“Build a better mousetrap and the world will beat a path to your door.”
This is old, but still great, advice for anyone who wants to make and sell a product. Apparently President Obama, the Democrats in Congress and state government, and the bureaucrats at HHS have never heard it, if you judge from the promotional efforts being put forth for The Affordable Care Act (ObamaCare).
First there was the admonition, which some faithful O-bots tried to follow, to work ObamaCare into the conversation at Thanksgiving dinner. So far no instances of domestic disturbance have been directly attributed to ObamaCare discussions, but I’m sure there were some hot arguments during some family gatherings, since few things are more divisive than that law.
Then came the embarrassingly silly rap video produced to promote the California “Exchange”. When I saw it, I said, “That cannot possibly be a real promotion for ObamaCare.” But it was. Oh, my!
Now there’s the flannel pajama ad, in which we are told we can spend the cold winter nights signing up for ObamaCare. And of course the way the website has been working, it could take ALL winter to sign up.
Now Obama himself is once again encouraging families to chat up the law at their Christmas gatherings. Right.
All this promotion is just the tip of the iceberg, of course. More than a billion dollars is being spent to try to convince people to sign up, because “it’s better”, we’re told, than what we had before.
But if it really was better; if it really was “a better mousetrap”, it wouldn’t need so much promotion. People would be anxious to sign up. Instead there are an awful lot of people who swear they will never go near the buggy, unsecure HealthCare.Gov and will have to be forced to accept an ObamaCare plan.
No amount of promotion will change the fact that Americans were promised repeatedly that they would be able to keep their policies, their doctors and their hospitals. These promises were made, not just by Obama and officials of his administration, but by gung-ho congressmen and Senators, not to mention all the ill-concealed hype in the mainstream media. But it was all a lie. At least 5 million people, including myself, have gotten the letter saying their policy has been canceled, and that number promises to swell by a factor of 20. One hundred million policies canceled will be the vast majority of existing policies. So not only was “if you like you plan, you can keep your plan” a lie. It was the mother of all lies.
Then those who have actually been able to utilize HealthCare.Gov to sign up for insurance have been shocked (SHOCKED, I tell you!) that, not only is government healthcare not free (as too many naively expected), it costs MORE for less coverage! Higher premiums, higher deductibles, fewer doctors in the network: in what universe is that “better”?
Throw in the aspect of FORCE (the “mandate”) and you have a cocktail that is pretty bitter. No promotion, no music video, no arm-twisting over turkey drumsticks can overcome all the distasteful aspects of this “turkey” of a law.
Before it was passed, there were polls showing that more than 80% of people were satisfied with their current coverage. We may soon have that number DISSATISFIED with what they’ve been forced to accept: an inferior product at an impossible cost.
Maybe it’s time to scrap ObamaCare and truly build “a better mousetrap”.
