President Obama stood up today and took responsibility for the mistakes that have been made in the ACA, but he took on Republicans by vowing to fight for he healthcare law and the uninsured.
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The president started by saying the rollout has been rough, but talked about what he is going to do to improve the law. The president spoke about the enrollment numbers and said, “There is no question that there is real demand for affordable healthcare.”
Obama talked about the improvements in the website, then moved on to the people getting cancelations. He told them that he has heard them loud and clear, and announced his fix of extending the grandfathering and allowed insurers to extend the cancelled plans into 2014. The president will require insurance companies to let customers know about their options and the fact that they may be able to get a better deal on the exchanges. The president said of the individual market that it only worked well if you were healthy.
The president said we are in the opening weeks of a complex process. The president pledged to the American people that they are going to solve the problems, get it to work right, and the ACA will work for the American people.
When asked by reporters the president said he thinks it’s legitimate for him to win back some credibility with people. He also admitted that his administration “fumbled this rollout,” and admitted that they should have done a better job getting it right on day one. Obama said he intends to win back the confidence of the American people by working as hard as he can.
The president said that he wasn’t given the info and didn’t have enough awareness of how badly broken the website was. Obama admitted that the grandfather clause in the law was insufficient to uphold his promise that if you like your plan you can keep it.
The president’s change to the ACA is to give the decision back to the states. Republicans should love this conservative free market solution, but they are already criticizing it, because the only acceptable option for them is killing the law.
It turns out that the media speculation about Bill Clinton breaking with the president by saying that people should be allowed to keep their own insurance was completely wrong. As I wrote at the time that former President Clinton made his remarks, we should be expecting an announcement from the White House shortly about a fix to the individual market.
Bill Clinton was floating the trial balloon out there, and most people misread it. Clinton’s remarks were about opening the door for the president to announce this change today.
It is important that the president is fixing this himself. John Boehner’s “fix” is really a backdoor plan to kill the ACA. The president’s pledge not to abandon 40 million people who have a chance to buy health insurance for the first time is huge. Specifically, the president said, “I’m not going to walk away from 40 million people who have the chance to get health insurance for the first time.”
The president isn’t backing down. He isn’t going to cave to pressure from Republicans or nervous Democrats who have an eye on their 2014 reelection campaigns. The president did a great job of admitting his mistakes while at the same time advocating for the ACA.
Republicans thought they had the president on the ropes, but they are wrong. People want access to affordable health care, so Republicans are engaging in a battle that they will never win.
Awards and Professional Memberships
Member of the Society of Professional Journalists and The American Political Science Association
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