Meet the new President Obama.
Only last month, the president and his fellow Democrats shut down the government rather than agree to a Republican bid to delay ObamaCare. The president characterized the call for delay as “threatening to burn the house down.”
On Thursday, America beheld a new Obama. Now the president himself backs delay, at least in terms of enforcing a requirement that Americans buy policies in compliance with his law. This delay he describes as “making the law work better.”
Insurance execs say it’s late in the game to be changing the rules. So whether the president’s “fix” is even possible is an open question. And if it is possible and Americans take advantage of it, the result will be greater fiscal stress on ObamaCare exchanges — which are counting on the infusion of cash from younger and healthier Americans to finance the more expansive coverage required by ObamaCare.
Still, it’s a neat political trick if it allows Obama to pass the buck by blaming mean old insurance companies when Americans lose plans they are happy with.
In announcing the delay, the president was responding to panicked Democrats who realize they are on the hook for more than a buggy Web site. Already some of the most frightened — Louisiana Sen. Mary Landrieu comes to mind — have announced the president’s solution isn’t good enough. She’s going to offer her own “fix.”
All of which gives Republicans the best opportunity they’ve ever had to push alternatives that would achieve what ObamaCare only promises: quality, affordable health-care choices for all.
As they do, Republicans need to stress to that ObamaCare can’t be fixed because its whole approach is fundamentally flawed. ObamaCare is a top-down, Washington-led system of mandates and regulations based on forcing buyers and sellers of insurance to do what the government wants. Republicans must contrast this with their own alternatives that use the market to provide Americans with more and better choices for their health care needs.
One good place to start is the “Keep Your Plan Act,” which House Republicans have scheduled for a vote on Friday. This bill does not in fact guarantee you can keep your plan — all it does is allow insurance companies to offer the old plans. Still, it will mean some market friendly fixes for ObamaCare, and it stands in welcome contrast to Sen. Landrieu’s bid to pile on yet another mandate and rack up more costs by forcing insurers to offer their old plans.
Another place ripe for GOP reform is ending the tax discrimination between Americans who get their plans on their own and those who get them through employers. The latter get a huge tax break, which encourages people to buy more expensive coverage than they need — reducing price competition and cost consciousness. Similar approaches could be taken to insure those with pre-existing conditions, as well as to transform Medicaid recipients from passive receivers to active shoppers.
In his press conference yesterday, the president repeated another myth when he implied the status quo before ObamaCare was some sort of market ideal Republicans long to return to. “I keep asking, well, what is it you want to do?” he said.
Time for Republicans in Congress to show him.