The Week-end Stock Pot Watch, Thursday, November 28th-December 1st. Holiday Edition!

[Demeter]

67. OBAMACARE, THE UNKILLABLE TURKEY

Stop the Metaphor Madness
There are no comparisons—Obamacare stands alone By Major Garrett

http://www.nationaljournal.com/all-powers/stop-the-metaphor-madness-20131128

...The ACA is, most of all, a mess.

And I don't mean HealthCare.gov, a subject I will return to momentarily.

I mean the law and its consequences, its regulations and taxes, its causes and its effects are messy. Winners and losers abound. This is true now and will be true for as long as the law remains. And remain it likely will, precisely because of the tight and self-reinforcing alliance the law constructed with insurers, hospitals, and doctors. Americans who lacked insurance coverage will find it through the private sector on federal or state exchanges or via Medicaid. Americans who had policies on the individual market will lose their old coverage and possibly find new and better coverage or more expensive and inferior plans. Americans employed by large corporations will see modest changes in benefit and premium schedules, and those who work for smaller companies may see previous coverage vanish and choose new options that may or may not live up to their expectations. All of this will be destabilizing and generate in different regions and among different demographic groups anxiety, possibility, relief, and rage.

In this, Obamacare will unintentionally but unmistakably resemble the old system—where these powerful emotions and wrenching economic dislocations were common but engineered entirely by the private insurance market. To cover those who lacked insurance, Obama decided to interpose the federal government in this messy market, and his hyper-simplistic rhetoric about keeping insurance plans and doctors exposed his contempt for public discourse and corroded his credibility, by far the most durable personal attribute of his presidency.

Obama's rhetoric has been his political undoing, driving his poll ratings to new lows and grinding his other legislative ambitions to dust. Obamacare has become a crucible of accountability and believability. Within that confined space, made hotter and more vaporous by his own discredited platitudes, Obama's ability to lead, inspire, and persuade has suffered. But the law remains, and the next four months will be but the first of many moments to judge its outcomes against its ambitions and promises....LARGE EDIT...All this will serve as the backdrop for Obama's State of the Union address, which will unquestionably be the State of Obamacare address. Landing between the expected conclusion of budget/sequester talks on Jan. 15 and a debt-ceiling extension on Feb. 15, the State of the Union (Obamacare) address will be Obama's next best chance to—in White House jargon—pivot, reset, or reach an inflection point on the ACA as a matter of law, implementation, and politics. Obamacare will be able, the White House hopes, to admit past mistakes, errors of management, and leaky health care promises but spin the larger debate forward with tales of website redemption, enrollment surges, and satisfied consumers with newfound coverage and contentment.

As I said, Obamacare is a saga and a mess, singularly so. It needs no metaphorical embroidery...


The author is National Journal Correspondent-at-Large and Chief White House Correspondent for CBS News. He is also a distinguished fellow at the George Washington University School of Media and Public Affairs.