ObamaCare: The Good, The Bad And The Ugly

By Nicole Scott, NDG Contributing Writer

Throughout American history every president has had that one achievement that defines his presidency. An accomplishment that for him when historians look back can say this was the defining piece of legislature that improved the quality of life for all Americans. For Roosevelt it was the New Deal, Johnson the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and for President Barack Obama it would have been the Affordable Healthcare Act (ACA) had he stuck to his guns.

Healthcare reform was always atop President Obama’s list of priorities since he took the Oval Office. In fact it was a central theme of his presidential campaign, when then Senator Obama vowed to enact universal healthcare for all. A huge winning point for him, because contrary to widespread perception the majority of Americans favored a single payer option.

According to various polls conducted by CBS News, CNN, LA Times as well as The New York Times dating back to 2007 65 percent of Americans support “a universal health insurance program in which everyone is covered under a program like Medicare that is run by the government and financed by taxpayers.”

So what went wrong?

For starters whenever politicians polarize hot button political issues, debating them ad nauseam the public often becomes divided along party lines even abandoning their original positions and adopting the official party talking points. Why? Because they become weary, frustrated and confused by all of the misinformation and scare campaigns; talk of death panels and doomsday predictions.

The reality is America stands on an island practically alone of industrialized nations that do not provide socialized medicine for its citizenry. We often hear of our neighbors to the north but almost all of the countries in South America, Europe, Australia, even Israel have for decades provided universal healthcare for their people. So it’s not a left-right or liberal-conservative ideology as much as politicians have turned it into especially those on the right.

From the onset Republicans have vowed to obstruct health care reform by any means necessary.

“We’re doing everything we can to stop this bill,” said Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY). “I can almost guarantee you this thing won’t pass before August, and if we can hold it back until we go home for a month’s break in August. Senators and Congressmen will come back in September afraid to vote against the American people. If we’re able to stop Obama on this it will be his Waterloo. It will break him.”

And so the battle began.

It didn’t stop with Rep. McConnell. Republican after Republican, even after the ACA was passed, continued to oppose the bill challenging it all the way to the Supreme Court. Republican Texas Senator Ted Cruz failed miserably with a 21 hour filibuster that only accomplished him being the butt of every joke of every television pundit in liberal America. Although the Republicans continue to make a fool of themselves time and again and appear to have lost the victory, they have managed to turn the tide. Since the President’s re-election a growing number of Americans’ support for the ACA has dwindled.

What the President got really wrong is you do not allow your opponent to gain momentum and poison the waters swaying your supporters away from you. Adequate healthcare is an issue that concerns the majority of Americans because it is something they experience firsthand.

An upwards of 48 million of Americans have no insurance. A study conducted in 2013 by NerdWallet Health found the following:

• Healthcare related bills were the number one reason for bankruptcies
• Almost 56 million adults in 2013 struggled with medical bills
• An estimated 10 million insured will still encounter difficulties covering their medical bills
• 15 million people will exhaust their savings paying for health related bills
• More than 25 million people forego, delay even skip their doses and/or refilling prescriptions due to money

So this is an issue that reaches across class and race, as well as, political affiliation. In 2012 an analysis of 37 polls conducted by 17 survey groups found health care was the number two concern of Americans and 65 percent felt the problem of healthcare costs has worsened in the last five years.

Whether it was a lack of leadership, courage or just listening to the wrong advice President Obama missed a golden opportunity to revolutionize America’s healthcare system, bringing forth monumental change in the lives of those who need it the most, his greatest constituency while finally silencing his biggest critics.

Instead he opted for the quick money and lost big. It has cost Obama the respect and confidence of many of his supporters and provided Republicans with more fuel for fodder.

On rollout day the GOP could not have asked for a greater disaster. Politicians to pundits on the right lined up to say, “I told you so.” Website glitches and technical problems prevented people from signing up even caused the site to temporarily crash. But the problems have not stopped just there.

Since the launch of the ACA there have been a non-stop plethora of issues including unexpected higher premiums. And if things could not become any more disastrous, once again, caving to pressure the president partly suspended the individual mandate. This means individuals who are uninsured and cannot afford to get insured will qualify for a “hardship exemption.” They are also eligible for a special category of ACA insurance designed for people 30 and under.

The failures of the ACA and problems on rollout day are not a testament that we do not need healthcare reform in America. The problems that occurred with the website are not a sign of incompetency by the Obama administration, nor are they something out of the norm.

In 2005, when the Bush administration implemented the Medicare prescription benefit plan millions of Americans encountered not only technical errors, but also received incorrect information as well as insurers and pharmacies resulting in some recipients going without their medication. In spite of it all, that did not prevent Republicans from supporting and defending the plan.

There is much the President could learn from his opponents when it comes to getting behind benchmark legislature. However, it seems Obama has yet to learn the most significant rules in politics. First, when someone shows you who they are believe them. Secondly, you can please some of the people some of the time, all of the people some of the time, some of the people all of the time but you can never please all of the people all of the time.

And those are words coming from someone Obama admires and considers to have “paved the way for me” [sic].