It appears that sorry was not good enough.
After defending “landmark” healthcare legislation known as the Affordable Care Act, and even pandering to Americans via an apology last week, President Barack Obama relented on Thursday and delayed a key provision of the law.
This marks the first time he has actually compromised in the years long battle that has involved a congressional clash, Supreme Court fight and a government shutdown.
You may be aware of the recent controversy.
The online exchange, meant to sign up the American populous to new healthcare plans, functioned as well as myLSU’s schedule request page at 5 p.m. on a Monday night. And the president, now infamously, apologized last week for reneging on a promise that Americans could keep health plans that they liked.
But on Thursday, Obama actually stepped back and delayed the mandatory shift an entire year. This mea culpa is small beans considering he promised Americans could keep them permanently, but it’s a step in the right direction.
The law’s faults are obvious and well documented.
Numbers released from the Department of Health and Human Services on Wednesday showed that a paltry 387 Louisianans registered for new insurance since the Affordable Care Act took effect.
Chances are that more students attended ART 1001 on Wednesday.
Only 106,000 total Americans have signed up for insurance through the new law. That’s about one thirtieth of one percent of the country’s population, while only 26,794 signed up over the beleaguered healthcare.gov website.
In the latest episode in the long line of controversy that has surrounded the law, Obama’s cession marks a significant point where the president has backed down and allowed dissidents to have some say.
This shouldn’t be surprising considering shots have been taken from both parties over the ACA, but it comes from a president who has not been shy when addressing his own agenda and bashing those who oppose it.
Up until Thursday, the only reconciliation he had for Americans was: “I am sorry.”
Even though the extra year he has given Americans to change plans hardly solves the problem, there is still hope that Congress will go further to slow down the trainwreck that has become the ACA.
Senator Mary Landrieu put aside her allegiance to the president and offered a bill in the Senate that would allow people to keep their plans permanently, not just through 2014, as Obama said.
This sentiment is echoed in the House, where a Republican bill allowing people to keep their plans has gained multiple Democratic co-sponsors.
But what we see over and over is a driven president having to overcome the reluctance of his own party to provide socialized medicine to the United States. This week all but revived the debate on why this is happening in the first place.
We were assured that exchanges would be ready for the onslaught of customers on the first day a month ago, yet only six people in the entire country were able to sign up on the first day.
As students who will one day — either now or years in the future — have to purchase health insurance, we should be concerned over the level of incompetence that has been shown in the execution of this law.
And we should be shocked by the fact that it’s so bad that President Obama himself has come out and changed its implementation. He didn’t even wait for the Republican House of Representatives to vote on another delaying bill.
He has yet to consider any legislation to delay the law.
But now that he has come off of his high horse — maybe because he tried visiting his own website — we can look forward to some actual progress in making sure the law does not screw over the American people.