Republicans must present a coherent alternative to the president’s crumbling health-care law.
The constipated debut of Obamacare has reduced the president of the United States to the status of TV pitchman. “Act now” to get this great product, he exhorted listeners on Monday, offering testimonials from one of the rare successful purchasers, promising limitless benefits and low prices, and even an 800 number. His operators are standing by, he urged, and they speak 150 languages! (You could sign up in Min Bei and Kazakh, if you could sign up at all.) If Obama had thrown in a free tote bag for the first 100 callers, it wouldn’t have seemed out of place.
The president has consistently claimed that his law will extend coverage to the roughly 47 million uninsured (there is no agreed-upon number) while also reducing premiums for everyone. This is like promising that you can eat all you want and still lose weight (which other TV pitchmen routinely promise, come to think of it). This is not possible. For the law to work even reasonably according to plan, say, with only small increases in premiums for everyone, large numbers of the young and healthy who have previously gone without health insurance must sign up.
