Obamacare Failing to Meet Struggling Americans’ Expectations
Most of the news surrounding the latest Wall Street Journal-NBC News poll has centered around its findings for the presidential campaign – but the survey also revealed some interesting results on the health care front. Specifically, the survey asked “which one personal worry for you and your family is greatest right now?” Health care topped the list, at 33 percent, (marginally) ahead of jobs at 32 percent. And by an over two-to-one margin, respondents found that the Obama Administration had failed to live up to its expectations on health care – only 31% said Obama had met expectations on health care, compared to 64% who said he had fallen short. Of particular note is the fact that the “meet expectations” number fell 8 points since August 2010, while the number of Americans believing Obama has fallen short on health care has risen by 9 percentage points. (So much for the claims by Senator Schumer and others that “Now that the bill is enacted, it’s going to become more and more popular.”)
Of course, the American people have every reason to believe that the Obama Administration has not lived up to expectations on health care – because it hasn’t. To use but one prominent example, candidate Obama said repeatedly his bill would CUT premiums by an average of $2,500 per family – meaning premiums would go DOWN, not merely just “go up by less than projected.” The campaign also promised that that those reductions would occur within Obama’s first term. However, the annual Kaiser Foundation survey of employer-provided insurance found that average family premiums totaled $12,860 in 2008, $13,375 in 2009, and $13,770 in 2010 and $15,073 this year. In other words, while candidate Obama promised premiums would fall by $2,500 on average, premiums have already risen by $2,213 during the Obama Administration.
One of the prime reasons Americans cited health care as their largest personal worry is skyrocketing costs. Campaign rhetoric aside, Obamacare did precious little to reduce cost growth – spending will actually rise thanks to the law, as will premiums. It’s one of the most damaging of all the broken promises made by the President on health care, one which will hit millions of struggling families directly in the wallet.