In the past few months, Americans have begun staring grimly at the present administration’s feet of clay. So far we know the Administration: a) misled the public about their ability to keep the health insurance and doctors they like, period, b) misled the Congress into believing that the development of the Healthcare.gov website was on track, c) attempted to mislead the public into believing that the “glitches” in the web site were no more or less than what one might have seen from other commercial ventures (viz., the iPhone), and d) continues to mislead the public about the increased cost of Obamacare plans.
Soon another big deception will unfold: the Administration denies that millions more people will lose their employer-based healthcare next year. At her testimony before Congress in late October, HHS Secretary Sebelius even appeared to take offense at the suggestion that that might happen. But the 17 June 2010 Federal Register indicates nearly half the people having employer-based healthcare in 2010 will have lost it by the time the employer mandate becomes operational.
Perhaps the biggest danger will not lie in the cost or availability of the healthcare plans at all, but in the decisions of the Independent Advisory Board, consisting of 15 political appointees who will make all decisions about prices, “best practices,” and patient eligibility.
Rather than actively manage performance, the Administration tries to manage perception via a pretty consistent playbook: deny the criticism or failure report, vilify the critics (or, even easier, their intentions), then trivialize the outcomes, and finally, make some change and declare the problem “solved.” Key to the success of this playlist is a lack of transparency, a lack of hard data, and a lack of meaningful benchmarks.
The Administration should come clean right now in three areas. First, the choices and unsubsidized costs of health plans (showing hospitals and doctors included) should be available without having to give up personal information on an unsecured website. Second, the statistics of the people who have actually signed up for Obamacare, as well as the number diverted into Medicaid, should be made public on a daily basis. Third, security incidents should be made public; horror stories should not have to be spread by word of mouth. Given that enrollees are asked to acknowledge that they “have no reasonable expectation of privacy,” then they should at least have some sense of the history of threats and responses.
This Administration’s strategy of deceptions and cover-ups not only shortchanges the public, it disheartens our allies and emboldens our enemies. It has even graver long-term consequences: Will Americans believe the President when he really needs to rally the public to make some sacrifice to protect our freedoms or sovereignty or safety?
Ridgefield voters should be asking our Senators Blumenthal and Murphy, and our Representative Himes, why they voted for and continue the Administration’s propaganda and diversions.
This column is supplied by the Republican Town Committee.