Commentary:
By Maria Cardona
How long can we put up with so much hypocrisy from the Republicans? In recent days we have seen how low the Republican party is willing to go in order to try and score political points.
The same party that in recent years has been obsessed with eliminating Obamacare, now complains that people cannot join the system as quickly as possible.
We know that like any reform of this magnitude, it is normal that the implementation of Obamacare takes time.
Last Thursday, the president addressed the American people announcing that his administration is taking steps to help people who are being affected negatively and who’s plans are being canceled by insurance companies.
According to the President, insurance companies can now offer customers the option to renew their 2013 health plan for 2014 without any cost, allowing them to stay with their current plan.
The truth is that this administrative relief will give more information and options to consumers, including the option to stay in their current plan.
And even if the repair does not solve every problem for everyone, it will help on a large scale and provide more time for these people, who are less than 5% of the population, find plans within the insurance market that suits them.
And while we know that early enrollment numbers were much lower than we expected, we also knew that the first batch of entries would be low, not only because the Obamacare website had technological difficulties, but also from the experiences lived with health reform in Massachusetts, which showed that enrollment in these programs tend to start out slowly.
The reality is that these numbers are not indicative of the final triumph the law will have. There is still time in the enrollment period, and while the Obamacare website continues to improve, so will the entries.
This we learned from the October enrollment numbers, numbers that show state health markets, which had the least amount of technological problems, and who saw the most entries in that same month.
For example, the state of California, which operates its own national market, had more than 35,000 entries in October.
Say what you will, it is true that thanks to Obamacare, an estimated 10.2 million Latinos who previously had no access to health insurance, now do.
In addition, this same law protects us from being denied coverage simply because we have a preexisting condition.
It’s about time that Republicans put their obsession for Obamacare aside and seek solutions for a law that the majority of American people want to see fixed and implemented successfully.
Maria Cardona is a Democratic strategist and a Principal at the Dewey Square Group, where she founded Latinovations and shares insightful commentary on current events. She is also a former senior adviser to Hillary Clinton, and former communications director to the Democratic National Committee. Latinovations is a division of the Dewey Square Group. For more information please visit http://www.latinovations.com/.