Thursday marks the six-month anniversary of President Barack Obamas signing of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, and congressional Republicans are taking advantage of the opportunity to decry the legislation that has revitalized their base ahead of the midterm elections.
Democrats, meanwhile, used much of Wednesday to boast about consumer-friendly provisions in health-care legislation as part of a counter to what the administration sees as a Republican-driven scare campaign.
Democrats hope the anniversary hoopla will lead them to a miracle comeback in November's tough midterm elections, which threaten to leave the party short of a majority in the House and Senate.
Republicans criticize the health-care legislation as being overly burdensome and say it distracted the Obama administration from dealing with the ailing economy.
Its only been six months since Obamacare became law and it is already making medical care more expensive for millions of Americans. Its so unpopular that even some in Congress who voted for it are now trying to repeal parts of it, Florida Republican Rep. Bill Posey said in a released statement.
The federal health-care overhaul also has new provisions that take effect Thursday, provisions that were crafted to expand coverage, but Republicans claim they will only work to increase the cost of coverage.
The new items to take effect Thursday include:
- Parents can keep dependents on their health care plans until they turn 26.
- New health care plans must offer free preventative care like colonoscopies, mammograms, recommended immunizations, and pre-natal care.
- Annual caps on coverage for individual and group plans set by insurance companies are illegal. This only applies to new plans.
But Republicans balk at the new provisions and the law in general, noting that some plans are set to increase as much as 20 percent, with as much as 9 percent of the increase directly attributable to the new law.
Democrats in Washington wrote this law behind closed doors and then said the American people would have to wait until it passed to find out what was in it. Well, people are finding out whats in Obamacare and they dont like it, said Florida Republican Rep. Tom Rooney in a written statement.
But a new AP poll disputes Rooneys statement. According to the poll, the American people don't know whats in the health-care legislation.
More than half of the respondents to the poll said they believe the law raises taxes on most people this year, even though it doesnt, and about one quarter of the respondents still believe death panels that make life and death decisions for patients are included in the law, even though that was never part of any version of the bill.
Florida Democrats, on the other hand, are not jumping at the chance to defend their support of the controversial law. Campaign representatives for Kendrick Meek said he will release a statement on the six-month anniversary Thursday, but spokespersons for Reps. Allen Boyd, Allan Grayson, and Suzanne Kosmas -- who all hold seats deemed winnable by Republicans looking to take back the House in November -- did not return calls or e-mails for comment Wednesday.
State officials are also wary of the new law. Florida Insurance Commissioner Kevin McCarty was among a group of more than 30 other insurance commissioners who met with Obama and Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius in Washington Wednesday to discuss the implementation of the health-care law.
McCarty said the laws new medical loss ratio requirement (insurers must spend 80 percent of their costs on medical coverage) would drive some health-care providers out of the market in Florida. Most providers have already bailed on writing new policies for individual children.
Im not aware of anyone who will be writing those kinds of policies after (Oct. 1), McCarty told reporters after the meeting.
Meanwhile, Attorney General Bill McCollums lawsuit challenging the constitutionality of the health-care law is poised to move forward. A federal judge indicated earlier this month he would not grant the federal governments request to dismiss the case, although no formal ruling was made.
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Reach Gray Rohrer at grohrer@sunshinestatenews.com, or at (850) 727-0859.
