In March 2010, the screws were being turned on Democrats in the House to pass the Obamacare bill the Senate had passed in December 2009.
Progressive Democrats in the House hated the Senate bill, which was viewed by many progressives as a giveaway to insurance and drug companies and did not contain a “public option.” House Democrats were being asked to swallow the Senate Bill whole because Scott Brown’s election in January 2010 deprived Senate Democrats of a filibuster proof majority, so the Senate could not make substantive changes.
Jane Hamsher at liberal Firedoglake predicted in December 2009, among other things, that insurance premiums would skyrocket under the Senate bill
The cost of medical care will continue to rise, and insurance premiums for a family of four will rise an average of $1,000 a year — meaning in 10 years, your family’s insurance premium will be $10,000 more annually than it is right now.
Markos Moulitsas, the head of DailyKos, also claimed to hate the bill, urging in December 2009 that the bill be killed unless the individual mandate was removed:
“Insurance companies win,” Markos Moulitsas tweeted last night. “Time to kill this monstrosity coming out of the Senate.”
Moulitsas also predicted premium price hikes, in a Kos editorial:
My take is that it’s unconscionable to force people to buy a product from a private insurer that enjoys sanctioned monopoly status….Without any mechanisms to control costs, this is yet another bailout for yet another reviled industry. Subsidies? Insurance companies are free to raise their rates to absorb that cash. More money for subsidies? More rate increases, as well as more national debt. Don’t expect Lieberman and his ilk to care. They’re in it for their industry pals.If you want a similar model, watch how universities increase tuition to absorb increased financial aid opportunities.
But after the Senate passed the bill, Markos switched his tune, became a loyal Obama soldier, and threatened to primary progressive lawmakers in the House who killed the Senate bill.
HuffPo reported on March 9, 2010 (see note at bottom as to date), Markos Moulitsas To Kucinich: You’ll Be Primaried If You Kill Reform:
Pressed by fill-in host Lawrence O’Donnell as to whether a Kucinich would get a Democratic challenger for his seat if he didn’t support health care legislation — and in the process kill it — Moulitsas replied, “Yeah, absolutely.””What he is doing is undermining this reform,” he added. “He is making common cause with Republicans. And I think that is a perfect excuse and a rational one for a primary challenge.”
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Now Obamacare Sticker Shock is hitting, just as Markos predicted, although for different reasons.
Whereas Markos expected evil insurance companies to price gouge, in fact premiums are spiking because people are forced to buy compliant policies which offer coverage they don’t need, and younger people subsidize older people. The sticker shock will hit the Kos Kids the hardest.
A Daily Kos “Diarist” is not happy, Obamacare will double my monthly premium (according to Kaiser)(emphasis added):
My wife and I just got our updates from Kaiser telling us what our 2014 rates will be. Her monthly has been $168 this year, mine $150. We have a high deductible. We are generally healthy people who don’t go to the doctor often. I barely ever go. The insurance is in case of a major catastrophe.Well, now, because of Obamacare, my wife’s rate is gong to $302 per month and mine is jumping to $284.I am canceling insurance for us and I am not paying any fucking penalty. What the hell kind of reform is this?Oh, ok, if we qualify, we can get some government assistance. Great. So now I have to jump through another hoop to just chisel some of this off. And we don’t qualify, anyway, so what’s the point?I never felt too good about how this was passed and what it entailed, but I figured if it saved Americans money, I could go along with it.I don’t know what to think now. This appears, in my experience, to not be a reform for the people.What am I missing?I realize I will probably get screamed at for posting this, but I can’t imagine I am the only Californian who just received a rate increase from Kaiser based on these new laws.
While I sympathize with the Kos Diarist’s plight, he has no one to blame other than Democrats and some people in the progressive movement who put politics ahead of good policy and sold out for the sake of the Democratic Party and Obama.
While the Kos Diarist wasn’t expecting the price hike, Markos was. And Markos along with other “progressives” helped Democrats shove what Markos previously called an “unconscionable” mandate down everyone’s throat.
So if the Kos Diarist is upset, let me make a suggestion.
Send your inflated health care premium bill to Daily Kos.
[Note: The HuffPo article now is dated May 9, 2010, but it’s clear from the dates of the comments and the url as well as the context that it was March 9, 2010.]
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