Remember when liberals like Nancy Pelosi told you that thanks to Obamacare “everybody will have lower rates”? Or that Obamacare “is bringing the cost of health care in our country down”?
Well, as one ‘ad exec’ tasked with promoting Obamacare puts it in YG Network’s TV and digital ad:”Sorry, but—turns out, that’s not true.”
Here’s the reality, as National Journal reports in a must-read analysis today:
For the vast majority of Americans, premium prices will be higher in the individual exchange than what they’re currently paying for employer-sponsored benefits… Adding even more out-of-pocket expenses to consumers’ monthly insurance bills is a swell in deductibles under the Affordable Care Act. Health law proponents have excused the rate hikes by saying the prices in the exchange won’t apply to the millions receiving coverage from their employers. But that’s only if employers continue to offer that coverage-something that’s looking increasingly uncertain.
Meanwhile, the Washington Post, citing research by the Kaiser Family Foundation, reports that small-business owners “are concerned the health care law will drive their premiums higher at an even faster clip. Many appear to be coping by passing some of the costs along to their employees.”
In other words, the things conservatives warned would happen under Obamacare are… well… happening. And what’s happening is pretty much the opposite of what Leader Pelosi, President Obama, and their liberal allies told the American people would happen. (In fairness to Nancy Pelosi, however, she did tell us “we have to pass the bill so you can find out what is in it…”)
Here’s an important point to remember…
Recent focus groups conducted by YG Network and our Woman Up! initiative are a stark reminder that Obamacare’s ill effects aren’t taking shape within a single-issue vacuum. The context is that of a weak economy and growing middle-class angst and resentment. The law’s implications are hardest felt at the kitchen tables of middle-class families throughout America—folks who continue to find themselves at the mercy of this weak economy, and for whom the added uncertainty and higher costs of Obamacare represent yet another major obstacle to their families’ well-being.
Take, for example, these quotes from YG Network focus group participants:
- “I’ve had the same salary the for the past 6 years… My cost of living is going up… my healthcare premium went from $78 to $182… my cable bill went up, electric bill is up 25%. My costs are going up, but not my wages.”
- “My husband and I got married 2 months ago and we can’t get health care because who knows what’s going on.”
As feedback like this shows, middle-class Americans don’t view Obamacare as simply a set of bad headlines and broken promises. Americans’ continued, energetic antipathy towards Obamacare is based firmly in their understanding of how it affects them and their families.