Whether President Obama lied when he said, “If you like your plan, you can keep it” isn’t much of a question anymore. His team knew that the new coverage rules would require insurers to change or drop plans – that was, at least in part, the whole point of Obamacare. As a staunch supporter of universal health care, I have to admit that the president lied. He also appears to have forgotten that something that affects only 2 percent of Americans affects more than six million people, enough to generate vast column inches and TV hours of bad press.
The question now is how to get past it. Like most people, I want three things before forgiving a lie. I want the consequence fixed if possible; I want to know why he did it and I want a promise it’s not going to happen again.
On fixing the consequences, I’d give President Obama a B. Allowing insurers to continue substandard plans for an extra year is about all he can do. The fact that some states and insurers aren’t playing ball is out of his hands. People will be less upset about losing their old plans as they realize they are getting better coverage and that insurers are piling on cancellations they would have made after the first pay-out.
It’s the “why” part where President Obama is flailing a bit, despite those facts. I understand that the cancelled plans were bad at best and illusions at worst. I get that it probably won’t affect a large percentage of Americans. That doesn’t tell me why Team Obama lied. It tells me why they didn’t think I’d notice.
I think they lied for the same reason most good politicians end up lying. They felt that in this one circumstance, just for this, despite what their parents told them, the ends justified the means. Passing health care reform was so important that when President Obama couldn’t make the case, he was justified in fudging the truth.
While those ends can’t justify the means for many, it remains the “why” case Team Obama needs to present. Not just that employees with access to health care are more productive, or that people without insurance end up on the county or state taxpayer dime anyway. It’s time to again make the strong case that it is morally reprehensible that any citizen of the world’s richest country lacks access to health care.
That moral case won’t make up for the lie, but it helps, especially with the “it won’t happen again” promise; but only if Obama admits other lies before he’s called out. He can start with the idea that insurance will be cheaper. While it’s great to get better insurance for less than 10 percent of your income, it’s still a smaller apartment or fewer dinners out for healthy people who previously made it without insurance or with only a catastrophic plan. That and other shades of truth, will likely fall on working people, not those with an employer based plan. Best to admit it now.
Fortunately, there is no better time to make a moral case than the holiday season. Pope Francis is already talking about the Christian imperative to help the less fortunate. President Obama should challenge those who perceive a “war against Christmas” to see universal health care as a way to help their fellow American.
Jesus excelled after being born in a manger, and received gold, frankincense and myrrh. I think he would agree that good coverage for reproductive health, prenatal vitamins and labor and delivery might have been a better gift for the first “first family.” It may be the end of the year, but it’s a place for President Obama to start.
Joel, the most ludicrous thing about all this is we know you’re using a much lighter touch than you probably would apply, and certainly the Pelosi ilk would apply, to a Republican president who did the same thing. Obama has been given a race-based and politically motivated pass his whole life in order to propel him to the office of POTUS.