Politics of ObamaCare Delay

By delaying, he preserved the state.

Cicero (106BC to 43BC)

The ObamaCare administration is engaged  in a campaign to delay, even to defray, the Affordable Care Act until after the midterm elections and even until 2017, when a new president will have to wrestle with its consequences. 

The delays include:

·         Delay of premium payment deadlines

·         Delay of high-risk insurance pool cancellations

·         Delay of equal coverage that force employers to drop coverage for high executives

·         Delay of  “meaningful use” criteria mandates for physicians

·         Delay of employer mandate

·         Delay of health plan cancellations

·         Delay of requirement that all companies with 50 or more employees cover them or pay a $2000 penalty

·         Delay law until 34 states who decided not to set up exchanges change their mind

·         Delay of enrollment periods so more can sign up for exchanges.

What delays come next, nobody knows.    The speculation is that the Administration may seize the ObamaCare Bull by the horns and delay its key provision,  the individual mandate for a year or two.    The rationale for this delay,  called the “Big Punt” by one critic, might be that the underfunded IRS is not ready to enforce ObamaCare  penalties.  This would shift responsibility to the cold-blooded heartless GOP  who must fund the President’s budget.

The delays have not gone unnoticed by the national media.   Today Google lists  14 articles on the subject of delays.    Nor have the delays escaped the attention of the nation’s unions, which are growing increasingly uneasy about ObamaCare.   To preserve the Democratic health agenda,  President Obama needs the unions, for they are the biggest contributor to the coffers of the Democratic party.

A  report by UniteHere, a hospitality industry union with 300,000 members in the US and Canada,  exemplifies the ObamaCare dilemma,  how to pacify the unions while implementing the law. 

 In  its  report, entitled “ The Irony of ObamaCare, Making Inequality Worse,” UniteHere concludes:

1)      ObamaCare transfers a trillion dollars in wealth to commercial insurance companies, doubling their stock prices, and rewarding their executives with a half billion dollars in cash and stock options.

2)     ObamaCare strangles fair competition by blocking non-profit health funds from competing for the law’s trillion dollars in subsidies.

3)     ObamaCare  forces employers to move workers to part-time work of 30 hours or less to avoid penalties imposed on firms with 50 or more workers.

4)     ObamaCare cuts people’s pay by forcing workers onto the exchanges and making these works spend $2, $3, even $5 an hour to buy similar plans.

To UniteHere – ObamaCare  is achieving the opposite of what was intended – more  equality for workers,  lower health costs, and increased access to care.   

Government  health care reform appears to be full of ironies like these.   

But, not to worry, a delay a day helps to keep the political wolf away.

Tweet:   The Obama administration is proposing a series of delays in its health care law in order  to preserve the Democratic party agenda in the midterm election and to solidify its political base.