The last-ditch effort to kill the Affordable Care Act by defunding has failed. Now the system must begin to deliver (though it’s hampered by rear-guard actions in legislatures across the country and by the refusal of mostly Southern states — except Arkansas — to avail themselves of the Medicaid expansion it offers for poorest citizens.)
Attention now will focus, properly, on the delivery system and the so-far badly troubled web portal.
Beware of lies about Obamacare, however. For example, the newest Republican line is that it has increased health insurance costs for everyone. It doesn’t take a serious fact-checker to know that’s false for all the subsidies provided working people, many of whom couldn’t afford health insurance at all.
Nonetheless, Politifact has taken up the claim by Sen. Ted Cruz.
Finding: FALSE.
David Corn at Mother Jones was already on the case and, in admittedly non-scientific sample, was flooded on Twitter by happy Obamacare customers.
And speaking of the lying liars: Here’s an article about fact-checking of Fox’s Sean Hannity. A panel of Obamacare horror stories turned out to be shot full of holes. One is familiar in Arkansas. A small business owner is trottted out to moan about the damage Obamacare is going to do to his business. A closer examination finds the employer has fewer than 50 employees and thus is exempt from the mandate. Two couples claimed insurance would cost them more. They’d never checked the website. Surprise: They’re due for a rate cut.
Cruz, meanwhile, is back in Texas blaming other Republicans for wimping out in the great battle.
In Arkansas, the ‘baggers are happily tweeting news that so far only a small number of people have officially been enrolled in the new health exchanges. One of them is the state-subsidized operator of a Christian daycare centers who sits in the Arkansas legislature. He’s prone to frequent Biblical quotations. He seems positively happy that people entitled to health coverage don’t have it. Matthew 19:14, Rep. Harris.