More Obamacare Polling: 49% Believe Bad Idea | 2 To 1 Believe They Are Worse Off Than Will Benefit

Today in Washington, DC - June 7, 2013
The House is not in session today.

The Senate began consideration of the motion to proceed to S. 744, the immigration reform bill. Senators will have all day to debate whether to take up the bill.

On Monday, debate on the motion to proceed will continue. At 5 PM, the Senate will resume consideration of S. 954, the farm bill. There will be a vote on an amendment offered by Agriculture Committee Chair Sen. Debbie Stabenow (D-MI) and then a vote on final passage of S. 954.

Yesterday, Democrats blocked the Senate from taking up the Republican student loan bill (S. 1003), which would have relied on market forces to set sensible rates for all student loans. Democrats then failed to get the 60 votes needed to take up their political student loan bill (S. 953), which even differed from the president’s plan.

Also yesterday the Senate voted to invoke cloture (to close off debate and limit amendments) on the farm bill, S. 954.

In a story headlined “As NSA and China loom, Obama to talk health law,” Politico notes that “Obama may try to briefly pivot to health care” in a speech in San Jose today. The president apparently wants to tout his as unpopular as ever health care legislation that’s filled headlines over the first half of the year with the serious problems surrounding its implementation and its raft of broken promises.

Yesterday that while Politico reported that “President Barack Obama is expected to go on the road and pump up the law in campaign-style speeches” a new NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll found that “Americans' unease with President Barack Obama's health-care law has intensified.” The poll found that “the number calling [the health care law] a bad idea reached a high of 49%.” In fact, “far more people think they will be worse off under the new law than those who think they will benefit from it, 38% to 19%, the new Journal/NBC poll found.” NBC notes, “That's the highest percentage of respondents to express a negative outlook toward ‘Obamacare’ since 2010, when the president signed this ... legislation into law. . . .”

Seemingly every day there’s a new story about how the implementation of this unpopular law is negatively impacting businesses, families, and individuals. Today, The Wall Street Journal reports, “President Barack Obama is heading to California to tout premiums for new health plans that will be sold on the state’s insurance exchange. Ahead of that visit, his officials are getting early incoming fire from officials in Ohio, who say that premiums for their state have jumped dramatically because of the health-care law’s new requirements for richer benefits. Ohio Lt. Gov. Mary Taylor . . . announced Thursday that regulators in the Buckeye State are looking at proposed premiums for 2014 for individual health insurance plans that will be sold in the state as part of the health law’s marketplace, which the federal government is operating. For some people in the state, that means hefty increases from what they were paying in 2013, because insurance companies must offer a more generous level of benefits as part of the law and some of the skimpy plans that used to be available will change or go away. The most basic plan that a 25-year-old male could buy in 2013 from one unnamed company cost $29.62 a month, and a 25-year-old female would pay $40.87 for the same plan, according to the Ohio Department of Insurance. That company is proposing to charge $198.64 for its most basic offering for 25-year-olds regardless of sex in 2014, the department said. ‘The department’s initial analysis of the proposed rates show consumers will have fewer choices and pay much higher premiums for their health insurance starting in 2014,’ said Ms. Taylor, who said the department’s summary of the plans was preliminary, but ‘meant to underscore the mandates forced onto Ohio.’”

In an op-ed for the San Jose Mercury News today, Sen. John Barrasso (R-WY) writes, “President Obama should admit that millions of hardworking Americans will see their premiums continue to rise. The health care law is a maze of new mandates, regulations, and tax increases. Those tax increases, on everything from medical devices to health insurance plans, will be passed on to consumers. Every item the law requires insurers to provide will add to the cost. . . . How much will premiums go up? At first glance, it looked as if the increases in the Covered California exchange might not be so bad. Then Avik Roy, a health care scholar at the Manhattan Institute, realized the state was comparing apples and oranges. A more precise comparison showed that many Californians could see their rates double. For a typical 40-year old man who doesn't smoke, premiums in the exchange could increase by 116 percent. In Santa Clara County, his rates could go up 126 percent.”

Barrasso argues, “[T]he president should admit that paying for his health care law is balanced on the backs of young Americans. Under the law, young healthy people have to pay more, so that older, sicker people can pay less. They have to buy high-priced, government-mandated insurance they may not need, or want, or that's not right for them. If they don't, the whole scheme will collapse under its own weight. At the same time, many businesses are hesitant to add new workers or are shifting to more part-time employees. It's because the law says companies with more than 50 full-time employees have to provide expensive one-size-fits-all health insurance. That means many of these same young people are having a tough time finding a good job. Even the city of Long Beach is limiting most of its 1,600 part-time employees to less than 27 hours a week, on average. The city says that if it doesn't cut back hours, the new health benefits would cost up to $2 million more next year. They also say the extra expense could trigger layoffs and cutbacks in city services. This means reduced take home pay for workers who see their hours cut.”

As Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell said recently, “I can’t even count how many times [the president has] done one of these ‘pivots’ at this point, so I won’t try. But I presume he’ll jet off around the country to campaign-style rallies in order to bash Congress and claim that none of this is his fault. . . .  I’d be willing to bet that he’s not going to take responsibility there for Obamacare’s negative effects on our economy either, or on so many American families and small businesses. It’s about time he did  . . .   he needs to be straight with the American people. He needs to prepare them for everything that’s coming – the wage cuts, the lost jobs, the higher premiums."

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