Dr. Dean says see, I told you Obamacare rate-setting won’t work

by Paul Mirengoff in Democrats, Obamacare

Writing in the Wall Street Journal, Howard Dean concludes that the Affordable Care Act’s Independent Advisory Board “will never control costs” and “will cause frustration to providers and patients alike.” A friend comments:

Note what is going on here. The Affordable Care Act was a liberal dream-come-true that was going to create a utopian, leftist society that brought the “dream” of health insurance to all Americans through the guise of big government.
Now, three years after its passage, here is what we have: members of Congress who voted for it predict a train wreck; the president violated the law and the Constitution’s separation of powers doctrine by delaying the hated “employer mandate” for a year; dozens or hundreds of religious groups are suing because the ACA violates their religious liberty, the First Amendment to the Constitution, the Religious Freedom Restoration Act, and a host of other laws; and now the former DNC Chairman denounces the “IPAB” as a disaster.
What to make of these Democrats’ expressions of concern? Well, we can start with the 2014 election, for one thing. The fear is that “ObamaCare” will be such a disaster that the voters will throw out Democrats in large numbers next year.
For this reason, the president decided not to enforce it until after the mid-term election. The strategy is to try to take the “mandate” off the table and hope for a liberal Congressional majority in the president’s last two years. Then, of course, there is the blame-the-Republicans strategy. Mr. Dean’s piece illustrates this approach, as if to say, “see, I told you that ObamaCare was a disaster. If only those pesky Republicans would work with us, we could fix it.”
Does this seem ridiculous? Yes. But then note this concluding line from Mr. Dean’s article: “instead of posturing, getting rid of IPAB is something Democrats and Republicans ought to agree on.”

The Democrats are running scared, and with good reason. If the Republicans can just avoid shooting themselves in the foot, 2014 could turn out to be a big year for the GOP.

http://www.powerlineblog.com/archives/2013/07/dr-dean-says-see-i-told-you-obamacare-rate-setting-wont-work.php