On their 62nd try, Republicans finally got an ObamaCare repeal bill to the president’s desk. He vetoed it, of course — but it’s still a light at the end of the tunnel.
Democrats dismissed it all as just another symbolic stunt. Funny: The “stunt” is a slap at a law Democrats — and President Obama — expected to be wildly popular by now, six years after they rammed it through.
Yet it’s still hated — because it’s a failure.
Its only achievement — reducing the ranks of the uninsured — came exclusively from its expansion of Medicaid, the program for low-income folks. Meanwhile, the insurance for the non-poor has been a disaster.
Start with Obama’s “If you like your insurance, you can keep your insurance” lie: In fact, his law canceled the policies of at least 6 million Americans.
Yet the worst lie may have been calling it the Affordable Care Act. These plans are terrible for anyone who actually gets really sick. Policies sold on the exchanges have high deductibles, plus stiff charges for using out-of-network docs and drugs not on the formulary. As The Post has reported, that’s been a disaster for folks with AIDS, cancer and other serious illnesses.
And many not-sick Americans are finding exchange plans so pricey, they’re opting to “go bare” — no matter the ever-rising IRS penalties for being uninsured. By Kaiser Family Foundation estimates, up to 7 million Americans find ObamaCare premiums just take too much out of their pockets.
And the wheels are still coming off: Fifty-plus insurers nationwide are exiting the exchanges — because these plans are proving a bad deal for the folks who sell them, too.
The president’s veto is an open invitation to the voters: Put someone in the White House who’ll finally let the nation escape the ObamaCare nightmare and move on to real reform.