Fox News contributors Charles Krauthammer and Dana Perino warned Tuesday night that Obamacare woes will continue to worsen, arguing that low-quality results are keeping public approval of the law down despite recent enrollment gains.
“Democrats, and the White House on down, keep on saying the more the health-care law rolls out, the better people are going to like it,” Fox’s Shannon Bream began.
“They have been saying that since 2009. We are almost in the middle of 2014. That’s yet to materialize. It’s very durably unpopular,” Perino responded. “The democrats’ optimism of the past couple of weeks has now proven to be unwarranted.”
The Obama administration and the health-care law’s supporters have taken heart from the last-minute boost in Obamacare sign-ups, after a debilitating first five months of open enrollment. But a month later, the public has yet to change its mind about the health-care law.
A Washington Post-ABC poll released Tuesday showed a 5-percent dip in approval of the health-care law itself, as well as low approval ratings for the president. (RELATED: Obama’s Support Reaches Record Low, Says Washington Post Poll)
While more Americans have signed up for health insurance in the wake of the individual mandate, the low-quality coverage many Americans are receiving is keeping Obamacare unpopular, according to the panel — and the problems will get worse.
“So many proponents of the law sold it saying that it’s about bringing down health-care costs,” Bream said.
“That was a phoney,” Krauthammer charged. “Some of this stuff is included, some of which we don’t need but we have to pay for. I don’t know about you, but I don’t need lactation services…if you are purchasing Obamacare plans, it’s in there.”
The health-care law mandates that each insurance plan must cover essential health benefits, ranging from maternity services to mental health care for all patients whether they want them or not — upping the insurers’ cost to make the services available. The widespread reaction to mandated services coupled with limits on out-of-pocket costs has been drastically narrowed networks, covering fewer hospitals and doctors to keep costs down.
“That’s the beginning of rationing. It’s going to get much worse with Obamacare.” Krauthammer explained. “It always happens when you have universal coverage — happened in Canada, happens in Britain, happens everywhere. It start with the reduction in coverage, you can’t have the doctor you want…that’s why the costs are high and the access is low.”
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