During an interview with NBC News’ Chuck Todd, President Obama apologized to Americans who are receiving cancellation notices from their health insurance providers. I suppose it’s the grown-up thing to do or something like that, but two things here: 1) Like the tea party, Fox News and talk radio, the people who are truly pissed off at the president will continue to be pissed off irrespective of anything he says or does because he’s, you know, Barack Obama, and 2) He really didn’t have to apologize.
Additional apologies should realistically come from the health insurance companies that are actively bilking customers to the tune of thousands upon thousands of dollars. It’s the ascendancy of Obama to the presidency and his against-his-own-advisers effort to pass comprehensive healthcare reform that’s given us a chance to have better, more affordable insurance policies, loaded with consumer protections and relatively inexpensive medical care, in spite of the nefarious deeds of the pre-ACA health insurance industry. You might not love everything this president has accomplished during his first five years — hell, you might not have voted for him in either election. But if you’re getting better health insurance, guaranteeing that you won’t go bankrupt (or anything resembling it) when you’re sick or injured, you should be thanking the president and the Democrats who made the Affordable Care Act possible — not demanding an apology.
Seriously, who are we? What kind of entitled, petulant, ignorant nonsense is this? Anyone who thinks the president should apologize for merely repeating in simplified terms something that’s actually in the law needs to seriously re-evaluate their priorities, especially if they’ve either wittingly or unwittingly danced in the “Obamacare Horror Story” disinformation conga-line.
And what about the so-called horror story victims? Media Matters‘ Justin Berrier summarized several of the cases and determined that while complaining about the president’s alleged “lie” regarding “keeping your plan if you like it,” these victims were far from honest about their own predicaments… [CONTINUE READING]