VICTORY LAP, TIME INDEED WILL TELL

So now we have the “victory lap.” Now we have the “spiking of the football.” They are saying that they knew all along that they would hit their number of seven million. Obama is on the bragging trail. Well I have a caution. First of all we have no idea how many of these so-called signups have actually paid for their insurance. Secondly we don’t know how many of them have signed up because Obamacare caused their previous insurance to be cancelled. And finally we don’t know how many of these signups are in the desired young and healthy group and how many are in the old and sick group. Time will tell.

Soon we will be informed just what the facts are. It will probably be one of those Friday night news dumps in advance of a holiday when most people are thinking of something else. Something like, for example, Good Friday. That would be perfect because it precedes Easter Sunday and most people will be thinking of other things.

Regardless of when they fess up, the truth will have to come out. And that truth will have consequences. The first and biggest consequence will be the cost of Obamacare to the consumer. That will be the time when those who have signed up will learn just how much this free insurance is actually going to cost. They will learn how much their deductibles are going to be. They will learn just how difficult it will be to find a doctor who will accept the coverage. They will learn how long they must wait to see any doctor. These are truths which cannot be hidden.

You doubtless have heard the old adage, “don’t count your chickens before they hatch.” That adage certainly applies to today’s situation. The eggs are on the nest and the old hen is sitting. Only time will tell exactly how many chickens will hatch. Obama’s victory lap may well be short lived.

I have been listening and watching as the Democrats and the media are out and about trying to sing the praises of Obamacare. It is not necessary to promote it now. Now it has to stand on its own merits. If I am wrong about the predictions I have made, I will be the first to acknowledge it. My opinion is based on simple math.

When this all began we supposedly had some thirty million uninsured Americans. Today, after spending hundreds of millions of dollars, we have signed up seven million, many of whom have not paid their first premium, and had six million people cancelled from their previous coverage. To somehow believe we are now better off seems silly to me. The real test of the effectiveness of this program will be written in the Emergency Rooms of our hospitals. If the number of people visiting the ER goes down that would either mean that we are getting healthier or that Obamacare is dealing with the previously uninsured. Call me crazy but I seriously doubt if either of those scenarios will prove to be true.

What we have done instead is attempt to grow government to include health care headed for the true goal of liberals, that of single payer health insurance, and in the process seriously damaged the best healthcare system on earth. For anyone to run around spiking the ball and declaring victory is just ridiculous. Time indeed will tell.

Ron Scarbro