Some Good News for a Change

By on November 20, 2013

GoodnewsThe Los Angeles Times yesterday published reports that the Health Marketplace in California is functioning according to expectations. There is good news as well in Connecticut and Kentucky. If the states who elected to set up their own exchanges and comply with the Affordable Care Act produce good results, it will be a message that the Act works but only if you do do the work required. The Federal government took on the challenge of setting up exchanges for states that would not comply, and these are mostly states with Republican governors and/or legislatures. We are still waiting to see if these will be working by the end of the month, but even if they aren’t, this might tell Americans that the problem is not the law but its strident opponents who have dug in and tried to torpedo it from the start.

screamerThe Obama Administration still deserves a rap across the knuckles for the sorry launch of the national website, but voters may also not want to reward further bad behavior by the opposition party in carrying their now-hysterical rebellion to extremes. Seeing that working Americans have access to quality health care is a worthy goal. So is tackling the problem of out-of-control health care costs which threaten our national economy. Harping on ‘entitlements’ is a ‘dodge.’ Social Security, Medicare and Government-supported healthcare are entitlements, but so are tax breaks, government subsidies, and complex tax shelters. It just depends on whose sacred cow is getting gored.

We are far from a successful implementation of the ACA. Getting young healthy people to subscribe instead of just paying the penalty will be crucial. The shaky start and continued screeching by Kill Obamacare-obsessives may persuade them to wait. The Massachusetts roll out went successfully after a few glitches because Tea Party Republicans were not there to throw monkey-wrenches into the implementation process at every step. They also weren’t there with their ‘train wreck’ talking points.

It is still not clear that the ACA is the answer to our problems, but we are long past the point where doing nothing but disparaging reform efforts is a plausible alternative. We need states-men and women on all sides to step forward and get involved. Health Care reform has never needed them more than they do now. It’s too late to turn back. The choice now is successful change or an unholy mess. Washington it’s up to you.

 

Tom

 

 

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