It is no secret that ObamaCare has never been popular. But what we’ve seen lately is a peeling away of even some of those who initially supported the “Affordable Care Act.”
With that diminishing support in mind abortion advocates are working overtime to shore up support for the unpopular Obama healthcare law. Hoping to allay doubts about the law’s implementation and its effects, abortion advocates took to Twitter to bolster the law using the hashtag #ObamacareWorks.
Planned Parenthood Action Fund (@PPact) led the charge, tweeting slogans and sound bites with no basis in the reality of what’s taking place on the ground.
“RT @PPact How #ObamacareWorks: Better health care for those who already have it. New health care for those who don’t.”
But they are facing a decidedly uphill fight.
“I just see a huge train wreck coming down,” Senator Max Baucus (D-MT), a chief architect of the law, told Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius at an April hearing. “You and I have discussed this many times, and I don’t see any results yet.”
Labor unions, which strongly backed President Obama in the last two presidential elections and which concentrated major lobbying efforts on Obamacare’s passage, are also beginning to dismiss the notion that “Obamacare works.” In July, representatives of three of the nation’s largest unions sent a letter to Sen. Harry Reid and Rep. Nancy Pelosi, warning the law would “shatter not only our hard-earned health benefits, but destroy the foundation of the 40 hour work week that is the backbone of the American middle class.”
“The unintended consequences of the ACA (Affordable Care Act) are severe,” they continue. “Perverse incentives are causing nightmare scenarios.”
Pro-life Speaker John Boehner said the following in response to July remarks made by President Obama regarding the healthcare law, “The picture that the president paints of his health care law looks nothing like the reality facing struggling American families. They know that the law is turning out to be a train wreck. Not ‘fabulous’ or ‘wonderful.’ A train wreck. Nearly every major promise the president has made has been shattered.”
In an article for National Review, Andrew Stiles enumerates nine key hurdles for Obamacare, including complications with the Independent Payment Advisory Board (IPAB), which the National Right to Life Committee has warned from the beginning will threaten to ration care to the vulnerable elderly and those with disabilities.
Last week, even former Vermont Gov. Howard Dean (D) echoed those concerns, calling the IPAB “essentially a health-care rationing body.”
As noted by Stiles, “A growing number of Democrats support the repeal of IPAB (Independent Payment Advisory Board), and last month 35 House Democrats voted with Republicans to delay the individual mandate for one year. Almost all of them represent competitive House districts and will face tough reelection fights in 2014.”
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A Washington Post-ABC News poll from late July confirms that the Obama healthcare law remains unpopular. Interestingly, where support for the law is losing ground is among moderate and conservative Democrats.
“Just after the law was passed in 2010, fully 74 percent of moderate and conservative Democrats supported the federal law making changes to the health-care system. But just 46 percent express support in the new poll, down 11 points in the past year.”
The “Obamacare works” push by abortion advocates looks to be more like wishful thinking than a reflection of what’s actually taking place. Republicans, pro-life advocates and conservatives have long opposed the law but now it’s even losing steam with those who had previously supported it. Nancy Pelosi told us we’d have to pass Obamacare to find out what’s in it. Now that we’re finding out, it’s clear Americans don’t like it.
