Obamacare: Where is the adult in the room?

By Jim Killebrew

[November 14, 2013]  The news these days is full of the debacle of the Obamacare implementation. Millions of people are learning that their policies are being canceled. Employer mandates were delayed, but apparently when resumed, tens of millions more Americans will find that their employer will force them into the exchanges for their insurance.

Aside from all that, as well as the deception through a series of repeated lies from the president and his administration, the law is forcing millions of American citizens to purchase insurance products from private providers for products the government has decided the individual needs, even when the individual does not want the product.

Now, even the Democrats who voted for the law are trying to walk back from their actions. Especially those who are trying to get re-elected next year. Why are they trying to distance themselves from their law? Because the law is toxic and they didn't have to read it first to know that. The first flaw was the fact they passed it without having read it. That alone indicates they didn't provide due diligence in the interest of those they were elected to represent. Blind trust and allegiance to one's party affiliation and the "promises" made by those whose political ambitions will likely profit by passing certain legislation is not leadership nor representation; it is haphazard stumbling into a morass of ever-sinking quicksand. Our current situation seems to be proving this as a fact.     

Even beyond all of that, the president has a long list of scandals basically unaccounted for: Benghazi, fast and furious; circumventing the laws such as deportation of illegal immigrants by exempting certain classes of those he wants to keep in America, even though under the law they would be deported. He has also changed the Affordable Care Act by exempting many classes of people from the law, all outside of congressional involvement, and now making promises to the American people that they could keep their policy if they liked it, knowing all the while it was an untrue promise; and this was done prior to his re-election during his own campaign. Through that deception, he led the American people who voted for him to vote under a false pretense that led to a possible outcome built on a false promise he knew he couldn't keep.

In other circumstances, if a person promises people certain levels of services or particular products that are not based on the truth, and does  not deliver what has been promised, a crime is committed and the person making such claims and taking people's money based on that claim is usually arrested, indicted, tried and if found guilty, sent to prison.

In this case, not only are millions of people being vacated from their insurance policies, it is happening because the federal law has precluded those policies because they have failed to meet the standards established by the Affordable Care Act. Insurance companies are being forced to cancel those policies because the government declared they are substandard and, in the words of the president, "lousy policies." This, despite the fact that the individuals who purchased those policies chose the coverage they wanted based on their preference and budget, notwithstanding the government's mandated requirements. Consequently they have "changed" and are thereby exempted from being "grandfathered" as was promised.

Each day some new revelation emerges that reveals another building block of information that exposes the president's promised plan of initiating a "fundamental change" for America, leading toward building massive governmental control and socialism. We are now learning that as the waivers for the employer mandates are lifted, it is likely that the larger majority of insured who receive their insurance through their employer will likely have their policies canceled as well. The employer will be unable to continue with the premiums since they will rise to a cost level that will be unsustainable by the employer. Therefore, the individual employee will likely be forced into the exchange established by Obamacare. At that point, people will not be able to keep their policy, they will not be able to keep their doctor or clinic, but will be subject to the prescriptive health care established by the dictates of the various plans designed and implemented by the government.

It is time for Congress to take hold of this issue and either delay or appeal the law and formulate a bipartisan select committee to develop a system that is fair and affordable, that allows the individual to have direct input into their personal plan, that outlines the provision of their personal health care managed in concert with their physician and themselves. Provisions for portable plans across state lines and pre-existing illnesses should be a part of those plans as well.

It is time for the adult in the room to stand and take charge of this situation. Past events have proven neither the president, his staff, nor the Democrats in Congress have the qualifications to be that adult in the room. 

[By JIM KILLEBREW]