And politically, the Republicans are left holding their dicks in their hands. As to what it means to the rest of us, I haven’t a clue. People are too busy crowing over what a brilliant strategy it is!
UPDATE: Some perspective here.
Obamacare postponed to 2015
Or, conversely, as Lambert has been documenting over at Correntewire.com, it’s just one more indication of what a clusterfuck Obama’s profit protection plan for private insurers and other big health industry players really is.
LBJ signed off on Medicare on July 30, 1965, and the first covered services began on July 1, 1966.
And, while there were computers of sorts in that era, they were hardly as powerful as today’s.
But, the objective of Medicare was simply to provide insurance for the elderly, not to provide profit streams for vaious health industry players.
Oh, if only we had a real Democrat in the White House! It was a time to get healthcare for all, but Obama has his Corporate masters to cater to. So, we all get screwed.
Obama is allowing big business—those with 50 or more employees—to delay for one year—-until 2015—providing health care coverage for their employees. The ObamaCare law was written by and favors big business. So anytime big business objects to implementing any part of the law Obama is more than willing to oblige. ObamaCare was a joke when it was passed and it is a joke today.
I don’t see how anyone other than Jason Easley could see this as brilliant. Either the ACA will work or it will fall apart. Recently, despite Republicans’ concerted efforts to paint it as a clusterfuck, it has looked like it would basically work in the states that were committed to implementing it (in that it would manage to expand medical coverage to just about everyone without causing a large increase in insurance premiums). By letting businesses off the hook for coverage for a year, it blows a hole through the system. It means that a lot of people with low income jobs will remain uninsured, and it will increase the cost of the program by increasing the number of people who need to buy coverage in the exchange and will qualify for subsidies. The continued existence of uninsured will help drive insurance premiums up (as hospitals treat the uninsured who show up in emergencies rooms at a loss and then pass that loss on by raising the prices they charge to the insured patients) and increasing the number of people who are eligible for federal subsidies will make implementation of the act more expensive to the federal government, giving more ammo to deficit hawks who have all along doubted the claim that the ACA would ultimately reduce the deficit.
There’s no actual up side to this decision for Obama or anyone else, other than employers that employ a lot of low-wage workers who currently receive no benefits.