To the Editor:
Congressman Connolly’s recent op-ed [“The Damage Is Already Done,” Connection, Oct. 24] is a diversion from the Democratic-engineered train wreck known as Obamacare and officially referred to as the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (ACA). While the damage from the shutdown was particularly painful for Virginians, it pales in comparison to the damage being inflicted on millions of hard working middleclass Americans across the country courtesy of the Democrats’ Obamacare.
The $500-$600 million exchange Obamacare portal rollout was a breathtaking tech wreck but is just the shiny object. The full impact of the law is only just beginning to wreak havoc on the lives of millions of Americans. Since 2009, President Obama has repeatedly promised Americans that “If you like your current health insurance plan you can keep it.” In a recent CBS interview, Gerry Kominski, director of public health policy at UCLA said: "About half of the 14 million people who buy insurance on their own are not going to be able to keep the policies that they had previously.” For Virginians, the impact is already being felt. On Oct. 25, CareFirst BlueCross BlueShield informed the Washington Examiner that 76,000 of its Virginia, Maryland and Washington, D.C. customers will lose their health plans with the advent of Obamacare—that’s more than 40 percent of the people CareFirst covers in those areas. During a recent call to Congressman Connolly’s office inquiring about this issue, I was advised that the cancellation of the policies by CareFirst was the insurance company’s choice. False.
The reason people aren’t going to be able to keep their insurance is due the Obamacare mandate that insurance company plans provide for higher coverage than the policies many people had previously. Compounding the pain, many of the replacement plans being offered have higher premiums to help insurers cover the law's new requirements, such as accepting patients with pre-existing conditions and providing preventative care. No wonder a recent Quinnipiac Poll found that Americans disapprove of Obamacare 53 to 37 percent. This is more evidence that only 12-14 percent of Americans approve of Congress because Congress isn’t listening to the people. In this case, Democrats are placing the survival of the president’s signatory achievement health law above the welfare of their constituents.
So, who is listening to the people on the important issue of health care? The Democratic Party that is forcing Americans to accept an unpopular law under the threat of tax penalty and causing millions of Americans to lose the insurance plans they like and forcing higher premiums for replacement policies? Or the Republican Party that is fighting to repeal and replace or at least ensure Obamacare is fairly implemented by giving hard working middleclass Americans the same one-year compliance extension as rich corporations? The president unilaterally granted rich corporations with more than 50 employees a one-year extension to provide insurance to employees. I thought the Democratic Party was the party of social justice as a moral imperative—what happened to the narrative on this important issue?
It’s not difficult to predict that the president and his fellow Democrats will blame Obamacare’s failures on health insurers and Republicans and press for a single payer system to achieve their real goal of nationalized health care. One has to wonder whether failure was built into Obamacare from the beginning as a roundabout way to nationalized health care. Only time will tell.
Wake up America! Damage from Obamacare has only just begun. You are staring a key component of President Obama’s “Fundamental Transformation” in the face and the damage it is causing is a clear and present danger for us, our children, grandchildren and all future generations of Americans. Get informed, talk to your friends, family and neighbors. Help wake America up and work for a wave election that will vote the politicians wrecking our health care system out of office before it’s too late.
Chris Lusk
Burke