Minnesota's liberal, Obamacare-supporting governor is finally throwing in the towel and acknowledging reality. Following in leading Obamacare critic Bill Clinton's footsteps, Mark Dayton is admitting that President Obama's signature domestic "accomplishment" has failed to fulfill the core promise upon which it was sold, and about which it was literally named -- reducing health care costs for consumers. Surprise:
A prominent Democrat is criticizing Obamacare, with Minnesota's governor calling the law "no longer affordable." Minnesota Gov. Mark Dayton said Wednesday that the reality is the Affordable Care Act is no longer affordable for "increasing numbers of people," the Associated Press reported. He then called on Congress to install several fixes to the law to take care of rising costs as the state faces premium increases of up to 67 percent next year...Dayton isn't the only Minnesota official to criticize Obamacare. The state's top insurance regulator, Mike Rothman, said last month that the rate increases in the individual market, which is made up of people who don't get insurance through their job, are "unsustainable." Obamacare's marketplaces comprise much of the individual market. Rothman said that while federal tax credits help some state residents, rising rates are both "unsustainable and unfair." "Middle-class Minnesotans in particular are being crushed by the heavy burden of these costs," he said.
It sounds like Gov. Dayton needs to have a little chat with Harry Reid. Of course, the Minnesotan's preferred more-government-more-spending "fixes" are nonstarters, and he has no credibility in calling for solutions when he was so comprehensively wrong about the law -- which he expanded in his state -- to begin with. Hillary Clinton is similarly poorly positioned give any advice on the collapsing program she proposed, even as she conceded the GOP's top argument against her law at Sunday's debate:
Hillary now agreeing that #Obamacare is a failure on affordability, the purpose of the proposal SHE designed. #debate
— Guy Benson (@guypbenson) October 10, 2016
Meanwhile, 2017 enrollment projections aren't looking so hot, which means that the law's downward spiral is likely to accelerate:
Enrollment in the Obamacare insurance marketplace is likely to stall or even decline for 2017 as higher premiums drive away people who aren’t eligible for government subsidies, according to S&P Global Ratings forecasts. “Our forecasted modest-to-negative growth is clearly a bump in the road, but doesn’t signal ‘game-over’ for the marketplace,” S&P analyst Deep Banerjee wrote in a report released Thursday. This November will be the fourth open enrollment period for individuals to choose insurance plans under the Affordable Care Act, President Barack Obama’s signature health-care law. The “significant slowdown” predicted by S&P would be another setback for ACA’s government-run insurance markets, after big insurers pulled out of many states because of mounting losses. ACA enrollment will range from 10.2 million to 11.6 million people after 2017’s enrollment season, which starts Nov. 1, S&P said. The lower end of the forecast range implies a decline of 8 percent compared with 2016 and the higher end a 4 percent gain.
Enrollment estimates have been steadily revised downward, as younger and healthier consumers reject buying expensive care. In response, Obamacare defenders have amusingly blamed Republicans and called for raising the unpopular individual mandate tax. This overall phenomenon is why the Obama administration is pursuing schemes to violate the rule of law and the will of Congress to force through illegal insurer bailouts. It won't "solve" a thing, aside from delaying more pain until Obama is safely out of office making big bucks on the speaking circuit. Because this law was never about "helping people." It has actively harmed more Americans than it's benefitted. It is failing.