One of Obamacare’s primary architects, MIT economics professor Jonathan Gruber, has explained away the millions who have lost their insurance as “genetic lottery winners” who should be responsible for funding insurance for the rest of the nation. He went on to describe our previous insurance system as “discriminatory” and added profoundly to the pile of lies Obamacare supporters have been amassing. Apparently Gruber decided it wasn’t enough to legislate millions of citizens out of their life-saving insurance – he felt like he should insult them as well.
Lie number 4,532 (roughly) regarding Obamacare was repeated again on MSNBC when Gruber suggested that employer sponsored coverage plans would be untouched by the recent rash of cancellations. According to the White House’s internal memos, however, employees with health coverage will also find themselves joining the ranks of the uninsured, as 51 million Americans lose their plans. (Then again, should we really trust the White House at this point? Maybe we should call this a “lowballed estimate”.)
Gruber outdoes himself a few short seconds later when he refers to the millions of Americans (political translation: potential voters) who lost their coverage as “genetic lottery winners.” Implying that the healthy consumers are mere anomalies of nature, and not healthy by virtue of their non-smoking, dietary-conscious, exercise-rich lifestyle is insulting enough. . . But calling Americans who just lost their cancer-killing healthcare a “genetic lottery winner” is a bit of an over-reach.
Millions of the Americans who are being dropped from their plans are the exact people Obama promised to help with his signature piece of legislation. But, because they are more than statistics, many of these consumers made the economically and fiscally responsible choice to purchase tailored insurance plans that catered to their pre-existing condition, without the added cost of trivial services like Sandra Fluke approved contraception coverage. And now these millions are being dropped. . . They are losing their life saving coverage and doctors because of Gruber’s perverse sense of “fairness”. . . Yeah, I bet they feel like real lottery winners alright.
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(As a peripheral thought: How do you think Obamacare would have done in the legislature if Gruber’s comments were part of the sales pitch?)
For an MIT professor, Gruber seems wildly incapable of understanding the concept of insurance coverage. Of course insurers charge more for coverage of preexisting conditions. The alternative is to charge healthy people more to subsidize the cost, therefore reducing incentives to remain healthy. (Light up the Lucky Strikes and pour the whiskey. . . Obamacare will help lower your costs by overcharging all those healthy lottery winners who refuse to blacken their lungs and weaken their liver.)
The simple truth is that Gruber, the President, and anyone who took the time to critically glance over the meat of the legislation, knew that millions would lose their insurance. The moral judgment Gruber makes regarding the 5 million Americans who lost the plans they liked is irrelevant given the sales pitch he and Obamacare advocates shoveled at the American people.
And, now, with over 5 million newly uninsured Americans, the President has decided to use the “enforcement discretion” of the Executive Branch to relieve Americans from the consequence of his signature bill.
That’s right. . . President Obama has decided to flex the constitutionally questionable powers of the Executive Branch to delay enforcement of his own healthcare bill. Why? Well aside from the fact that he understands next year is an election year, he also understands that a narrative must be built.
Trotting out in front of the US media, President Obama squarely placed all blame for future cancellations on the insurance companies. His executive decision mandates that insurers let their consumers know what important benefits (such as maternity care for men and elderly couples) they will be missing out on by staying with their current plans. (Oh, and these plans will still be illegal by the end of 2014.) The President’s “fix” to Obamacare’s key implementation effect is merely a political Band-Aid designed to give his fellow Democrats cover in 2014.
But, according to the advocates of Big Government’s involvement in Big Insurance, all of this will work out. After all, as the Grubers of the world would tell you, the only people losing their insurance are genetic lottery winners who greedily refuse to pay for their neighbor’s medical bills. You would think that the architect of the nation’s most comprehensive healthcare bill would be slightly more sensitive to the idiocy of “blaming the victim”.
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