Americans are fast realizing that the Democrats’ rhetoric isn’t matching what the new law is delivering. Below are just three examples of how the law is coming up short for American families:
- Kids With Pre-Existing Conditions May Not Get Coverage: Speaking before House Democrats, President Obama said, “This year … parents who are worried about getting coverage for their children with pre-existing conditions now are assured that insurance companies have to give them coverage — this year.” As the Associated Press reported, “Obama made better coverage for children a centerpiece of his health care remake, but it turns out the letter of the law provided a less-than-complete guarantee that kids with health problems would not be shut out of coverage.”
- Not Enough Money for Early-Retirees: Last week, the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) released regulations governing the early-retiree reinsurance program, which House Speaker Pelosi touted as, “Lasting until the new health care exchanges created by health insurance reform law are up and running, this initiative will provide premium relief for employers while increasing access to high-quality medical coverage.” However, the HHS’ own regulations warn that, “Because funding for this program is limited, we expect more requests for reimbursement than there are funds to pay the requests.”
- High-Risk Pools Too Risky for States: House Democrat Majority Leader Hoyer described Democrats’ high-risk insurance pool program as “Provid[ing] immediate access to insurance for Americans who are uninsured because of a pre-existing condition.” However, the Democrat health overhaul significantly underfunds the program. As a result, 19 states have refused to participate for fear they will be forced to pick up the tab when the federal funds run out. Even states choosing to participate are planning to deal with the unsustainable funding levels. For example, New Mexico plans on limiting the number of enrollees to 1,500, just a fraction of the estimated 50,000 uninsured New Mexicans with a pre-existing condition.
The first programs taking effect under Democrats’ health overhaul are predictably failing to help Americans with the cost of health insurance. Unfortunately, for millions of Americans these are just the beginning of the health care law’s false promises.
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