I believe the the ACA is flawed. It has issues that we as party will have to own up to and fix, the sooner, the better. Any piece of legislation that big is essentially a first draft. But the one key ingredient in the ACA recipe that can't touched is the individual mandate. Dems cannot go soft on this. When the administration made the deal with the insurance industry, this was the backbone. We cannot and should not go back on that now. A Few weeks ago, during the height of plan cancellations, Sens. Landreiu, Manchin and even Franken suggested it could be delayed. That first round of noise died off after Obama said people could keep their plans.
Well today on CNBC, Dr. Dean said the individual mandate was not needed. He is talking out of his ass. What is with this guy? We need team discipline right now! Sure we can argue among ourselves, but as Don Corleone told Sonny: "never let anyone outside the family know what you're thinking".
http://talkingpointsmemo.com/...
“The individual mandate was not necessary and it’s probably a big political thing, and that is going to hurt the Democrats because people don’t like to be told what to do by the government no matter what party they’re in,”
I am at a lost for words. You are handing wavering Dems and of course the GOP ammunition that can be used to slow this law down. Despite the great news about this months surge in signups, ACA is not out of the woods. Being forced to buy insurance is not the same as liking the insurance. I am talking about private enrollments only.
When some malcontents start complaining about narrow hospital and doctor networks etc..., we need to address those issues without having to go back and re-litigate settled law, i.e. the individual mandate. They are already starting the fight with the higher prices in NY State (check the bottom of the article). Prices will rise for some people. To me, that is a given.
Please Dems, look forward, not backwards.