Despite dozens of attempts to repeal it, key provisions of the Affordable Care Act — commonly known as Obamacare — go into effect Tuesday.
Open enrollment in state health insurance exchanges runs until March 31, 2014. If you miss the initial enrollment period, another one opens in October 2014.
Naturally, freedom is about to die.
The conservative Heritage Foundation backed a similar health care reform package in the 1990s, meaning that the Affordable Care Act is most certainly the most socialistic, communistic and anti-American piece of legislation ever passed into law.
Also, the law might actually work.
Yes, Republicans across the country boldly labeled Obamacare a failure before key provisions were implemented and declared it unconstitutional even after the conservative-leaning U.S. Supreme Court ruled the law was acceptable.
Congress is oh so functional.
Last week, I wrote about letting the GOP pass everything to prove them wrong.
By that same token, the GOP is taking the opposite approach to the Affordable Care Act.
If the law is truly an affront to democracy and freedom, why not let it go into law, prove it’s a failure and then try to repeal it?
Instead of spending valuable legislative time working on alternative solutions to our health care crisis, Republicans in Congress and throughout the country decided that bashing the law was a far better use of resources rather than actually figuring out how to cover millions of uninsured Americans.
Despite attempts to sabotage the law, the returns are promising before the open enrollment period starts.
The expected cost of insurance in several states — including Florida — is significantly lower than expected.
While Republicans continue to push the notion that insurance premiums will rise, we’re starting to see the opposite.
Honestly, if you look at the facts, we shouldn’t be surprised.
The idea of the insurance exchanges is to pool everyone who wants insurance together, thus lowering the cost to the individual.
It’s similar to an employer-based health insurance plan where your premiums cost less because your employer is purchasing insurance in bulk rather than just for one person.
If you have health insurance currently, nothing changes.
If you don’t, the state of Florida has 102 insurance plans under Obamacare, and the average premium for a 27-year-old is a mere $229 before a subsidy.
Overall, this sounds like a pretty fair deal, so why spend all of this time trying to kill a constitutional law rather than looking at the law in earnest and trying to fix what you don’t like?
Easy.
It’s all about the history books.
President Barack Obama made history when the Democratic-led Congress passed his signature health care bill.
Few times over the last century have presidents solved our health care crisis.
In fact, it’s a battle that dates back to Theodore Roosevelt.
Republicans in Congress overwhelmingly voted against the Affordable Care Act, and many members have spent what seems like every waking hour since that vote trying to repeal it.
If the law is successful and millions of Americans suddenly have access to affordable health insurance, and we can start to end the nightmare that is our health care system, Obama wins, and Republicans lose.
Despite the Tea Party wave of 2010, Republicans took a beating in recent elections.
President Obama’s resounding victories in 2008 and 2012 helped solidify the notion that Republicans have a long way to go to stay competitive on a national level.
Convincing the American people — and themselves — that Obamacare truly is the root of all evil and the most un-American act in history, is the only way the GOP stays competitive in upcoming national elections.
If the Affordable Care Act is a success, coupled with a drastically improved economy, the Republican Party will suffer yet again in the 2016 elections, even if they put Tea Party darling Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) at the top of the ticket.
The GOP carries on the fight against Obamacare because they understand the consequences of succeeding. You may not agree with them, but they certainly aren’t stupid.
They just want to win elections.
Joel Mendelson is a UF graduate student in political campaigning. His column runs on Mondays. A version of this column ran on page 7 on 9/30/2013 under the headline "Like it or not, Obamacare is here to stay"
