Editors at Investor’s Business Daily offer this assessment of the Affordable Care Act‘s long-term viability.
Health Care: “I am not the first president to take up this cause, but I am determined to be the last.” That was President Obama in a speech before Congress back in Sept. 2009, pitching the health reform plan he’d sign six months later.
It doesn’t look like he’s going to get his wish.
In the three-plus years since the ObamaCare exchanges opened, the law is teetering on the edge of the abyss. Enrollment is well below expectations, not enough young people are signing up, insurers are failing or dropping out of the program, and, by all appearances, premiums are set to spike even higher than last year.
Now a Kaiser Family Foundation survey released late last week shows that the public is far from satisfied with what Obama claimed was the be-all and end-all of reform.
Overall, just 38% have a favorable view of ObamaCare, which continues a more or less steady decline in approval since last summer. Fully 43% want the law either repealed or scaled back, while just 14% say that Congress should “move forward with implementing the law as it is.”
Nor does the public feel that ObamaCare solved much. In fact, the survey finds that health care ranks No. 4 on the list of priorities for this presidential election, right after jobs, national security and immigration.
When asked specifically about health care, the two top issues are the “Affordable Care Act” and “health care costs.” In other words, the biggest health care concerns people have right now are the law Obama signed, and the problem it was supposed to address.
Even Democrats are growing restive with ObamaCare, with 25% of Democrats now saying they have an unfavorable view of the law, up from 19% last month.
