Don's Tuesday column

         THE WAY I SEE IT   by Don Polson  Red Bluff Daily News   11/19/2013

Like it or not (polls say not), “ENROLL!”

Readers and residents, you are “enrolled” in Obamacare’s years-long disruption of your health care, insurance plans and financial well-being, whether you like it or not. You have all been lied to, propagandized and, through media malpractice, left with but a glimmer of what is in store—broadcast, print and community event sources are, however, providing “how to” information. “How to” get enrolled for coverage you may not want or need; “how to” get signed up for other people’s money to pay for bloated, unnecessary Obamacare costs; and “how to” qualify for Medicaid benefits on the taxpayers’ dime. What could go wrong?

The passionate opposition that conservatives and Republicans have towards Obamacare is principled, well grounded, and visceral. However, consider what public opinion polling has to say: Late September, Washington Post/ABC News reported Obamacare polling since late 2009. Democratic support (Obama’s fellow donkeys) has declined from 68 percent last year to 58 percent. Self-identified Liberal Democrats have never wavered much below 70 to 80 percent support, while Moderate and Conservative Democrats’ support has dropped from over 70 percent to 47 percent and now is virtually tied with disapproval by those Democrats, at 46 percent.

Even among Obama’s core, African-American base, WaPo/ABC found that 87 percent job approval only translated to 48 percent support for Obama’s signature health care law. Surprisingly, Democrats are falling out of love with Obamacare but are not willing to allow their fellow citizens the freedom to arrange for, and acquire, their own chosen health care plans. I see that as neither American nor Constitutional.

Around the time that President Obama was telling an interviewer that “everybody is wrong to doubt Obamacare,” The Hill reported that “a poll by NBC News and The Wall Street Journal found that just 31 percent of Americans believed ObamaCare was a good idea, while 44 percent thought it was not. Just three in 10 Americans say they understand how the legislation will affect them, and only 23 percent believe the law will have a positive effect on the country’s overall healthcare system. Even more concerning for the White House, just 12 percent say the law will have a positive impact on their family, while 52 percent think the cost of their healthcare will go up.”

In polling on Obama’s overall approval/disapproval, RasmussenReports.com says that “Strong disapproval” exceeds “Strong approval” by 20 percent, 43 to 23 (overall disapprove/approve is 53 to 45). Is it any surprise Democrat officeholders are distancing themselves from Obamacare and voting with Republicans on giving cancelled policyholders legislative relief? Make no mistake, the Republican Upton bill will gut the core mandates of Obamacare but 39 Dems voted for it anyway, defying Obama’s “fix” rhetoric and veto threat.

“Fox News discovered on September 17 that 56 percent of Democrats were ‘concerned’ about their ‘personal health care under the new health care law.’ (Forty-three percent were not.) Among Republicans, 77 percent were ‘concerned’ personally about Obamacare’s medical impact on them; 22 percent were relaxed.” (NationalReview.com, 9/30)

In “Fox News Poll: Half Say President ‘Lied’ About Obamacare,” we find that, unremarkably, 50 percent of voters (including 22 percent of Democrats) believe Obama “knowingly lied” when assuring Americans they could keep their health plans and doctors. What is remarkable is that 40 percent actually think Obama had no idea the law would cause people to lose their insurance. Look up: “Lies of Obamacare: 17 and counting,” Scott Johnson, Powerlineblog.com, listing falsehoods in Obama’s remarks last Thursday.

My column last week, “The biggest liar, and lie, in history,” proved Obama a “knowing liar.” About 6 in 10 “thinks the Obama administration knew ahead of time” about people losing plans; 55 percent think it “tried to deceive people about it … A record-high 61 percent disapprove” of Obama’s health care performance. More voters want to throw out the health care law and “start over” than “keep trying to fix it” (46 to 42).

If you find yourself feeling assured by the Obama “5 percent” lie that you won’t be thrown into the unkind, government-mandated graces of Obamacare, the numbers say otherwise. “Federal Register … 34553: Table 3—Estimates of the Cumulative Percentage of Employer Plans Relinquishing their Grandfathered Status, 2011-2013” says that, in addition to virtually all individual plans getting cancelled, at least 39 percent of “All Employer (Small and Large) Plans” will be cancelled. Up to 69 percent of “All Employer Plans,” including 80 percent of “Small Employer Plans,” will cease to exist. In “Sebelius Bombshell: Employer Based Plans Will Face Same Grandfathering Caveats as Lost Individual Plans,” Townhall’s Katie Pavlich reports that HHS’s Sebelius confirmed that “the same caveats” (no changes allowed) will govern whether employer-based insurance plans survive.

Prominent D.C. cardiologist, Dr. Ramin Oskoui said in an interview that not only will Obamacare impede the progress the medical community has made in its fight against cancer, “(but also will) bring nothing but harm to some of society’s most vulnerable … Obamacare is an extreme security risk for people’s personal information and it will certainly hurt cancer patients” by limiting their ability to see medical specialists and by paying doctors in bundled payments, which would incentivize doctors to use cheaper—less effective—remedies. “No practicing physician thinks Obamacare is a good idea,” he affirmed.