Irrelevant Spinning Around Obamacare
Amid an escalating battle of political spinning around Obamacare on all sides, a few sensible voices are surfacing. Ignore it, they say. The only thing that matters is how many people buy health insurance when competitive new marketplaces open in October.
People electing to buy health insurance will participate in the only election for more than a year when Obamacare will matter. If enough young, healthy, and uninsured Americans step up, the program will be a popular success. If not, no amount of barnstorming by the president will hide its failure.
Asked about building support for the the law, Obama says his approach is simple:
We’re going to implement it. The test of this is going to be, is it working? And if it works, it will be pretty darn popular.
The Republican strategy appears somewhat divided. House Republicans voted for the 40th time this week to repeal the law — a vote that has only symbolic meaning. Hoping to put more teeth into their action, many House Republicans are pressing for a government shutdown to defund Obamacare. But Senate Republicans are divided on the idea. Some, like Mike Lee, Ted Cruz, and Marco Rubio are pushing it, but others, like Bob Corker, Lindsay Graham, John McCain, and Tom Coburn are dismissive, calling it dumb, silly, or a non-starter that will hurt the party.
None of this has stopped a $500 million ad blitz both for and against Obamacare. Bloomberg reports that the target of these ads is “Doctor Moms,” who drive most family healthcare decisions. While billionaires Charles and David Koch are funding Americans for Prosperity to spread word about problems with Obamacare, Organizing for America and others are mobilizing a campaign to sell the program and turn people out to buy health insurance.
The Campaign Media Analysis Group of Kantar Media estimates that such ad spending will hit the billion dollar mark by 2014.
Maybe all this ad spending will stimulate the economy.
Click here to read more in the Washington Post, here to read more from NBC News, here to read more from Bloomberg, and here to read more from U.S. News and World Report.
Spinning, photograph © Charles Knowles / flickr
Subscribe by email to follow the accumulating evidence and observations that shape our view of health, obesity, and policy.
