Sebelius, the secretary of health and human services, is not equipped to pull the administration out of the morass.
“They are going to have to start thinking about some options,” said one Obama ally familiar with internal operations at the White House, “They need to get ahead of it somehow.”
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AT LONG LAST, President Obama has stepped up with an apology (11.7.13) in regard to people losing their health care insurance because of changes brought about by the ACA. At long last. The earlier attempt he made to “clarify” the situation (about a week ago) fell way short of what was needed and didn’t really clarify anything. The White House, no doubt aided by information coming in from members of Congress and other sources, gradually came to realize they had a very serious problem on their hands. A weak, and by some views, radical Republican candidate for governor of Virginia almost won on Tuesday using Obamacare as a springboard, even though that had little or nothing to do with the governor’s job in Virginia. Did that wake up the White House?
How many times in modern American history have presidents apologized for anything? Almost never. It is generally considered not good form, to say the least. This situation, however, cried out for a solid response because Obama had said over and over again (more than 20 times, by some counts), that “if you like your insurance, you can keep it”. No, you can’t keep it if the insurance company was offering you a crummy policy that really didn’t cover much of anything. And, yes, it might be more expensive, if you don’t qualify for subsides, to get a new, better policy.
This whole mess reeks of overreach and bad timing. Why, for example, were these aspects of “Obamacare” not phased in more carefully and slowly? How in the world could this happen while the massive flap about the non-working website was dominating the news? Why weren’t people told months ago: if you have one of these “insurance policies”, like ones that cover only two doctors visits per year, then you are going to have to get something new? Why weren’t people told? Because it was politically difficult? That’s no excuse.
These months should have been a time when the ACA was providing benefits for millions of Americans and the whole controversy was fading from the national scene. Instead, the missteps and misdirection have provided a fresh round of confusion and even anger to carry into the 2014 Congressional elections. The way it looks now is that “Obamacare” might, indeed, be the “signal accomplishment” of the Obama White House because it might be the only one people remember at all. And, right now, it looks like he will spend most of his presidency fighting to keep it and make it work. Instead of steady good news, the rollout has resulted in a flash flood of negative news and bad impressions.
It looks like the health insurance industry has gotten away with selling almost useless policies to millions of Americans who were desperate for some form of insurance but couldn’t afford a decent policy. In the end, forcing those companies to drop or change those policies with huge deductibles and very limited coverage could be a win all the way around. Doing so in this manner, without advance notice and a clear idea of what the results might be, is very confusing and off putting to people who don’t understand why the government is ordering (that’s the way it looks) that their policies be canceled. What a mess.
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"I regret very much that what we intended to do, which is to make sure that everybody is moving into better plans because they want them, as opposed to because they're forced into it. That, you know, we weren't as clear as we needed to be in terms of the changes that were taking place.” Obama comments to NBC News in an interview.
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to go to recent posts, nearly 300 pages of news and comments filed during the first nine months of 2013 and during the critical election year of 2012.
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