I resisted predicting what and how the Court would decide on Obamacare. Predictions are largely based on what we believe and what's at hand. Or, as the Economist observed of Apple:
“Apple could hang on for years, gamely trying to slow the decline, but few expect it to make such a mistake. Instead it seems to have two options. The first is to break itself up, selling the hardware side. The second is to sell the company outright.”
That was in 1995.
I will not predict what the future holds for healthcare reform. If history is any teacher Obamacare will not be overturned or replaced anytime soon. No major health care expansion or program has. I could be wrong and I hope I am.
In the meantime, one thing might be more certain: Those who supported and voted for Obamacare now own it.
In my opinion, that's not a good thing.
Roberts got Obamacare off on a technicality and turned it into a tax collection/IRS issue. All the happy talk about pre-existing condition coverage will fade. Now the question will be: Who voted to raise taxes on the middle class? On medical device companies? On the dividends of retirees? All for something that Congress does not have power to require people to buy? Are you serious?
When premiums rise, costs explode, government hands out Solyndra like contracts on the one hand while cutting Medicare benefits on the other, when new treatments are denied and things go wrong it's the Democrats that people will blame.
In the short term, Democrats will seek to shift the discussion by claiming Romney is the intellectual godfather of Obamacare.
Not even close.
True, Romney had a (small) penalty tied to a real mandate (not a mandate posing as a tax pretending to be penalty). He didn't raise taxes. He took Medicaid money and state funds to extend Medicaid to cover low income people that did not have or could not afford insurance and required them to pay part of the cost of premiums and health care. That's something forbidden under Obamacare. There were no boards to ration or control what technologies or treatments doctors used or patients could have.
In any event, when premiums rise, costs explode, government hands out Solyndra like contracts on the one hand while cutting Medicare benefits on the other, when new treatments are denied and things go wrong it's the Democrats that people will blame.
Regardless of whether the president is re-elected or not or whether Republicans gain control of the Senate and hold on to the House, the Democrats and the interest groups that pushed so hard for government expansion of healthcare will and should be held responsible for the taxes, the premiums and the implementation.
As a great man once said, nothing is over till we (the people) decide it is.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MsmybQKpmTw
“Apple could hang on for years, gamely trying to slow the decline, but few expect it to make such a mistake. Instead it seems to have two options. The first is to break itself up, selling the hardware side. The second is to sell the company outright.”
That was in 1995.
I will not predict what the future holds for healthcare reform. If history is any teacher Obamacare will not be overturned or replaced anytime soon. No major health care expansion or program has. I could be wrong and I hope I am.
In the meantime, one thing might be more certain: Those who supported and voted for Obamacare now own it.
In my opinion, that's not a good thing.
Roberts got Obamacare off on a technicality and turned it into a tax collection/IRS issue. All the happy talk about pre-existing condition coverage will fade. Now the question will be: Who voted to raise taxes on the middle class? On medical device companies? On the dividends of retirees? All for something that Congress does not have power to require people to buy? Are you serious?
When premiums rise, costs explode, government hands out Solyndra like contracts on the one hand while cutting Medicare benefits on the other, when new treatments are denied and things go wrong it's the Democrats that people will blame.
In the short term, Democrats will seek to shift the discussion by claiming Romney is the intellectual godfather of Obamacare.
Not even close.
True, Romney had a (small) penalty tied to a real mandate (not a mandate posing as a tax pretending to be penalty). He didn't raise taxes. He took Medicaid money and state funds to extend Medicaid to cover low income people that did not have or could not afford insurance and required them to pay part of the cost of premiums and health care. That's something forbidden under Obamacare. There were no boards to ration or control what technologies or treatments doctors used or patients could have.
In any event, when premiums rise, costs explode, government hands out Solyndra like contracts on the one hand while cutting Medicare benefits on the other, when new treatments are denied and things go wrong it's the Democrats that people will blame.
Regardless of whether the president is re-elected or not or whether Republicans gain control of the Senate and hold on to the House, the Democrats and the interest groups that pushed so hard for government expansion of healthcare will and should be held responsible for the taxes, the premiums and the implementation.
As a great man once said, nothing is over till we (the people) decide it is.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MsmybQKpmTw
