(Punditcy.com) – The Washington Examiner is reporting that the White House has no backup plan if ObamaCare fails. The estimate from supporters of ObamaCare have indicated that the healthcare exchange program requires seven million people to be enrolled by March of next year. Of those that enroll, approximately 40 percent had to be young and relatively healthy.
It is becoming clear that the program is not going to make the required numbers. As a result, there is going to be a lot of spinning in Congress and in the oval office next year. [via Washington Post] –
Last Wednesday Jason Furman, chairman of the Council of Economic Advisers, joined the Washington think tank Third Way for a wide-ranging discussion. Near the end of the session, Third Way scholar Bill Schneider brought up Obamacare. “Does the administration have any kind of backup plan — if not enough young healthy people sign up for the Affordable Care Act, what’s going to happen?” Schneider asked. Noting that he teaches college classes, and his students don’t seem particularly well-informed about Obamacare, Schneider continued, “What are you going to do if they don’t sign up in large numbers? The numbers don’t look that good for young healthy people.”
Thurman’s response was not particularly encouraging for the administration. “We actually don’t have a great demographic breakdown,” he said, “but what we do know is that there was a big increase in enrollment in November relative to October, and we’ve seen increasing demand in December, although we don’t have the final numbers and we don’t have the demographic breakdown.”
Furman continued: “We’re obviously making — it’s not a Plan B — Plan A is to do the most aggressive enrollment efforts you can, with young people, using social media. You see the insurance companies doing paid advertising. It’s in the insurance companies’ interest to sign these people up.” Beyond relying on a social media campaign, Furman argued, the work done by private business on behalf of Obamacare could be critical. “We’re doing everything we can, but I think unleashing the private sector and the large amounts they’re going to spend on advertising might be even more important,” he said.
Schneider was still curious. “But you have no particular backup plan?”
“There’s a Plan A,” Furman answered. “Which is to enroll as many young healthy people as you possibly can.”
With no backup plan and the plethora of the exemptions already granted by the president, insurance companies are going be left holding the bag. Especially with the new exemption that essentially has told a whole class of people that they do not have to participate in the exchanges. There is no way that insurance companies will be able to meet their bottom line under these conditions.
The only option, at least in their minds, that will present itself is for the government to bail out the insurance companies. This option, however, presents quite a quandary because if Congress doesn’t bailout the companies, they will fail — and we will head right where President Obama wants to go, a single payer system. If Congress does bail them out, then ObamaCare is likely to go the way of all social programs and be permanent. Seems to me that the only option is full repeal.
#MakeDCListen #fullrepeal
