Our Pitiful Helpless Savior

One of my right-wing acquaintances (RWA3 for future reference), someone I knew from high school, posted to Facebook today that her and her husband's insurance policy had been canceled because of Obamacare.  This is a person I don't trust to tell the truth; she has established a pattern of dishonesty even about matters that pertain to her, let alone to others.  She and her husband were among the right-wing Republicans who responded to Obama's election in 2008 by demanding (to the wind, of course) that because they had voted against Obama, he should do what they wanted him to do.  But another high school friend, whom I trust more, said that his and his wife's policy had been canceled too.

There have been a number of reports of this happening because the Affordable Care Act raises standards for basic coverage, and the policies they had no longer were adequate.  According to an article quoted by a FAIR blogger,

The law requires policies sold in the individual market to cover 10 “essential” benefits, such as prescription drugs, mental health treatment and maternity care. In addition, insurers cannot reject people with medical problems or charge them higher prices. The policies must also cap consumers’ annual expenses at levels lower than many plans sold before the new rules. 

There's some dispute about exactly how many policies are going to be canceled.  But I don't see any reason to doubt that Obama's insistent promise, that whose who like the policies they have would be able to keep them, is false, and has been false since 2010.  While Fox News picked holes in one Florida woman's story about the high cost of the replacement plan she'll have to get (via), the fact remains that her original policy was canceled and she will have to pay more for a new one.  For her own good, of course.

In comments under RWA3's complaint, my liberal law professor friend, who also attended my high school, mounted a brave but dishonest defense of the ACA and Obama.  I considered joining in, but then it occurred to me that I could think of no reason why I should defend Obama, or the ACA.  The website debacle, Obama's misrepresentations of what the law would require, his blocking even of discussion of a public option let alone a single-payer alternative in favor of a deal brokered with Big Pharma and the insurance industry -- all these are reasons why the President should be allowed to fend for himself, even if he hadn't done plenty of other terrible things.

Periodically over the past year I've received form letters from the Obama organization, imploring me to reassure the President that I've got his back.  I don't, of course.  Though I've criticized Obama many times over the past five years, I've wasted time defending the man against right-wing misrepresentations, simply because I think truth and rationality are important.    But why bother?  Truth and rationality are no more important to him, or to his lackeys and apologists, than they are to the Right.  Maybe the ACA will work out in the long run, but its incompetent management by the Obama administration so far is a bad sign.  Obama's approval ratings have dropped to a new low according to an NBC/WSJ poll (though once again, so have approval ratings of the Republicans).  Does Obama think he can do whatever he wants, simply because his enemies are hated even more than he is?  No matter.  If anything, he seems determined to torpedo his second term.  Let him fall, brought down by his own arrogance and incompetence.