In July of 2014 a Kaiser Foundation poll concluded that over 53%
of Americans do not support Obamacare.
This negative opinion has reached an all-time high since the law was
passed in 2010. In fact, Obamacare has
never had a majority of public support.
To date, only a little more than 1/3 of Americans have said they support it while approximately 1/2 have
been against it. The rest say they don’t
understand it. This is an interesting
statistic since most of us are not affected by Obamacare. There are only two key groups of people who
are affected by it - the uninsured, and the wealthier self-sustained. If you are one of these, you
make up about 20% of the population. 
The most negative impact is felt by wealthier self-sustained
Americans who are hit especially hard by tax increases.
With Obamacare, capital gains tax was dialed up from 15% to a total of
23.8%. Obamacare also contains numerous
other tax increases for persons earning over $200,000 per year. Additionally, many of the self-sustained
are forced to pay more for health insurance due to higher standards of
coverage. It’s easy to understand why the law is so terribly disliked by top wage
earners. This doesn’t come
close to explaining the polls, though, because this group only accounts
for about 6 percent of households.
Another purported negative is the sudden cancellation of
millions of private insurance policies.
I say purported, because Forbes Magazine (a recognized conservative
publication) states that most private insurance would have been cancelled anyway
if Obamacare were not passed. According
to Forbes, private insurance has always been temporary at best. Insurance companies keep these policies short
so they can re-assess their risk every few years. Forbes reports only 17% of all privatepolicies were written to last more than 2 years. So, the claim that policies are cancelled due
to Obamacare is nothing more than fallacy.
The obvious positive impact is felt by the previously
uninsured – those who either had pre-existing conditions, or who were not adequately employed to afford health insurance. This population accounts for about 14 percent of households. Obamacare helped nearly 9 percent of these
households, but still failed to reach nearly 5 percent of households due to varying
rates of state participation. But, in
addition to insuring additional families, the Congressional Budget Office also
predicts a long term benefit to the national debt. By reducing long term medical costs, the CBO
has now reduced their long term projection of increased national debt over the
next 30 years. Strangely, we don’t hear
about this benefit from any conservative pundit despite their apparent concern
over the national debt.
What about the economy?
Conservative pundits banter about the impacts Obamacare puts on the
economy, citing wage cuts, job losses, slower economic recovery, and increased
medical costs. Unfortunately for them Forbes Magazine has hotly
refuted all of these claims. In fact,
Forbes cites the opposite – the economy continues to grow, overall employment
continues to increase, and medical costs continue to stay on par despite the
so-called “burdens” of Obamacare.
We have heard over the years how Obamacare is a disaster but it appears this is becoming more and more difficult to prove.
Consequently, pundits have moved their focus away from the effects of Obamacare, and instead focus
on how the bill was passed without
transparency, thus relying on the “stupidity of the American voter”. The facts are in, and in a recent follow up poll Kaiser asked if
voters prefer to repeal Obamacare or modify it.
Interestingly, over 60% said we should keep and modify it. Only about 35% said we should repeal it.
Afterall, if Obamacare provides insurance to millions
of disadvantaged and uninsurable families, protects doctors and hospitals from unpaid bills,
improves the long term national debt, and causes no ill effect on the economy
- what do we hate about that? Maybe
voters are not so stupid after all!
Tony F.
2014
