Beleaguered members of Congress who support Obamacare and squeaked by in the recent election now have a nemesis -- a PAC of doctors, surgeons and nurses demanding they change their ways because the health-care law will only wreak more havoc in 2015.
A lot of the Democrats in Congress have gotten the message in this past election of peoples unhappiness with Obamacare, said Dr. Jeffrey Singer, a co-founder of Our Patients First PAC. The pain of the Affordable Care Act is just going to get worse, not better.
Singer, an Arizona surgeon, formed the PAC in September after watching helplessly while many of his patients' policies were canceled and others found that he wasnt in their networks. Three of them were enrolled in Medicaid by default because their policies were deemed not ACA compliant. Access to providers in Medicaid is even worse than in the private plans available in the exchanges.
Our Patients First now has representatives in 15 states and hopes to expand significantly next year. It has been sponsoring radio and television ads in five congressional districts where the newly elected incumbents lost by fewer than 10,000 votes and could be vulnerable in the next election.
The ads detail the fiasco surrounding Obamacare architect Jonathan Gruber, who was caught on video calling Americans who backed the reform stupid and saying details were hidden in the massive bill or no one would have supported it.
Gruber is actually guilty of candor, but he said it in an offensive way, Singer said. He was saying that the general public is too dumb to know whats good for them, so we have to disguise what we are doing because if they knew, they wouldnt want it.
The dangers of Obamacare will become even more apparent after Jan. 1, Singer said, when several mandates that were tabled will become reality. For example, the employer mandate to offer insurance in companies that employ more than 50 people will start being enforced. Cancellations that were postponed will happen and premiums will rise.
All these things are churning and it's imperative that the subject of the ACA come up (in Congress)," Singer said. The ACA is not sustainable. We want to play a role in influencing the agenda to make sure patients are first.
To that end, Our Patients First ran their television ad the weekend of Dec. 12 in Iowa because it is one of the key primary states and gets a lot of political attention. The radio ads are running through Dec. 28 on five news/talk-radio stations in the following areas: central California; north of New York City; the Florida Panhandle; Omaha, Neb.; and northeast Arizona.
These districts all have Democratic incumbents who were just narrowly re-elected, Singer said. We are letting them know that so many of their colleagues are packing up and leaving because they supported Obamacare. They better fix it because we are watching.
Tori Richards is a Pulitzer Prize-nominated reporter who has covered some of the biggest news in the world during her 25 years in the business. She has also won a dozen national and local writing awards for her coverage of the judicial system.
