My must read of the day is "Can Obamacare Avoid a Consumer Rebellion?" in National Journal:
The administration is in a tough spot on network size. Republicans have laid the whole issue at Obamacare's feet, even though it's a market dynamic that Obamacare really didn't cause: It's a business balance between price and quality that existed long before the law was created.
But this market dynamic nevertheless exists within Obamacare policies, and the administration clearly wants to address a potentially unpopular part of people's coverage—without making that coverage more expensive, and thus accessible to fewer people.
"The administration has shouldered the blame for things that are so vastly beyond its control, and has attempted valiantly to work these problems out," said Sara Rosenbaum, a professor of health care policy at George Washington University.
This is just not true. However, following the news that premiums will increase for the majority of employers in the small business exchange, this is probably an argument we’re going to hear more often.
Whenever Obamacare runs into major problems, liberals blame those problems on insurers or "market dynamics" and immediately brush the problems off as "beyond [the administration’s] control."
Canceled plans? Insurance companies did that. Limited networks? Insurance companies. Higher premiums? Insurances companies set them.
But it all starts with Obamacare.
Think back to the blame placed on insurers when people began receiving cancelation notices. I was discussing this with Will Cain, an analyst for the Blaze and a CNN contributor, and he made the point that saying canceled plans were not the result of Obamacare was like pushing someone off a cliff and claiming you didn’t make them fall.
My must read of the day begins by saying:
When Obamacare handed insurance companies millions of compulsory customers, it also handed them a reminder of one of their industry's toughest realities: Consumers want low premiums, and they want to see any doctor they want. And it's impossible to give them both.
Correct, but guess who promised Obamacare would give us both? This guy.