Time to Pull the Plug on Obamacare

As costs ballooned and public opinion soured, the Obama Administration has delayed the roll out of a major component of its health care plan to avert a political disaster in the mid-term elections. The decision was revealed by the Treasury Department with little fanfare to minimize news coverage.

President Obama, whose name has become synonymous with the legislation, was safely out of the country in Africa when the announcement was made.  He obviously wanted to avoid the political backlash after his repeated promises to implement the health reforms on schedule.

The delay affects the law's provision mandating employers with 50 or more employees to offer health coverage or pay hefty fines of at least $2,000 per employee.  It was scheduled to become effective in 2014, but has now been pushed back to January 2015 in light of withering criticism from businesses.

President Obama had insisted on the employer mandate, arguing that without it businesses would scrap health care plans, thus making a mockery of his oft repeated claim that Americans could keep their current coverage if they liked it.

In its low-key news release, the Treasury Department left intact the individual mandate, which requires most Americans to purchase health care insurance beginning in October or face steep fines to be levied by those "non-partisan" folks at the Internal Revenue Service (IRS).

A few Washington insiders are predicting the employer mandate may be ultimately repealed by Congress.  This likely would prompt most companies to abolish their health plans and force individuals to purchase private insurance through government run exchanges.

The problem is the exchanges are a train wreck that threatens to derail the entire plan.  Out of 50 states, only 17 and Washington, D.C. have been certified to create exchanges by the Health and Human Services Department (HHS).  Open enrollment is less than four months away.

The exchanges are supposed to function as a single point of contact for consumers to shop and compare private insurance plans. Mushrooming cost overruns are plaguing the exchanges.  HHS budgeted $2.2 billion this year for the plans.  Costs are now expected to top $4.4 billion, according to the HHS.

Those bloated figures were not included in last year's revised price tag for Obamacare.  The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) estimated the health plan will cost $1.76 trillion over the next ten years, nearly double the original forecast of $940 billion when the law was approved in 2010.  

Meanwhile, the White House quietly mentioned in April that it planned to reverse $500 million in cuts to the Medicaid program scheduled to start in 2013.  These reductions were to be followed by more sharp decreases in 2022, effecting millions of seniors.

All these course corrections by the administration are nothing more than political recalculations.  With the mid-term elections looming next year, Democrats fear a poorly implemented health care law could become an albatross around their collective necks.

People are beginning to notice Obamacare's obvious flaws. In a recent poll, 45 percent of Americans hold a negative view of the health care package.  Only 29 percent support it.  This does not bode well for Democrats, especially if there are further delays and missteps.

Virginian Republican Eric Cantor, the House Majority Leader, offered the best remedy for Obamacare.

Reacting to the Treasury Department's announcement, Cantor remarked: "The best delay for Obamacare is a permanent one."

He's right.  Now it is up to Congress to fulfill Cantor's prescription for the health care law.