What's going on with "Obamacare"

[Rvaughn]

According to Huffington Post, the Obamacare employer mandate has been delayed for one year:


TPM says that Rep. Boehner is considering a bill to delay Obamacare’s individual mandate for a year:


Did someone get the wrong memos? Democrats helping business and Republicans helping individuals? What's going on here?

[Sandy]

This country has never really tried health care reform before. I'm glad to see they are flexible in its implementation, especially after all of the misinformation that came out from opposition. And you have to keep in mind, this is a compromise plan, which means that a lot of its provisions aren't really going to change very much.

I've also heard that the delay is to push back the implementation of some of the things that the opposition says will make the sky fall and the universe to dissolve and might have a negative effect on the Democrats in the 2014 election. Perhaps, though if I were a Democrat interested in running for Congress right now, that 9% job approval rating that the Republicans have, polls that show two thirds of house Republicans trailing, or below the 50% approval curve in their own districts, and the increasing favorability that the health care reform act gains every time a new segment of it is implemented, would encourage me, and make me supportive of more reform rather than less once I got elected.

It could well be that, with a Democratic majority in both houses in 2014, a single payer, government controlled health insurance system would be passed, and that would be the real reform we need for our health care system to catch up with the Europeans and the Canadians.

[Chris]

[KeithE]

[William Thornton]

Yeah, things are going so great with Obamacare and the gummit is to be praised for being 'flexible' in its implementation that one's confidence in it is soaring everywhere across the fruited plain.

[Tim Bonney]

[Sandy]

[KeithE]

[Dave Roberts]

Are there any statistics about how Americans feel about their current health care situation?

[Sandy]

[KeithE]

[KeithE]

Heck sleep can wait.


Read it all but these three polls answer Dave’s question - that only 35% like our health care system, 77% are dissatisfied with the costs, and only 36% want a government run system (as opposed to one based on private insurance which is favored by 57%).

[Dave Roberts]

Interesting in that we don't like the current system, but we also don't trust the government. Is there a third option?

[Sandy]

http://www.cnn.com/2013/07/22/opinion/z ... ?hpt=hp_t4

I've held the position all along that once the benefits of the ACA begin hitting the streets, so to speak, and states, along with individuals, begin experiencing the benefits it brings to them in the form of lower premiums and health care costs, comprehensive coverage, and the removal of arbitrary restrictions which only benefit companies that are already making huge profits, the mood will change. And apparently, that is exactly what is happening. A few hard core conservative GOP governors, seeing what is transpiring in states which are cooperating, have decided that "Obamacare" might not be so bad after all, especially as far as their constituents are concerned, and that continued obstructionism could lead to their being fired by the voters in the next election cycle. I expect to see more caving as the White House continues its campaign to make sure this becomes permanent and effective.

It's sort of like what's happened in the Senate. If Senator Reid blows up the filibuster barrier, the last bastion against Republican obstructionism falls. So they've conceded and stopped blocking the President's appointments. There's a smaller price to pay for that than the 2014 mid term election would cost them.