It's Not Just Conservatives Who Are Concerned that ObamaCare Won't Work As Well As Promised
Democratic legislators are also getting antsy, reports The New York Times:
Democratic senators, at a caucus meeting with White House officials, expressed concerns on Thursday about how the Obama administration was carrying out the health care law they adopted three years ago.
Democrats in both houses of Congress said some members of their party were getting nervous that they could pay a political price if the rollout of the law was messy or if premiums went up significantly.
President Obama's new chief of staff, Denis R. McDonough, fielded questions on the issue for more than an hour at a lunch with Democratic senators.
Senator Jeanne Shaheen, Democrat of New Hampshire, who is up for re-election next year, said, "We are hearing from a lot of small businesses in New Hampshire that do not know how to comply with the law."
In addition, Mrs. Shaheen said, "restaurants that employ people for about 30 hours a week are trying to figure out whether it would be in their interest to reduce the hours" of those workers, so the restaurants could avoid the law's requirement to offer health coverage to full-time employees.
The White House officials "acknowledged that these are real concerns, and that we've got to do more to address them," Mrs. Shaheen said.
As Nick Gillespie noted this morning, premiums are set to rise in Maryland, one of the most Obamacare-friendly states in the country—and the state with what are arguably the strictest health care price controls in the nation. Meanwhile in California, another Obamacare-friendly state, regulators recently warned federal authorities about the possibility of "rate shock" as well as significant disruptions to the health care market when the law kicks in next year. Obamacare may not exactly result in a spectacular collapse, but its opening doesn't look like it'll be pretty.
