I can't find video of the entire speech, but there's a partial summary here. What he says above, though, is so obvious that only a teabaggR could fail to recognize it.
And they should know, based on the disastrous start of Bush's Medicare Part D. The contrast between the dishonesty and hypocrisy of what Rs are doing to Obamacare, and what Ds did to rescue Bush's program, couldn't be more stark.
Meanwhile, evidence accumulates that one of the main R talking points, skyrocketing premiums, is (brace yourself) false:
The expected monthly premium for a 40-year-old adult purchasing a silver-level plan (the baseline, which covers 70 percent of costs) on a marketplace had been $320, according to previous projections from the Congressional Budget Office. But in 15 of the 18 regions studied by Kaiser, the average premium will be below that — thus the study’s conclusion that the prices are going to be lower than anticipated.
“While premiums will vary significantly across the country, they are generally lower than expected,” the authors wrote.
The study does not compare marketplace premiums with current prices in the individual insurance market. Instead, that conclusion is based on how released prices are comparing to previous projections for coverage costs under Obamacare. It follows a report last week by RAND, which suggested that claims of premium increases had been overstated.
If Kaiser’s estimates bear out, it could be a big blow to one of the main conservative talking points against the Affordable Care Act: rate shock. Everybody from House Republicans to think tank types like the Manhattan Institute’s Avik Roy and the Heritage Foundation have been warning that consumers would see skyrocketing prices under the law.
No matter how it shakes out, clearly -- unless you think our health care system was just peachy as it was -- the best and most helpful (Rs can look up the word) approach is to address issues as they arise, and fix them. Because it's better than anything else anyone has suggested (and when it comes to Rs, that means no suggestions); and, as someone recently said, it's a decent place holder until the right system, of necessity (i.e. single payer), comes along.
