In light of President Obama's dramatic goalpost shifting on his ironclad "keep your doctor" pledge, we decided to highlight what's become of three core promises made by Democrats during their frenetic Obamacare sales pitch: (1) If you like your doctor, you can keep your doctor. (2) If you like your plan, you can keep your plan. (3) Everyone's premiums will go down, with the average family saving $2,500. Americans were also assured that the law wouldn't add to deficits, would bend the government's healthcare spending "cost curve" down, and wouldn't negatively impact Medicare -- none of which have been borne out by reality. But for most people, the central question was "is this law going to hurt or help me and my family?" The vast majority of Americans were satisfied with their existing healthcare arrangements, but were hoping for lower rates. That's why Democrats vowed to preserve the popular elements of the status quo, explaining that the only significant change people would experience was the desirable outcome of substantially lower costs. All three prongs of that idealized vision are now officially dead. This is not a Republican claim. The president and his team have made it explicit in their own words. Be sure to pay attention to the definitive and airtight assertions they made prior to the law's passage and implementation, which makes their current revisionism all the more galling:
The new paradigm, with which the American people are understandably displeased: (1) You might be able to keep your doctor, but you might not. Although you may be able to maintain your preferred providers if you're willing to pay more. (2) Millions of your plans have been and will continue to be cancelled -- but we're not at fault because of the fine print that we didn't mention in public appeals. (3) Your premiums won't go down after all -- let alone by $2,500 -- but they might go up less than they hypothetically would have. This law is an empirical failure by any reasonable standard, and one political party is exclusively responsible for it.
Editor's Note: Many thanks to my colleague Sarah Jean Seman for her help in editing the above video.
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