曾經為歐巴馬所誇耀的美國健保改革現在成為總統先生的麻煩。
先是 HealthCare.gov網站過分複雜的架構與沒有經過長期穩定測試等技術問題導
致使用者無法順利上網尋找方案，透過電話購買也是塞車不已。HHS曾經保證月底
可以修復，白宮則是一如往例回絕共和黨要求延後ACA的呼籲，但是網站完全運作
的時間不停往後延，明年就要面對國會選舉的民主黨人已經逐漸不安於室。
更糟糕的新聞則是行政部門公布的註冊數字：106,185人註冊了健保計畫，難堪地
方在於四分之三的數字是透過十四個獨立運行健保網站的各州(包含D.C.)，只有
四分之一是透過HealthCare.gov。
此前行政部門估計的數字是500,000人。
真正讓國會民主黨人火燒眉毛的，在於美國有500萬人的保單因為不符合ACA規定被
保險公司取消，曾經承諾美國人可以保有他們喜歡的保單，歐巴馬總統只能為了他
沒有兌現諾言在電視訪問裡公開道歉。 (另外一個原因在於ACA強迫各州擴大Medi-
caid的方案被最高法院以7-2宣告違憲)
總統先生的公開道歉明顯是無法幫助即將來臨的國會期中選舉，紅州出身的民主黨
參議員已經在醞釀一項草案，好讓他們的選民能夠保有既有保單。眾議院民主黨人
則發出通牒，稱行政部門如果15日前不能提出解決方案，他們就要在當天的眾議院
表決允許保險公司繼續銷售不符合ACA保單的議案支持共和黨人。
民主黨眾議員的估計會有40-100名眾議員"叛變"。
美國健保順利上路或許需要更多時間，只能確定民主黨從Shutdown獲得的政治紅利
已經開始快速流失了。
標題:Democrats scramble to fix Obama's troubled health care law
By Chris Moody, Yahoo News
Democrats aren’t running through the halls of Congress with their hair on
fire yet, but anxiety over the possible blowback from the federal health care
law is growing by the day.
Between the disastrous rollout of HealthCare.gov and the fact that millions
of Americans are poised to lose their current health insurance coverage at
the end of the year despite a promise from President Barack Obama that they
would be able to keep their plans “no matter what,” congressional Democrats
are scrambling to cover their hides before next year’s midterm elections.
A handful of Senate Democrats have leapt to support a proposal from Louisiana
Sen. Mary Landrieu, who's facing a tough re-election campaign in 2014, that
would allow Americans with already existing insurance plans to keep them even
if they don’t meet the quality guidelines established by the Affordable Care
Act.
House Democrats on Wednesday held a closed-door meeting with White House
officials, where some members vented frustration with the administration over
the law's handling and demanded a solution by the end of the week.
Republicans, not surprisingly, are working to leverage the Obamacare problems
for political gain.
In a speech on the Senate floor last week, Landrieu suggested that she had
been misled when she voted for the Affordable Care Act in 2010.
"When we passed the Affordable Care Act, we did so with the intention that if
you liked your health plan, you could keep it," she said. "A promise was
made, and this legislation will ensure that this promise is kept."
It's hard to see how that would be the case, given that millions of Americans
at the time who were insured on private plans held policies that did not meet
the minimum requirements set by the law. (Many Republicans at the time warned
that this would be a consequence.)
So far, Sens. Kay Hagan of North Carolina, Jeff Merkley of Oregon, Mark Pryor
of Arkansas, Joe Manchin of West Virginia and Dianne Feinstein of California
have co-sponsored Landrieu's proposal. Hagan, Merkley and Pryor are up for
re-election next year while Feinstein and Manchin are not.
On Wednesday, another lawmaker facing re-election in 2014, Colorado
Democratic Sen. Mark Udall, introduced his own legislation that would allow
Americans facing cancellations to keep their current plan for up to two years.
Landrieu and Udall's cause received a kick-start earlier this week when
former President Bill Clinton, who has long advocated in favor of the health
care law, said he thought the law should be changed to let people keep their
current plans.
“I personally believe — even if it takes a change in the law — the
president should honor the commitment the federal government made to those
people and let them keep what they got,” Clinton said in an interview with
the website Ozy.com.
These new Democratic efforts to “fix” Obamacare, however, could actually
prove disastrous for the law.
The Department of Health and Human Services has already struggled to persuade
people to sign up for insurance plans through the federal exchanges. Despite
Obama’s oft-repeated promise, allowing people to keep their existing plans
could suck millions of potential customers out of the exchanges — customers
the law relies on to remain sustainable.
Neither the White House nor Senate Democatic Leader Harry Reid have taken a
position on the Democratic senators' proposals.
On Wednesday, Reid said he planned to hold a rare Thursday meeting with all
Senate Democrats and White House officials to consider the new proposals.
Reid declined to comment on anything related to health care during his weekly
press conference, saying he would have more details after Thursday’s meeting.
At the White House, press secretary Jay Carney said the president is looking
into “options.”
“The president has instructed his team to come up with options for him to
review,” Carney told reporters on Wednesday. “And you can expect a decision
from him and announcement from him sooner rather than later on options that
we can take to address the problem that we've been discussing here with
regards to those individuals who have had their individual insurance plans
cancelled because of the transition to the Affordable Care Act marketplaces."
Senate Republicans appeared positively gleeful about the Demorats’ efforts
to change the law.
Speaking to reporters on Wednesday, Republican Senate Minority Leader Mitch
McConnell suggested he would not support Landrieu’s bill if it came for a
vote.
“We think the thing ought to be repealed and replaced entirely. We think it
can’t possibly work,” McConnell said. “And I’m somewhat suspicious about
red state Democrats who are up in ’14 trying to promote some way out of
their political dilemma. If they really want to fix Obamacare, they will join
with us, repeal it and start over step by step to deal with the problem,
which was the number of people uninsured.”
In the House, Republican Rep. Fred Upton, the chairman of the Energy and
Commerce Committee, has unveiled his own proposal to allow people to stay on
their current plans. House Republican leaders have scheduled a vote on the
bill for Friday, and it is expected to pass with at least some Democratic
support.
Meanwhile, House Republican committee chairmen continue to hammer away at
federal officials and private contractors responsible for the law's
implementation.
The House Oversight and Reform Committee on Wednesday, for instance, hauled
in IT specialists working to fix the website for a hearing about their
progress.
Under questioning, the panel reported that the federal government had already
spent “north of $600 million” on the project as of late September and even
more during the repair process.
"The site is getting better week by week,” said Todd Park, the White House’
s chief technology officer for the Office of Science and Technology Policy. “
Some days are better than others."
新聞來源: (須有正確連結)
http://news.yahoo.com/democrats-scramble-to--fix--obama-
s-trouble-health-care-law-213354029.html
http://goo.gl/0XebJr
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※ 編輯: ncyc 來自: 114.32.131.92 (11/14 21:47)