…that won’t save it:
I don’t know how to fix the broken programming system. But I do know what sort of “fixes” could make the insurance market break further. If we’re going to delay, then we need to delay the whole thing — guaranteed issue, community rating and so forth. Otherwise, we’re just asking for, well, a quagmire.
They’re calling for a “surge,” without an exit strategy.
“The Obama administration may give Americans an extension on how long they can go without health insurance before facing a penalty under the Affordable Care Act, MarketWatch has learned. ”
The GOP should absolutely refuse this.
They gave Obama and the Dems a chance to do this and they didn’t want it.
Now they should make them eat it.
But of course the GOP won’t do that. They should at least make the Dems pay dearly for agreement to delay but they won’t do that either.
While I agree with your sentiment, from what I’ve been seeing, the administration has the ability to delay the penalties on its own.
To be a little pedantic:
The administration doesn’t have the ability to do it on it’s own, if you’re talking about legality: they cannot pick and choose what laws or parts of laws to uphold nor can the executive branch change a law on a whim
It’s just that the administration had the cojones to push the envelope and see if there were any negative consequences of violating the Constitution….and they observed that, in the very short run, there weren’t. So now they feel free to do it when they want.
A very bad precedent and as most politicians crave more power, one that brings us closer to destruction.
Pay dearly, nothing. Everyone–particularly Obama voters–should be forced to enjoy Obamacare ASAP, so they’ll understand why it’s a bad idea. No delay!
You’ll notice that that was my first option.
One thing to bear in mind; This article is written by Meagan McAardal, who published a detailed description of the disaster the websites were becoming, and why. She posted this several days BEFORE they went online. That gives her added credibility in my view – she knows what she’s talking about.
I don’t think the website issues will cause Obamacare to implode and destroy itself – I think the adverse selection dynamic would have done that anyway. The website issue just accelerates it, and any delay in the mandate will accelerate it further (by removing the only incentive the young and healthy, upon whom this system depends in buying in large numbers, to buy).
Within one to two months, we’ll see premium rates soar, further accelerating the death spiral. (though by that point, “spiral” won’t fit, it’ll be more of a vertical death plunge).
Let me see if I understand. A one-year delay in the individual mandate “is the end of the world and must be rejected out of hand” (amid predictions of GOP political doom from the left and from the GOP Establishment) if Mike Lee, Ted Cruz and the House Republicans propose it.
But if *all* the Democratic Senators up for reelection in 2014 suddenly realize that the Tea Party was right and the voters may well agree; then any proposed Obamacare delay suddenly becomes not only acceptable, but urgent.
What cynical, shameless hypocrisy. And the RINOS, at least, will let them get away with it.