In my column today, I address the vexing new spin/rationalization for the White House’s lie that “you can keep your plan.”
No matter how you slice it, that was a lie. As many as 16 million Americans on the individual health-insurance market may lose their insurance policies. Just in the last month, hundreds of thousands have been notified by their insurers that their policies will be canceled. In fact, it appears that more Americans may have lost coverage than gotten it since Healthcare.gov went “live” (a term one must use advisedly). And when the business mandate finally kicks in, tens of millions more probably will lose their plans.
Ah, but they’ll get better ones!
That appears to be the new rationalization for Obama’s bait-and-switch. “Right now all that insurance companies are saying is, ‘We don’t meet the requirements under Obamacare, but we’re going to offer you a better deal!’” explained Juan Williams on Fox News Sunday.
A better deal according to whom? Say I like my current car. The government says under some new policy I will be able to keep it and maybe even lower my car payments. But once the policy is imposed, I’m told my car now isn’t street-legal. Worse, I will have to buy a much more expensive car or be fined by the IRS. But, hey, it’ll be a much better car! Why, even though you live in Death Valley, your new car will have great snow tires and heated seats.
This is what the government is saying to millions of Americans who don’t want or need certain coverage, including, for instance, older women — and men — who are being forced to pay for maternity care.
Or consider this from today’s Wall Street Journal:
Earlier this month, Tom Luebchow, a 54-year-old small-business owner in Winston-Salem, N.C., received a letter from Blue Cross & Blue Shield of North Carolina telling him his individual health plan would be canceled and that the cost of coverage for his family would more than triple—to over $1,000 a month. He said that after the initial shock wore off, it was replaced by anger because he had to pay for benefits like pediatric eye exams that he would never use.
When I read that this morning it occurred to me that my analogy didn’t go far enough. You want to know why people are mad about being told they’ll have to pay for things they don’t need and don’t want? Well, just watch this video of a Healthcare.gov “navigator” dealing with someone who believed Obama’s promises and now has to buy a policy he doesn’t want (language warning):
