Biden’s potential candidacy is clinging by a thread. Leading Democrats don’t have much faith in the presidential wannabe.
Now, in a last-ditch attempt to connect with voters, Biden tries to promote ObamaCare as the best thing since sliced bread.
Ironically, Biden ignored ObamaCare’s failings. He didn’t mention that whole fiasco where we couldn’t choose our doctors, or the fact that the affordable part didn’t actually happen. And Joe skipped over the news that several co-ops designed to help run ObamaCare smoothly were belly-up before Trump even took office. Instead, Biden doubled down on Obama’s biggest blunder as president.
As Fox News explains:
Joe Biden, in a bid to protect ObamaCare amid calls from his party’s left flank to replace it with “Medicare-for-all,” announced a plan Monday to add a “public option” to the 2010 health care law.
“The Affordable Care Act was an historic achievement for President Obama and if I’m elected president, I’m going to do everything in my power protect it and build on it,” Biden vowed in a video accompanying the release of his proposal.
Biden said that to build on the law and save it from both Republicans and the far left of his own party, he’s proposing “adding a public option to ObamaCare as the best way to lower costs and cover everyone.” It would be paid for, he says, with new taxes on the wealthy.
The proposal would effectively make available a government-sponsored health care plan, something debated but ultimately not included in the original 2010 law. Such a plan would be optional and offered alongside private plans. The Biden campaign said that Americans could buy into that “Medicare-like” plan through the exchanges set up under the current law — striking a contrast with those calling for a system that would essentially eliminate the private insurance industry.
Cutting Kamala to the Quick
Biden wants the world to know he’s got some “pretty profound differences” with his closest rivals, especially Kamala Harris.
As Fox explains:
Biden, the current front-runner in the nomination battle, appeared on Friday evening to take a jab at Sen. Kamala Harris of California over a lack of straightforwardness on her support for Medicare for All. At the same time, he singled out Sen. Bernie Sanders for being honest about the ramifications of implementing the single-payer healthcare plan.
“Bernie’s been very honest about it. He said you’re going to have to raise taxes on the middle class. He said it’s going to end all private insurance. I mean, he’s been straightforward about it. And he’s making his case,” Biden said after an impromptu gaggle with reporters following a stop at an ice cream shop in New Hampshire, the state that holds the first primary in the White House race.
Sanders, the independent senator from Vermont who’s making his second straight bid for the Democratic nomination, has long pushed for Medicare for All. Sanders touts that under his proposal, premiums, co-payments and out-of-pocket expenses would be eliminated, but admits that taxes would increase.
So Biden wants all Americans to get their insurance from the government. It’s a risky move. But with rumors looming that Biden’s out, he needs to set himself apart. And considering the company he keeps, it may not do any good. Especially when Biden is proclaiming his loyalty to legislation that clearly let down the American people.
Fox continues:
“I understand the appeal to Medicare for All. But folks supporting it should be clear that it means getting rid of Obamacare. And I’m not for that,” he said. “I was very proud the day I stood there with Barack Obama and he signed that legislation.”
Biden, who served eight years as President Barack Obama’s vice president, infamously called Obamacare a “big f—king deal” during the bill’s White House signing ceremony in 2010.
The former vice president emphasized “I know how hard it was to get that passed. I watched it. Starting over makes no sense to me at all. I knew Republicans would do everything in their power to repeal ObamaCare. They still are.”
ObamaCare’s Catch 22
Of course Republicans aim to get rid of ObamaCare. Millions of Americans are far worse off thanks to the Affordable Healthcare Act. We’ve chronicled their stories over and over.
In fact, the “affordable” tag expired before Trump took office.
As I previously chronicled:
Just weeks before the election, it was announced that premiums for Obamacare would face a double-digit rise. The affordable piece of Obamacare- just a first-year teaser.
For people like Miranda Dawn, the options are getting slimmer and the benefits are running out. When Dawn first signed her family up for Obamacare in 2015, her monthly premiums were $78. In 2016 that premium more than tripled to $300 a month. Her 2017 premium has skyrocketed to $685, leaving Dawn wondering if Obamacare will be the death of her. Now, she can barely keep her policy active.
Dawn was first diagnosed with a rare condition, Polycythemia, in 2007. Doctors believed she had acquired the disease second-hand through smoking and never did further tests, despite her genetic link to the disorder. Her father also has Polycythemia Vera, a disorder where too many red cells are produced in the bone marrow. The condition is considered a blood cancer much like Leukemia. Because insurance companies denied the test to determine whether Dawn had acquired the disease first-hand, her link to cancer was largely ignored.
Did ObamaCare Save Her?
Sadly, no. In 2015, Dawn signed up for Obamacare is what she termed “the nick of time”. In August of that year, cancerous lesions were found in her uterus and she had a hysterectomy at the early age of 36. January, 2016, she found the first lump in her breast. Finally the $8,000 test to investigate her primary disease was approved and it came back positive. Her illnesses got worse, and when she couldn’t hold food down, and endoscopy revealed cancer markers in her stomach and a CT scan found more on her kidneys.
By then, EVERY SINGLE DOCTOR on her plan had pulled out of Obamacare. Another legacy-crushing blow- Obama’s promises of keeping your doctor only apply if you can pay cash!
For Dawn, she wasn’t even trying to keep a particular doctor, she just wanted a doctor who would take her insurance plan. However, taking her plan isn’t even a great accolade. Despite all these bits and pieces of bad news, Obamacare still refused to pay for a biopsy to verify cancer in her kidneys- citing high cost as their reasoning.
Obamacare lie #152- there won’t be limits to what you can spend on your healthcare!
High costs continued to be the excuse of choice in December 2016, when Dawn was diagnosed with diverticulitis. This condition destroys intestines and is a known side effect of chemo-therapy. It’s extremely painful and dangerous. However, Obamacare told Dawn she “spent too much” through the year to be approved for surgery.
It took weeks to get through the red tape, and once she was able to have the surgery, the bill brought surprises. Many of the labs and anesthesiologists did not accept her Obamacare plan, leaving her holding the bag.
Dawn sat down to find a new company to purchase her 2017 Obamacare policy. She found the choices she originally sifted through had dwindled. In 2015 there were more than sixteen companies offering her policies through the marketplace. Now there were six. She finally settled on the only one she could afford. “Ambetter Insurance”. Sounds like second-rate car insurance you buy online and then pray you never have to use. Nonetheless, it was the cheapest policy at $685 a month. The next policy, which is $790 a month, has a $20,000 deductible- something Dawn can not afford to meet.
Now What?
When Dawn started calling around with her new policy in hand, all of the doctors listed as Primary Care Physicians stated they no longer accepted the plan, or they were not accepting new patients. It took her three weeks just to find a doctor who would see her.
Dawn is now facing an astronomical pile of unpaid medical bills. She is still fighting to get the necessary care. Having a job disqualifies her from medicaid, no matter how small her income is. Obamacare premiums eat up most of her salary. Not having a job would render her children hungry and her family homeless. It’s a catch 22. Don’t work- you can get medicaid. Maybe even food stamps. Try to hold a job (while battling cancer again and again) and be a productive member of society, and Obamacare might kill you.
Biden’s inability to understand these utter failures is one of many reasons he’ll never be President. Instead of calling a spade a spade, Biden doubled down on the worst legislation in history just because he was “there when Obama did it.” Obviously, Biden’s content with the damage done. But his strange allegiance to Obama is bizarre, especially when the former President isn’t even willing to endorse Biden in 2020.
