Obama healthcare solution helps Landrieu’s re-election

21st November 2013   ·   0 Comments

By Christopher Tidmore
Contributing Writer

On Thursday morning, November 14, Barack Obama essentially reversed himself, embracing Mary Landrieu’s proposal to allow insurance companies to allow people to keep their current policies through 2014 — even if those policies are inferior to the regulated benefits required under the Affordable Care Act.

The President’s rules change stops short of endorsing the Louisiana U.S. Senator’s legislative mandate that insurance underwriters to have no choice but to keep these “inferior” health policies in force. Moreover, White House officials admitted that State Insurance Commissioners, the final arbiter of health insurance regulation, had not been consulted as to whether they would support the administration’s rules change. Landrieu’s mandates would have forced action on the parts of state regulators. The President just hopes the Commis­sioners will be cooperative, and health underwriters will keep their cheap policies in force.

Still, in proposing his rules change, the President may have rescued Landrieu’s chances of re-election, accomplishing much of the political cover she sought without needing a messy fight on the floor of the Congress. And, his action may have forestalled a war within the Democratic Party over bills that might have fundamentally rewritten ‘Obamacare.’

Obama had little choice if he did not wish to see the ACA fundamentally changed. His Democratic Congressional allies, seeing their political troubles mount, were on the verge of accepting a Republican bill in order to stymie public anger over the insurance cancelations. Sen. Landrieu, in particular, faced a barrage of negative TV ads in recent weeks, funded by the conservative Koch brothers, and increasing attacks from her principal GOP opponent Dr. Bill Cassidy.

Only Cassidy’s war with fellow Republican, Tea Party candidate Col. Rob Maness, had provided Landrieu with any political cover as the President’s polls fell to 39 percent nationally. That’s the same level as George W. Bush in the depths of the Iraq War, a year prior to the Democratic take over of Congress in 2006.

This bad news for Landrieu had mounted in the past weeks, as nearly 93,000 policy holders in Louisiana faced cancelation thanks to the ACA, and only 387 residents of the Pelican State had signed up on healthcare.gov, even though 344,000 qualified for subsidies. The Louisiana U.S. Senator was the deciding vote to pass the 2010 heath reform bill, and has stood by her decision.

In an olive branch to rebellious Red State Democrats, Obama was uniquely contrite on Thursday as he admitted his administration had “fumbled the rollout on this healthcare law.”

“I completely get how upsetting this can be for a lot of Americans, particularly after assurances they heard from me that if they had a plan that they liked they could keep it,” said the President. “And to those Americans, I hear you loud and clear. I said that I would do everything we can to fix this problem. And today I’m offering an idea that will help do it.”

Saying early technical glitches with the website and a broken promise that Americans could keep their health insurance were “on me,” the president told reporters he heard “loud and clear” growing frustration with his signature legislation.

“We have to ask ourselves some hard questions inside the White House why we didn’t see more of these problems coming on,” Obama confessed, adding that he “did not have enough awareness about the problems with the website” until after the launch. “We should’ve done a better job getting it right on day one. Not on day 29 or day 40.”

This Presidential Act of Contrition seemed to be enough for Landrieu. In a statement to the press, she wrote, “I’m encouraged that the President took action to stop the cancelation of insurance policies that people were promised they could retain. I was particularly happy to see the notification provision included, which is an important part of my bill.”

However, the Louisiana Senator will not back down from passing her own ACA fix through the Congress. She emphasized, “ I will be working today and throughout the weeks ahead to support legislation to keep the promise. I remain willing to work with anyone who wants to strengthen the Affordable Care Act and keep the significant promise that it holds for our country.”

She did not back down from backing Obamacare, however, regardless of the polls. “If this were easy,” the Senator maintained, “it would have been done 100 years ago. But for the first time under the Affordable Care Act, middle class and hard working families, entrepreneurs, and small businesses will have access to affordable, quality health care that’s there when they need it most. And that is certainly something worth fighting for.”

Landrieu was attempting to thread the political needle. In Washington and at home, she was under attack from the right and the left.

“Changing the rules after health plans have already met the requirements of the law could destabilize the market and result in higher premiums for consumers,” said Karen M. Ignagni, the president of America’s Health Insurance Plans. “Premiums have already been set for next year based on an assumption about when consumers will be transitioning to the new marketplace. If now fewer younger and healthier people choose to purchase coverage in the exchange, premiums will increase, and there will be fewer choices for consumers.”

And in the Pelican State, negative television ads seem ubiquitous in their condemnation. A nearly $2 million funded by the GOP’s Koch brothers, had lambasted Landrieu across the airwaves. Meanwhile, the leading GOP contender, Baton Rouge Congressman Bill Cassidy had paid for an ad of his own.

“As the deciding vote for Obamacare, Mary Landrieu is in a panic, not for you, but for her own political career. Typical Washing­ton Politician,” the pro-Cassidy narrator declared. Of course, the GOP candidate had problems of his own the week before. Already under attack from the Tea Party for being too moderate, a letter came out that said the Baton Rouge Republican had once backed Michael Dukakis for President. It’s the GOP equivalent of endorsing Satan.

In 1988, while living in California, Cassidy penned a letter to The State-Times, a now defunct afternoon newspaper in Baton Rouge, mocking anyone who would vote for George H.W. Bush for President. Instead, he directly suggested Louisiana residents vote for Michael Dukakis.

In a sarcastic tone, Cassidy “thanked” voters for supporting Bush because the Republican president would ultimately help California by increasing defense spending while Louisiana suffered economically during the oil bust because of falling prices. “You see, when the federal government takes care of poor people, education, health care, roads and the elderly, you people get a lot of that money,” he wrote, according to a copy obtained by Politico.com from archives of the newspaper. “If you begin to realize that patriotism has nothing to do with any of this, tell yourself that there was nothing that the Republicans could have done about the fall in oil prices. Of course, I know better.”

He continued, “Please do me one favor, dear Louisianans. Never ask yourself if you’re better off now than you were eight years ago. If you do, you might wake up, you might vote for a change.”

As the liberal website DailyKos.org noted, “Now, back in 1988, things were pretty different, and the Pelican State was only about 2 percent redder than the nation as a whole; in 2012, by contrast, it was 22 percent redder. But Bush the Elder still won Louisiana by a handy 10 points, so add Cassidy’s admiration for The Duke to his long list of sins against the conservative movement.”

Confronted with the letter, now-Congressman Cassidy admitted he was “wrong” to pen it. That did little to placate the Baton Rouge Republican’s Tea Party challenger, Col. Rob Maness, who made proverbial hay in fundraising at his opponent’s expense. A division of the GOP vote stands as Mary Landrieu’s best chance to pull off a primary victory in November 2014. She could execute a strategy that David Vitter did effectively against his Democratic opponents. As they fought, the Metairie Republican Congress­man consolidated his base and edged into the Senate with just over 50 percent of the vote, a first primary victory.

Of course, Vitter had the luxury of three Democrats facing him. So far, Landrieu only has two announced Republicans. In a positive for Cassidy, La. State Rep. Alan Seabaugh, who had flirted with a bid for U.S. Senate, opted against entering the contest three weeks ago—and actually decided to endorse Cassidy.

Still, Seabaugh’s endorsement was hardly heartfelt. He called Cassidy “if not quite a staunch hard-line conservative, at least a solid Republican vote.” And, in the one right-wing compliment for which Landrieu must have prayed, the State Rep. cited Cassidy’s vote against re-opening the federal government as a big mark in his favor.

Ironically, Seabaugh’s decision to sit this one out may, perversely, also hurts Cassidy. That’s because it allows Air Force vet Rob Maness, the only “true conservative” candidate in the race, to consolidate right-wing support, and its fundraising potential rather than risk splitting it multiple ways. Right now, his campaign war chest is anemic, and Maness tried to fill it on Thursday by distributing an email he entitled “The Unaffordable ObamaCare Scam.”

Maness wrote, “Over and over Obama said, ‘You can keep your plan; You can keep your doctor,’ knowing it was a boldfaced lie… Obama lied over and over and Mary Landrieu swore by it every time.” Perfunctory attack made, the Tea Party candidate asked for donations from $25.00 to $250.00, saying he would not “clink champagne glasses” in Washington, a reference to Cassidy.

This profitable attack on the ACA, though, did not stop Landrieu from ending her im­promptu press conference Thurs­day afternoon, after meeting with the President’s Chief of Staff, with the words, “Don’t lose sight of the promise of this bill, even though we have to get this fixed.”

Maness, when asked by The Louisiana Weekly about his proposal for healthcare reform, admitted that he had none. He called any major reform, including access for pre-existing conditions, “more socialism.”

And, Maness said that was the problem with Bill Cassidy. The Baton Rouge Congressman wanted to “repeal and replace,” and, Maness said, “That shows he’s really not a conservative.”

So, Landrieu hopes—and fears.

This article originally published in the November 18, 2013 print edition of The Louisiana Weekly newspaper.