Close your eyes and let yourself go back in time. What if this had been our last few years...
It's
November 7th of 2012 and Mitt Romney has just defeated Barack Obama to
become the President of the United States. Much has been made of this
being a referendum on Obamacare but Mr. Romney has come out and said it
is the law of the land.
Even
before taking his oath of office Romney takes to numerous talk shows,
dances with Ellen, and spends a morning with the ladies at The View. He
shares his vision for health insurance and promises everyone that they
can keep their current insurance and doctors. Period.
Not
even a month into office, and Mitt is already on the offensive
in hurting Obamacare. Immediately he hires his "health care advisor"
Avik Roy to replace Kathleen Sebelius as Secretary of HHS. Then the
decimation of Obamacare begins.
First
he delays the Basic Health Program for low to moderate income
individuals who don't qualify for Medicaid expansion. Two weeks later he
announces that he will give leeway to allow plans that have higher out
of pocket maximums than set forth in former President Obama's law. In
April he delays the SHOP exchange for a year, too.
As
the Romney administration continues to bury headlines by making
announcements late on Friday afternoons or around holidays, the biggest
shoe to drop from Obamacare hits. On July 2nd, 2013 HHS and the
President announce that the employer mandate will be delayed until 2015.
This requirement will cost the government $12 billion in revenue and
will also mean a higher uninsured population.
As
the fall approaches Romney is at it again. This time he is delaying
signing final agreements with insurance companies on their plans that
will be sold on exchanges. The delay could cause the government to miss
its deadlines and gives tight time-frames for people to see what
benefits and rates will look like when they go to purchase health
insurance at healthcare.gov.
On
October 1st healthcare.gov goes live - sort of. Romney and his family
go skiing while putting Secretary Avik Roy in front of the cameras to
explain the "glitches" in the website. For the next several weeks we see
Secretary Roy promise that the site is being fixed and compares it to
the roll-out issues Apple had with their iOS7 release. In a blog post at
the Washington Post, columnist Ezra Klein calls for Romney to fire
Secretary Roy for botching the website roll-out. Democrats unite and
hold a rally charging that Romney should be impeached and that HHS
Secretary Roy immediately step down from his role. The MSM leads with
this coverage for two straight weeks and highlights the problems that
Republicans are causing and the abuse of power Mitt Romney is using to
unilaterally change Obamacare.
As
the website continues to fail, we find out that Mitt Romney's promise
that people will be able to keep their current plan was nothing more
than a lie of the year. To smooth things over as much as possible, the
President issues an executive order that people will be allowed to keep
their current plans for another year. Still angered, former Obama deputy
director, and now president of Enroll America, Anne Filipic announces
that they will no longer associate with HHS Secretary Avik Roy and that
they don't want him to help with fundraising efforts any longer as this
new administration is Anti-Obamacare.
Heading
into 2014 Harry Reid continues to push the Senate to take action
against President Romney. He pushes a bill through that is called "The
Enforce the Law Act". Before the bill even gets off the ground Romney
issues a veto threat. Besides that, Speaker Boehner has already said he
won't take up this or any other bill that changes the law. He quotes his
predecessor, Nancy Pelosi, by saying: "we had to pass it to find out
what is in it." The tweaks that President Romney is making will make it
better.
Democrats
everywhere are furious. They are making one promise. 2014 elections
will have consequences. All of these changes to the health care law that
Mitt Romney has made will be the focal point for Dems to take back the
House of Representatives.
Now open your eyes. It's March of 2014. Everything above has happened. You simply have to change the names.
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