Obama legacy

At Stake in Health Exchanges Signups: Obama Legacy

Rightly to be great
Is not to stir with great argument

But greatly to find quarrel in a straw

When honor’s at the stake.

Shakespeare (1564-1616), Hamlet

What’s at stake is signing up 7 million uninsured and 2 million small business employees  for health exchanges is President Obama’s honor- his political  legacy.  This legacy relies on Obamacare’s success in signing up these 9 million people in the next 97days in health exchanges. 

These 9 million are part of the 25 million uninsured or underinsured  Americans . Many, if not most, of these people are young and healthy, unemployed,  or minorities. Forty percent are Hispanic.

The challenge of the Obama administration to convince the young and healthy that they are  not “invincible,” that the cost of mandatory coverage is worth the increased price,  that  small businesses are morally obligated to cover their workers no matter what the costs, that we are all in this thing called health care  together,  and that the young and healthy and the rest of su  must pay our  fair share to support the older and sicker.

For Democrats and their constituencies, this is a compelling argument.  And on moral terms,  it may be.   But it has problems.  The young and health may not go from paying an average of $854 a year on health care to $5800 a year in premiums, and  people in the individual and small group  markets may not be happy  when they see their premiums double and triple,  to satisfy the Obama legacy.

To counter these legacy problems,  two Obama  organizations, Enroll America and Organizing for America, are using tactics,  contacts, and organizing skills polished during the successful presidential campaign,  to  empower and recruit  communities of Democratic-friendly constituencies – women organizations,  AARP, The American Library Association, African-American church groups,  mayors, city and county commissioners and other  political officials to advance the Obamacare agenda.

Tweet:  In its  PR campaign, the Obama campaign has recruited librarians and  local political officials to sign up people for health exchanges.