I love human beings’ infatuation with anniversaries. Unfortunately, because President Obama’s signing of the Healthcare Reform Bill into law was so uneventful for so many Americans, President Obama has decided a quarterly observance would now be in order. It’s been just about 90 days since the Affordable Care Act and patients’ bill of rights health care reform was passed and, with a dissenting general talking trash to Rolling Stone, oil still spilling into the Gulf of Mexico (coming up on another 90 day anniversary!) and all the other far more pressing problems it would seem that President “Photo-Op” Obama should be dealing with, he’s instead decided to stick to his itinerary and talk about how great his Health Care Reform bill has been for so many Americans.
According to CNN.com, President Obama stayed on message, saying that health care reform was “a long overdue victory for America’s consumers and patients.” Still waiting, Mr. President. Never to be deterred, Obama continued by offering that Americans are “already seeing a wave of change.” Wave of change? Is that what that was?
President Obama needs to address the issues at hand: get some people to stop the oil spilling into the Gulf of Mexico, help us out with some jobs (hey, if the Gulf of Mexico cleanup is a government job, sign me up) and enough with all the smarmy smiles and catty waves. How about some gravitas? Somber reverence? I don’t care what you and Sasha are Tweeting about; I want a President I can look up to, not another friend on Facebook.
Always on our side, President Obama said that “health insurers must not use health care reform as an excuse to raise rates, and the government will make sure they don’t,” or something along those lines. (Does anyone even care about this?)
In further developments, Obama’s got our back some more. From the Obama speech Cliff Notes, the departments of Health and Human Services, Labor, and Treasury issued some kind of new regulations Tuesday. What were those regulations again, Mr. President? Ones “that will put an end to some of the worst practices in the insurance industry.” Oh! Well, in that case, now you’ve got my attention! Worst practices? I mean, it’s got to be true, right? It was in the Obama Cliff Notes!
CNN.com clarified that “worst practices” include “…banning health insurers from denying coverage to children with pre-existing conditions; preventing insurers from canceling coverage if someone makes ‘an unintentional mistake’ on an application; and barring them from imposing lifetime or annual limits on coverage.” I guess my only question would be “define unintentional.”
As Obama the happy yeoman rides off into the sunset, it’s with a cool demeanor, a wink and a grin. He said the White House is “looking out for the American consumer.” That’s nice, right? It’s nice to think someone is looking out for you, isn’t it? Still, even-Steven Obama reminds everyone that the new regulations are “‘not punitive’ against health insurers, who benefit from being able to compete for a new pool of tens of millions of potential customers.”
So, you’re not going to make the insurance companies be more competitive and lower rates (even though you kind of said they would), and you’re actually going to punish poor, healthy citizens like me who just choose not to get on the ultra-expensive healthcare wagon while they’re still young (and still poor) by making us pay out of pocket for something we’re not even going to use? I was going to say, Mr. President, that this just sounded like more of the same, but I think it’s even worse than that.
Source:
http://www.cnn.com/2010/POLITICS/06/22/health.care.obama/
