Americans rightfully hate health insurance corporations. So it's odd that the across-the-board hatred of the attempt by Obamacrats to mandate Americans to buy the services of these predators caught the White House off guard.
Obamacare's few remaining proponents love to argue that the oppositon to Obamacare is a mere messaging problem: that Americans love the individual aspects of the bill, like provisions requiring insurers cover pre-existing conditions.
That's not true. For starters, Americans also loathe many parts of the bill, includnig the mandate upon which the entire structure of the bill rests.
But even the vaunted "they must cover pre-existing conditions" provision is a Trojan Horse.
Under Obamacare, insurance companies can STILL refuse to cover pre-existing conditions; they just have to pay a fine. The fine is not particularly high. Insurers have inevitably found the fines less expensive than covering the chronically ill.
One more ill-advised provision in an ill-advised bill.
It's clear the mandates in the bill cannot fly without some form of public option. I favor a Medicare buy-in, but any form of taxpayer contribution would have to come after deficit reduction because we cannot -- right now -- afford to subsidize health care.
The need for budget surpluses to sustain health reform gives one more reason why Obama should have 1) pressed for a infrastructure-based jobs bill instead of the phony "stimulus" and 2) let the Bush tax cuts expire rather than extending them.
So liberals and conservatives alike can applaud the Supreme Court when it inevitably strikes down the Obamacare mandate. Then we can have a conversation about real reform that includes tort reform, a public option, and cheap drugs.
The recycled right-wing Romneycare ideas embraced by Obama are not real reform; these are taxpayer bailouts of health insurers and pharmaceuticals. Everyone knows it, and that's why Obamacare is hated left, right, and center.
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