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October 22nd, 2013
11:10 AM ET
Did Obamacare response help or harm GOP?
Anne Filipic of Enroll America, Rep. Andy Harris (R-MD), and "Crossfire" hosts Newt Gingrich and Stephanie Cutter debate the response to Obamacare registration difficulties.
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Posted by Crossfire staff Filed under: Andy Harris • Anne Filipic • Health care • Newt Gingrich • Stephanie Cutter |
Meet the Hosts
Author, documentary filmmaker, historian, Speaker of the House (1995-1999), and 2012 Republican presidential candidate
Fmr. Obama Deputy Campaign Mgr. and W.H. Sr. Adviser, founder of Precision Strategies, fmr. Sr. Adviser to Maj. Leader Reid and Sen. Kennedy
Conservative columnist for New York Daily News, contributing editor at Townhall Magazine, commentator and author
Former Special Adviser for Green Jobs under President Obama, co-founder of Rebuild the Dream, author and attorney
Stephanie Cutter has no idea what she is talking about. My premium for myself is now $700 a month with a $5,000 deductible. starting Jan. 1 because I am being thrown off my insurance..Seriously? I had a plan that was $500 a month before which I thought was high but I paid it. Maybe I should rack up my credit cards, file bankruptcy, get on food stamps, and maybe since I now have to have maternity coverage although I am 60, find a way to have a few kids and get welfare. I am FED UP. I was a single mom for 9 years and worked my ass off and never took handouts. Paid my bills,kids daycare, food, and whatever they needed. This is BS......
It's amazing how this ACA which was forced on the American people by Obama, Pelosi, and Reid (with NO Republican support) and yet this article talks about how it could hurt the GOP!! That makes about as much sense as asking how the DNC would be hurt by Bush invading Iraq.
I've worked for the Federal Government for 31-years (23 in the US Air Force and the past 8 as a defense contractor) and when the ACA passed I KNEW America was in big trouble because there's NOTHING the Feds can do cheaper and more efficient than the private sector.
Case-in-point...we have some government equipment at work that requires a small hearing-aide-size battery for the internal backup. These batteries cost about a dollar for three at any local store BUT because they are government equipment, we have to purchase them through government channels. The cost we pay? $10 for ONE battery! (I kid you not...and we have to buy a couple hundred every year.)
Socialism does NOT work, people...big government is NOT the answer, it's the PROBLEM, just like President Reagan warned...time to wake up!!
My employer pays over $15,000 a year for my family plan and I pay another $5000 on top of that. That's for a family of 5. So we are putting $20,000 into the system every year. Now they are adding families of 5 who put in maybe $3000 a year so who makes up the rest? If 50,000 people just go added to the system and the average they are putting in is $3000 a year... where is all the rest of this magic money going to come from. You add another 5 million people... and you compare the average spent per person in the US is over $8,000... but 5 people are only putting in $3000 a year... where is the other $37,000 coming from. Where... Where... Where... boom... morons. This entire plan is banking on healthy people being forced to pay for services they don't need and won't use because if everyone that pays in uses these services... the plan fails and boom goes the economy and boom goes the government but you're all so short sighted and closed minded you can't see beyond your parties. Boom... morons.
At first I thought I was watching a SNL skit. Stephanie Cutter is a face contortionist. She was making faces that even Bill Hader couldn't imitate. How can you take this bias debate seriously when she is ranting off incorrect comments that makes her look like an idiot? The bottom line is the majority of Americans do not want ACA, a law that was shoved down the Americans throat. I am certain it will self destruct then we can see Stephanie goofy faces again.
I think you should cut Stephanie a little slack. She is not only smart as a whip, but quick and cute as well. I doubt she makes many Tea Party meetings so when someone like Harris denies basic facts - like when he denied defunding Obamacare was a part of the Republican shut down of the government, it surprises her. The disbelief shows in her expressions. But she was polite enough to not only give him a chance to talk but she helped him build his argument (when he failed) instead of just talking louder like so many other people.
The WH and Democrats are right about the Affordable Care Act (fine- Obamacare). The health insurance industry needed to be regulated, which is what Obamacare does. Obamacare is not an insurance plan or an insurance provider- Obamacare is a bunch of rules that insurance companies must follow. The reason we need the rules is because right now, the only people who paid for health insurance were the people who had jobs and their employers provided group based health insurance (news flash- those of you with insurance have been seeing your premiums go up year after year for the past decade but have not noticed it b/c your employer takes the money out of your paycheck before you see it). Health insurance premiums pay for ALL health care in the US- that means, when someone without insurance gets sick and goes to the ER and gets treated, that the people who ultimately pay for those visits are the people with jobs whose employers provide group health insurance. That is the problem- right now, only a portion of citizens pays while a bunch of other people use the services for free (grant it- they are extreme services, i.e. Emergency Room services). The insurance companies know this, but they have purposefully kept their products as group plans b/c they know that only sick people will sign up if given the option- but with employers, you get a mix of healthy and sick. Insurance companies were afraid to offer products to individuals b/c only sick people would sign up- and they're right. So to fix this, Obamacare says insurance companies, you have to offer products to everyone with no strings attached. In return, we will make sure you don't get only sick people b/c we are going to mandate that everyone buys it. This is a win all around- people who have insurance are no longer paying for a bunch of people without health care, people who don't have insurance can now buy an affordable product b/c insurance companies aren't selling really expensive plans b/c they fear only sick people will sign up, and insurance companies get a bunch more people who are buying their product- some healthy some unhealthy. In the end, it makes the system more fair while still allowing individual health companies and people to interact via the normal rules of capitalism of supply and demand- all Obamacare does is put everyone in the game and from there, the insurance companies and the people can sort out who and how and what they want. No- it definitely is not perfect, but it is a start and just like any other law, it can be amended and little quirks that we thought were good ideas initially but turn out to be bad ideas can be fixed (ie the medical device tax). And this is for the WH- omg who in the world thought the word "exchanges" would play with normal everyday people? While I know what it means- most people don't understand what an exchange is...ask someone what the stock market exchange is, or, as in her, the health care exchanges- nobody knows what that means...geez- it's an online store you idiots! They should have said, Obamacare is an online STORE! And the "store" is only the "brick and mortar," the products don't come from Obama or any other government entity, the product comes from the health insurance companies. The difference is, Obamacare mandates that you go into that store and buy a product, but it also guarantees that the product you buy is affordable. And yes- I'm aware of Medicaid and the expansion- that is a different story but for the big picture- this is what it is. Correct me if I'm wrong- but that's how I see this.
And reform- food stamps, unemployment, whatever other government programs (not medicare/medicaid) are out there- yes they need to be reformed. I don't like free handouts anymore than the next Republican, but you can't just start taking an axe to these programs. Instead, why don't we put in requirements that say you must work 15 hours a week to be eligible for the government assistance. And by work, I mean community service through the state agency- there are plenty of parks, highways, roads, painting, etc that people can do. And if people are tired of picking up trash on the side of the highway for 15 hours a week and trying to live off of the $200-500 a week, then somehow, they will find a private sector job. There is more to this common sense idea of mine- but I need to go study.
The website is just the beginning of the failure of this program. Fraud, cost over runs and terrible healthcare is to come.
If the GOP had proposed a viable alternative to Obamacare when they attacked it, their attacks might have been perceived as genuine concern. However, since the attacks came without supporting alternatives, they are being perceived as more political smoke from the party of "no".
The GOP has heart, but we have yet to see if they have brains. America is bigger than the GOP. America is more than the GOP can wrap their little bony crypt keeper fingers around, and America is moving on and leaving the GOP behind.
Didn't we out-source the development and creation of this website? – If so, why wouldn't we want to hire Americans to handle this website?
Devastating annual health insurance increases started crushing our business 12-15 years before President Obama was even elected. I didn't vote for President Obama, but at least he had the guts to take on the healthcare insurance issue in the first place – Although it would have been better if both sides could have worked together to come up with a better plan. I consider myself an independent voter, but going back to the Reagan days and with the only exception having been Perot, I've always voted Republican. But I'm most angry at the GOP right now!
Americans don't care which side fixes it – Just fix it.
For decades both parties have been selling out the bulk of the American citizens, who they're supposed to represent, by allowing the incursion of illegal aliens and the "out-sourcing" floodgates to open wider and wider without taking any sensible measures to stem the tide.
Let's not forget that it was President Clinton who got us into bed with China in the first place. Nixon restored normal diplomatic relations between the US and China, but Clinton is the one who opened up the trade floodgates with China. Under Clinton jobs to China, Under Bush I & II influx of illegals/cheap labor into the US and jobs to Mexico/NAFTA – Started by Bush and signed into effect by Clinton. I loved President Reagan because he brought pride and respect back to our country after those embarrassingly weak Carter years, but unfortunately his shortsighted economic policy sent us down the wrong path. Jeez and the wizards on Wall Street wonder why the American people aren't putting as much money into savings and their 401k plans anymore. Maybe it's because the shortsighted economic policies, from the 1980's to the present, have come back to bite the hands that feed them. I guess the thought of changing from a manufacturing based economy to a service based economy of smoke and mirrors is working out just great? Not!
Our economic problems didn't happen overnight. It's been happening over the past 20 years, but the economy was kept going by middle class Americans tapping into the equity on their homes until they were completely tapped out.
The ONLY REAL FIX for Our Country is to Raise Revenue by Bringing Back Jobs to US Citizens who Pay Income Tax.
Stephanie Cutter is an moron. I was embarrassed for her! Insurance costs will NEVER decrease when you add people who have pre-existing conditions, subsidized premiums, and involve the government. By the way Stephanie, providing pregnancy benefits to senior citizens doesn't make this plan more valuable, you idiot! And people complaining about the higher deductibles doesn't mean they haven't had insurance before, in fact it means they have the experience to know what a good plan is and when they've been sold load of bull#$@&! And one more thing. If the white house had "enrolled" 2-3 million they would have been bragging about it on every news agency, but... They know this train wreck is going to happen and all they can do is watch.