Will Negative Effects Of Obamacare Be Felt In Time?

Jillian Bandes | March 22, 2010 12:24 PM

Now that Obamacare is passed, insurance companies will be forced to cover people with preexisting conditions, mandated to continue covering them if they’re fired, and prohibited from rescinding that insurance if a customer develops an illness.

As James Surowiecki points out today in The Atlantic, this means Republicans who run on repealing the health care bill would have to campaign for health insurance not being available to those with preexisting conditions, for the ability of insurance companies to drop coverage for individuals if they’re fired, and for their ability to rescind coverage at the drop of a hat.

That may be the case. But Republicans will also get to campaign on the fact that 73 million people who earn less than $200,000 a year are going to pay higher taxes. They’ll be able to campaign on the bankruptcy of Medicare and Medicaid, employers’ dropping their company plans in favor of less-quality, government-sponsored ones, and the exodus of doctors from the medical profession, who leave because they can’t make a buck.

The problem is that those effects won’t take hold by the time November rolls around. The anti-Obamacare momentum will need to carry itself through the summer and into the fall without anyone actually feeling the pinch of a new government-run system.

Kevin had a great post on the specific politicians who are in the hot seat as a result of their health care vote. It’s critical that constituents in those districts keep their representatives’ feet to the fire for the next eight months, even if things seem like business as usual in the medical field.