See? The problem is never that socialism is an innately unworkable system steeped in an ideology that misreads human nature, eschews experience, and relies upon a totalitarian urged disguised as compassion.
Instead, the problem is that it’s never been tried properly — largely because horrible, evil, greedy, capitalist pigs simply won’t allow the good people to do good things for the Greater Good of universal goodliness. An explanation that is as predictable as a Bill Clinton motel rape:
NBC News, CNN, CBS News, The Washington Post, the Associated Press, and The Los Angeles Times all ran stories last week documenting how Obamacare is forcing millions of Americans out of the current health care plans and into more expensive plans with limited access to health care providers.
President Obama’s supporters have fought back with a number of specious arguments, including claims that all of the cancelled health care plans were junk, and that consumers just don’t know what is good for them.
Now, the activists at Talking Points Memo have a new line of attack: insurers are “hiding Obamacare benefits” from Americans. TPM’s Dylan Scott writes:
Donna received the letter canceling her insurance plan on Sept. 16. Her insurance company, LifeWise of Washington, told her that they’d identified a new plan for her. If she did nothing, she’d be covered.
A 56-year-old Seattle resident with a 57-year-old husband and 15-year-old daughter, Donna had been looking forward to the savings that the Affordable Care Act had to offer.
But that’s not what she found. Instead, she’d be paying an additional $300 a month for coverage. The letter made no mention of the health insurance marketplace that would soon open in Washington, where she could shop for competitive plans, and only an oblique reference to financial help that she might qualify for, if she made the effort to call and find out.
Otherwise, she’d be automatically rolled over to a new plan — and, as the letter said, “If you’re happy with this plan, do nothing.”
If Donna had done nothing, she would have ended up spending about $1,000 more a month for insurance than she will now that she went to the marketplace, picked the best plan for her family and accessed tax credits at the heart of the health care reform law.
“The info that we were sent by LifeWise was totally bogus. Why the heck did they try to screw us?” Donna said. “People who are afraid of the ACA should be much more afraid of the insurance companies who will exploit their fear and end up overcharging them.”
But was the info sent by LifeWise really “totally bogus”? […]
The letter factually states that Donna’s policy will be cancelled, by law under Obamacare, on December 31, 2013.
The letter then informs Donna that LifeWise will continue to insure her under a new policy if she does nothing. Lifewise is legally required to do this by Obamacare.
LifeWise then informs Donna they have other less expensive options she might like, and then informs her that her family might qualify for “help with the cost of their coverage” through a “health premium tax credit.”
The letter explicitly informed Donna she may be eligible for benefits to reduce her health care costs. How is that “hiding Obamacare benefits” for consumers?
And where is the “bogus” statement in the letter? At what point specifically does LifeWise ever mislead Donna?
The answer, of course, is that they don’t. But like Big Oil, Big Pharma, Big Banking, and the rest of the greedy 1%-ers, these businesses are to be vilified, turned into bogeymen, scapegoats, the object of our ire. After all, your government is inherently noble and only wants what’s best for you. We know this because they have no profit motive (unless you count the trillions in overspending, much of which goes to cronies and buys votes and power; which is simply absurd!). Whereas insurance companies wish to make a profit and in fact must if they are to continue to operate as a business, give people jobs, etc. Which makes them on their face opportunistic and evil and worthy of your hatred.
This is how the left thinks, and it is the message it tries always to convey: government = good and noble and compassionate; private companies = base, greedy, and uncaring.
It’s a false comparison — there is nothing that makes the government’s decision to choose winners and losers, steal people’s labor and property, and divvy it up to those who will promise to grant them power noble, nor is there anything about managing to win an election that proves a politician is wise or virtuous; and the free market, in that it works on competition that allows people choice and reduces costs as a matter of economic law, is by its nature far more compassionate in effect than the schemes of despots and nannystatists, and the frauds and lackeys that run cover for them.
For Obama’s desired outcome (a single-payer system superseding ObamaCare) the existing insurance industry must go away. Thousands of jobs must, and will, disappear. So, demonization of the insurance industry?
Right on time, and expected..
Emmanuel Goldstein and the Wreckers are tireless.
i think it’s odd that this Donna bitch doesn’t have a last name like normal people
In the future, everyone will be Emmanuel Goldstein for 2 minutes.
Meanwhile: These Guys Just Built the Website Healthcare.gov Should Have Been
Three guys. One month. Presumably less than $600 million.
” In the future, everyone will be Emmanuel Goldstein for 2 minutes.”
Nope. It’s cheaper to notice and hate people by the group. You don’t even have to get the group right any more.
So now we know what is the most important feature, the bleeding-beating heart of Obamacare.
Maybe Donna is Slaphead’s imaginary wife.
The successful new third party will have a tow truck for its mascot.
We can get them for you wholesale!
Say? What happened to our healthcare shills?
Gallup has the Wan at 39% today.
Heh.
I posted this elsewhere:
This sounds more like a talking-points memo than a real news story. Hence the name.