How many times did the president insist that the ACA was the law of the land? That opponents should stop complaining and suck it up, because the law passed and the Supreme Court validated it?
Well, on top of the many extensions for various groups–small businesses, employer mandate, unions, people who give money to the Democratic party, the guy who smiled nicely while Obama was putting–the administration has just completely gutted the main reason for Obamacare: The individual mandate. It will not take effect until 2016. Amazing how nakedly political this administration has become, and how sneaky. The HHS was so sneaky that nobody even noticed the revocation of the mandate. Most transparent administration ever!
ObamaCare’s implementers continue to roam the battlefield and shoot their own wounded, and the latest casualty is the core of the Affordable Care Act—the individual mandate. To wit, last week the Administration quietly excused millions of people from the requirement to purchase health insurance or else pay a tax penalty.
This latest political reconstruction has received zero media notice, and the Health and Human Services Department didn’t think the details were worth discussing in a conference call, press materials or fact sheet. Instead, the mandate suspension was buried in an unrelated rule that was meant to preserve some health plans that don’t comply with ObamaCare benefit and redistribution mandates. Our sources only noticed the change this week.
That seven-page technical bulletin includes a paragraph and footnote that casually mention that a rule in a separate December 2013 bulletin would be extended for two more years, until 2016. Lo and behold, it turns out this second rule, which was supposed to last for only a year, allows Americans whose coverage was cancelled to opt out of the mandate altogether.
And then there’s this.
Keep in mind that the White House argued at the Supreme Court that the individual mandate to buy insurance was indispensable to the law’s success, and President Obama continues to say he’d veto the bipartisan bills that would delay or repeal it.
And this.
HHS is also trying to pre-empt the inevitable political blowback from the nasty 2015 tax surprise of fining the uninsured for being uninsured, which could help reopen ObamaCare if voters elect a Republican Senate this November. Keeping its mandate waiver secret for now is an attempt get past November and in the meantime sign up as many people as possible for government-subsidized health care.
The mid-term elections are going to be very, very interesting. The Obama administration and the Democrats seem to think the American people are idiots. I think they can be fooled by Obama and his media worshippers, but I don’t think they’re idiots. There may be one hell of a Republican wave come November.
That would be lovely.