Obamacare is one of the biggest examples of false advertising in history. In 2010, Democrats passed the “Affordable Care Act.” But on July 17, 2024, CBS News reported, “Americans spend more on health care than any other nation. Yet almost half can’t afford care.”

By Daniel Alman (aka Dan from Squirrel Hill)

September 2, 2024

Obamacare is one of the biggest examples of false advertising in history.

According to this article from wikipedia, the original, official name of Obamacare was “Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act,” and it was later changed to “Affordable Care Act.”

Please note the use of the word “affordable” in both versions of the official name.

That was how Democrats advertised Obamacare to the voters: “affordable” health care.

However, on July 17, 2024, CBS News published this article, which revealed the actual truth about Obamacare. The article is called, “Americans spend more on health care than any other nation. Yet almost half can’t afford care.”

This proves that Democrats are guilty of false advertising.

They ought to be ashamed of themselves.

Democrats had originally promised to air Obamacare negotiations on C-SPAN, but Democrats broke their promise.

The secrecy of these negotiations was so strong that Nancy Pelosi said, “We have to pass the bill so that you can find out what is in it.”

Here’s video of Pelosi saying those words:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hV-05TLiiLU

Obamacare is so horrible that I was able to write this blog post, which I titled, “Here are 341 reasons why Democrats and unions that support Obamacare want exemptions for themselves.”

Here are the first five examples that I cited in that blog post. You can click on this link to read the entire list:

https://danfromsquirrelhill.wordpress.com/2013/09/24/obamacare-59/

1) After Obamcare was passed, unions that supported its passage requested and received special exemptions

Within months after Obamacare was passed, Obama gave some organizations an exemption from some of the requirements of Obamacare.  As time went on, more than 1,300 organizations received these exemptions.

More than half of the people who are covered by insurance plans that received these exemptions are in union insurance plans. These unions supported the passage of Obamacare. But immediately after Obamacare was passed, these unions wanted exemptions from the very same law that they wanted to force everyone else to obey. This reveals an extreme level of hypocrisy among many of the supporters of Obamacare.

In addition, these exemptions are illegal for two reasons – because Obama granted the exemptions without approval from Congress, and because the Constitution requires the law to treat everyone the same.

The Washington Times wrote of this:

“Selective enforcement of the law is the first sign of tyranny. A government empowered to determine arbitrarily who may operate outside the rule of law invariably embraces favoritism as friends, allies and those with the best-funded lobbyists are rewarded. Favoritism inevitably leads to corruption, and corruption invites extortion. Ultimately, the rule of law ceases to exist in any recognizable form, and what is left is tyranny.”

“The now-familiar monthly trickling down of new waivers is, at best, a tacit admission that Obamacare is a failure. So far, seven entire states and 1,372 businesses, unions and other institutions have received waivers from the law. The list includes the administration’s friends and allies and, of course, those who have the best lobbyists.”

“More than 50 percent of the Obamacare waiver beneficiaries are union members, which is striking because union members account for less than 12 percent of the American work force. The same unions that provided more than $120 million to Democrats in the last two elections and, in many cases, openly campaigned in favor of the government takeover of your health care, now celebrate that Obamacare is not their problem.”

2) After Obamacare was passed, politicians who voted for it asked for a special exemption for their own districts

Even the politicians who voted for Obamacare want exemptions for their own districts.

In response to the medical device tax that is part of Obamacare, some medical device manufacturers have announced plans to layoff employees, including Welch Allyn (275 planned layoffs), Stryker (1,170 planned layoffs), and Medtronic (1,000 planned layoffs).

In December 2012, Al Franken, Elizabeth Warren, John Kerry, and 15 other Democrats who supported the passage of Obamacare wrote a letter to Harry Reid, asking him to delay the tax on medical devices, claiming that the tax would hurt job creation in their districts.

3 ) Politicians who voted for Obamacare wanted an additional exemption for themselves and their staff after it was passed

This is another example of how the politicians who voted for Obamacare want exemptions for themselves.

In 2010, Obamacare was passed by the House and Senate, and signed by President Obama.

Three years later, members of Congress and their staff complained that Obamacare was going to cost them a lot of money, and said that this would likely cause a brain drain among their staff. In response to this, Obama made changes to Obamacare so that these things would not happen. However, Obama’s actions were illegal, because he made these changes without Congress voting on them first.

The New York Times wrote of this:

… the language of the health care law requires Congressional employees to obtain health insurance through an exchange created by the law, but other parts of the federal legal code restrict the ability of the federal government to pay the usual employer share for group insurance programs approved by the Office of Personnel Management.

A straightforward reading of the law thus means that Congressional staff members, starting in January 2014, will have to obtain insurance through the Affordable Care Act but pay for it on their own without the normal contribution from their employer — Congress. This would be a multi-thousand-dollar income hit for those affected… many… would potentially feel the pain, giving rise to concerns over a potential brain drain of Congressional staff members finding other employment.

… the federal personnel office initially ruled that Congressional staff members would not be eligible for the subsidies, and then changed this decision under pressure from the White House…

4) An entire state that supported Obamacare asked for an exemption

The people of Massachusetts were huge supporters of Obamacare when it was passed, and they voted for Obama in both elections. But even they eventually ended up asking for their own special exemption from Obamacare.

In August 2013, Obama gave an Obamacare waiver to Massachusetts.

This waiver was illegal for two reasons. First, the waiver was not approved by the U.S. Congress. Second, the U.S. Constitution requires that the federal government treat all states the same.

5) Obamacare supporters at Democratic Underground later complained about it

For some really hilarious displays of shock and outrage by supporters of Obamacare at how it’s harming people, check out these threads at Democratic Underground: one, two, three, four,  five,  six, and seven.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Affordable_Care_Act

Affordable Care Act

The Affordable Care Act (ACA), formally known as the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA) and colloquially as Obamacare, is a landmark U.S. federal statute enacted by the 111th United States Congress and signed into law by President Barack Obama on March 23, 2010.

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/health-care-almost-half-of-americans-struggle-to-afford-medical-care/

Americans spend more on health care than any other nation. Yet almost half can’t afford care.

By Aimee Picchi

July 17, 2024

Americans spend more money on health care on a per capita basis than people in any other developed nation, yet almost half say they’ve struggled recently to pay for medical treatment or prescription drugs, according to a new study from Gallup and West Health.

About 45% of those polled by the organizations said they’d recently had to skip treatment or medicine either because of cost or lack of easy access. Of those, about 8% said they also wouldn’t have access to affordable care if they required it today, a group that Gallup and West Health termed “cost desperate.”

While 55% of Americans are “cost secure,” meaning they can afford care and medicine, that’s a decline from 61% who fell into that category in 2022, the study found.

More people are struggling with health care costs partly due to higher inflation as well as a long-term trend toward insurance plans with higher deductibles and less comprehensive coverage, Tim Lash, president of West Health, a nonprofit group focused promoting affordable medical care, told CBS MoneyWatch. About 94% of those surveyed believe they or Americans in general are paying too much for health care and not getting their money’s worth.

“We see individuals and families making decisions that no one should have to make, from, ‘Should I go on vacation or do I pay for health care and medication,’ or at the worst, ‘How do I ration my food to afford my prescriptions?'” Lash said. “As the wealthiest and most developed country, that’s not where we should be.”

Americans spend an average of $12,555 per person annually on health care, according to the Peterson-KFF Health Care Tracker. By comparison, typical health care spending across other developed nations is about $6,651, their analysis found.

“What we found as we string together the trend of data points is really quite concerning,” Lash said. “It’s that health care affordability has been getting worse — it shines a light on the number of families that can’t afford things like prescription drugs.”

Rising insurance costs

The average family insurance deductible in the U.S. stood at about $3,800 in 2022, up from $2,500 in 2013, according to KFF. The IRS considers insurance for families with deductibles of $3,200 or more to be high deductible plans.

Americans with health care insurance are also struggling to afford coverage, with some complaining that their insurers are putting up roadblocks to gaining access to care. On Monday, for example, demonstrators outside of UnitedHealthcare headquarters protested what they allege is the company’s practice of refusing to approve care through prior authorization denials or through claim denials.

“Health insurance coverage has expanded in America, but we are finding it is private health insurance corporations themselves that are often the largest barrier for people to receive the care they and their doctor agree they need,” Aija Nemer-Aanerud, campaign director with the People’s Action Institute, told CBS Minnesota.

A spokesperson for UnitedHealthcare told CBS Minnesota it had resolved the issues raised by protesters.

The Gallup-West Health study also found that bigger gaps in affordability for some demographics, with Black and Hispanic people more likely to face problems in paying for medical treatment or prescriptions. Older Americans between 50 to 64 — those who don’t yet qualify for Medicare, which kicks in at 65 — are also facing more challenges, the study found.

“For me, there is an opportunity in the data — this clearly demonstrate this is a pain point that isn’t acceptable,” Lash said. “I’m hopeful we can leverage theses types of results to engage in meaningful reform.”

September 2, 2024. Tags: Affordable Care Act, Barack Obama, Democrats, False advertising, fraud, Government waste, Health care, Obamacare, Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act. Barack Obama, Government waste, Health care. Leave a comment.