On March 23, 2010, President Barack Obama signed into law the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (ObamaCare). In its first year, ObamaCare has created several embarrassing moments for the Administration and for Democrats in Congress, as many of the promises they made to the American people have already proven false. Public opposition to ObamaCare remains high and reports indicate that the new law will bankrupt all 50 states. Adding insult to injury for the Obama Administration, a majority of the states have joined together to challenge the constitutionality of ObamaCare in federal courts.
As the one-year anniversary of ObamaCare approaches, it is worth examining the full impact of the new law and the challenges it has encountered over the past twelve months.
ObamaCare Timeline: A Year of Failures, Disappointments, and Lackluster Results
March 2010:
• March 23, 2010: President Obama signed ObamaCare into law.
April 2010:
• In April, nineteen states filed a
lawsuit against the Obama Administration over the new healthcare law,
challenging the law's individual mandate.
• The bad news for the
Obama Administration in April was not limited to the legal challenges;
the healthcare overhaul also faced serious political challenges. On
April 23rd, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS)
reported that the nation's health care costs will increase by $311
billion due to ObamaCare.
• Further adding to the negative news,
Obama's chief actuary reported on April 26th that ObamaCare will cause
50% of seniors to lose their Medicare Advantage plans. Only one month
after becoming law, ObamaCare was already forcing millions of Americans
to find new health insurance options.
May 2010:
• In May medical device companies across the country announced that they will be forced to cut jobs because of ObamaCare's burdensome taxes on their industry.
June 2010:
• In June the Obama Administration
sent 4 million postcards to small businesses, announcing that they
would be eligible for an ObamaCare "tax credit." (The postcards, it
should be noted, were fully financed with taxpayer funding.) However, an
AP article later revealed that very few businesses will actually
qualify for these tax credits (for example, only businesses with fewer
than 10 people at salaries of less than $25,000 are fully eligible for
the tax credits).
• Amidst growing concerns about doctors leaving
their practices because of ObamaCare's many regulations, President
Obama on June 8th promised the American public: "If you like your
doctor, you can keep your doctor." The President failed to explain how
the government will compel doctors to continue seeing patients
(especially Medicare and Medicaid patients) when ObamaCare is fully
implemented.
July 2010:
• In July the Justice Department
finally admitted what conservatives had warned all along – that the
individual mandate is actually a tax on all Americans.
• Also in July, the Administration failed to meet at least seven key ObamaCare deadlines.
•
New Mexico and Pennsylvania both announced this month that they
intended to use ObamaCare funding for abortions, which had been one of
conservatives' chief objections to this new federal healthcare spending.
Under pressure from conservative Members of Congress, Sec. Sebelius was
forced to issue a directive to these two states, informing them that
they will not be permitted to pay for abortions with taxpayer funds.
August 2010:
• In August, the voters of
Missouri dealt the Administration a serious blow when they voted
overwhelmingly (70%) against the ObamaCare individual mandate.
September 2010:
• Twenty-three thousand
seniors in Massachusetts lost their Medicare Advantage plans this month
because of ObamaCare's cuts to the program.
• Several health insurance companies across the country stopped selling their "child-only" health policies
due to the restrictions and extra regulations contained in ObamaCare,
forcing tens of thousands of families in 33 states to find other health
insurance plans for their children.
October 2010:
• Throughout the month of October, the Obama Administration spent three million dollars of taxpayer money on advertisements to promote the unpopular law.
•
The Department of Health and Human Services issued 171 waivers to
companies and labor unions to allow them to keep their current health
insurance plans, exempting them from ObamaCare's elimination of
healthcare policies that have annual and lifetime limits. The need for
these waivers illustrated that ObamaCare was already violating the
President's promise that Americans would be able to keep their health
insurance plans.
November 2010:
• November's election was a
clear referendum on President Obama's agenda, particularly the
government takeover of healthcare. Several Senators and dozens of House
Members across the country lost their re-election bids because of their
vote in favor of ObamaCare.
December 2010:
• On December 13th, Judge Henry
Hudson of the Federal District Court for the Eastern District of
Virginia ruled against the Obama Administration, ruling that the
individual mandate was an inappropriate expansion of the Commerce
Clause.
• Also in December, HHS was forced to issue another round
of waivers to protect millions of low-wage workers from losing their
health insurance because of ObamaCare's new rules.
January 2011:
• On January 31st, Judge Roger
Vinson in Florida ruled decisively against the Obama Administration,
saying that the individual mandate is unconstitutional, and because that
particular provision is not severable from the law as a whole, the
entire new healthcare law is unconstitutional.
• Also during this month, health insurance premiums in Georgia reached a five-year high, thanks in large part to ObamaCare.
February 2011:
• On February 2nd, the Senate voted overwhelmingly to rescind the unpopular 1099 provision in ObamaCare.
• Also in February, 20 governors wrote a letter to Secretary Sebelius, detailing the ways that ObamaCare will bankrupt their states.
•
This month, the number of waivers granted by HHS grew to more than
1000, as more companies across the country realized their health
insurance plans were in jeopardy because of ObamaCare.
March 2011:
• In March, The New York Times published an article
about escalating health insurance premiums in the past year, despite
the Democrats' promises that the new law would lower Americans' premium
costs.
• The House voted to repeal ObamaCare's 1099 provision in March.
Given the mounting bad news about ObamaCare, it is no wonder that Americans oppose the law. The promise that ObamaCare would lower health insurance costs for American families has proven false. Similarly, the promises that Americans would be able to keep their current health care plans and that ObamaCare would enhance Medicare solvency have both turned out to be fantasies dreamed up by the Left. Most alarmingly, ObamaCare will cause U.S. healthcare costs to skyrocket, both for private consumers and for the taxpayers. Moving into the 2012 election cycle, it will be important for the public to remember the growing list of ObamaCare's failures…and then to vote accordingly.
