Today is the 1-year anniversary of President Obama signing the health care bill into law. Republicans and Democrats are having a partisan field day, vilifying and praising, respectively, the issue that never seems to fade away.
“As ObamaCare remains dreadfully unpopular and continues to worsen the economic difficulties Michigan families and small businesses are grappling with, (U.S. Rep.) Gary Peters’ defense of the law just two months ago seems more and more stunning,” said one Republican PR flak, Paul Lindsay, in a “Happy Birthday” press release targeting the Bloomfield Township Democrat.
On the other side of the issue, Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius is giving a speech in Washington on reform that will receive national coverage. Many Democratic members of Congress, including Sandy Levin, are holding press conferences or conference calls to tout the new law.
Republicans point to polls that show the health care changes are still unpopular. Democrats stress that polls show strong support for individual provisions in the bill.
According to ABC News, House Speaker John Boehner and Sen. Minority Leader Mitch McConnell penned an Op-Ed in the Cincinnati Enquirer today in which they ticked off a list of what they say are the Obama administration’s broken promises on health care.
“These broken promises” the lawmakers write, “illustrate why so many Americans continue to support a full repeal — which the new Republican-led House has passed — followed by common-sense reforms that will actually lower costs, improve care, and protect jobs.”
The House Speaker also hit many of the same themes in a new Web video he released today.
Secretary of Health and Human Services Kathleen Sebelius will speak to the National Association of Community Health Centers in Washington, DC today — she has been traveling the country to talk about how reform has helped Americans.
And health care advocacy groups like Health Care for America Now will host events in 33 states to, as they say, “raise awareness of the law’s new consumer protections and benefits that are holding insurance companies accountable and lowering costs for millions of families.”
According to a recent Gallup poll, Americans ranked health care third in a list of problems they worry about “a great deal” — well behind fiscal issues. ABC reported that the economy ranked number one (71 percent), followed by federal spending and the budget deficit (64 percent) and then “availability and affordability” of health care (58 percent).
Even more interesting: Republicans don’t list health care among their top five concerns. Democrats, on the other hand, list health care as their number one issue (69 percent) while independents list it as their number three most important issue (58 percent).
The Washington Post fact checkers have spent quite a bit of time in the days leading up to the anniversary researching various claims and pointing out the fallacies propagated by Democrats and Republicans alike. Click here
