It’s begun. First Obamacare began to fall apart legislatively, with the elimination of one of its many taxes. Then one component was found to be unaffordable, and was subsequently eliminated from the law. Most recently, the Senate gave its support towards repeal of the medical device tax.
Now, one of the nation’s most prominent Democrats — a man who helped shepherd Obamacare through the Senate — is blasting HHS for making the law into “a train wreck,” and a union that used to support Obamacare is formally calling for its repeal or “complete reform.”
The union’s reasoning is pretty sound — essentially, Obamacare destroys the ability of small businesses to compete with larger companies:
But regrettably, our concerns over certain provisions in the ACA have not been addressed, or in some instances, totally ignored. In the rush to achieve its passage, many of the Act’s provisions were not fully conceived, resulting in unintended consequences that are inconsistent with the promise that those who were satisfied with their employer sponsored coverage could keep it.
These provisions jeopardize our multi-employer health plans, have the potential to cause a loss of work for our members, create an unfair bidding advantage for those contractors who do not provide health coverage to their workers, and in the worst case, may cause our members and their families to lose the benefits they currently enjoy as participants in multi-employer health plans.
For decades, our multi-employer health and welfare plans have provided the necessary medical coverage for our members and their families to protect them in times of illness and medical needs. This collaboration between labor and management has been a model of success that should be emulated rather than ignored. I refuse to remain silent, or idly watch as the ACA destroys those protections.
Meanwhile, Senator Max Baucus (D-MT) hammered HHS Secretary Sebelius this week:
“I just see a huge train wreck coming down,” Senate Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus, D-Mont., told Obama’s health care chief during a routine budget hearing that suddenly turned tense.
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Normally low-key and supportive, Baucus challenged Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius at Wednesday’s hearing.
He said he’s “very concerned” that new health insurance marketplaces for consumers and small businesses will not open on time in every state, and that if they do, they might just flop because residents don’t have the information they need to make choices.
“The administration’s public information campaign on the benefits of the Affordable Care Act deserves a failing grade,” he told Sebelius. “You need to fix this.”
Sebelius said afterwards that successful Republican efforts to withhold over $1 billion in funding for the law is far more to blame than the Obama Administration. Since Senator Baucus knows this is the case, why did he bash Sebelius? Fox has the answer:
The six-term Democrat is also expected to face a tough re-election in 2014. Baucus is still trying to recover from approval ratings that nosedived amid displeasure with the health care law in his home state.
It’s begun, everyone — and the American people have Tea Party and other activists to thank, for their hard work against the law before, during, and after its passage. As Tea Party Patriots National Coordinator Jenny Beth Martin noted:
“We warned Congress we could not afford this law and it would not solve our country’s problems. Now the Senator who claimed responsibility for writing the law, whether from good intentions or ill, acknowledges the same thing we saw three years ago.”
It looks like the strategy espoused by Kavon Nikrad and initiated by the House Republican leadership is paying off. The back-door approach to the destruction of Obamacare may work after all.
