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Sour Sixteen
This weekend, the field of 64 NCAA basketball teams chasing the national title will be narrowed down to The Sweet Sixteen.
Coincidentally, this weekend also marks the fourth anniversary of Obamacare. It’s hard to believe that it’s only been four years since President Obama signed this disastrous bill into law, given all the things that have gone horribly, horribly wrong.
Nevada hasn’t been immune to the Obamacare horrors, whether Sen. Harry Reid wants to believe it or not. This week, the state awarded a $1.5 million contract to a consulting company hired to help Xerox fix the failed Nevada exchange website that has already cost taxpayers nearly $84 million. This comes just two days after the story of 62-year-old Larry Basich — who has been paying into the exchange since November but was left with $407,000 in medical bills because the system didn’t place him with the right insurance company — came to light.
And who could forget the history-making battle between the Obama administration and the Culinary Union, which has recently lambasted Obamacare publicly?
As I mentioned earlier this week, the White House tried to use the NCAA tournament to garner more support for its failing legislation by encouraging people to make their own March Madness picks. But, instead of choosing winning college basketball teams, the White House wants you to choose the “16 sweetest reasons to get covered.”
I tried. I looked through the silly cat memes and the slap-stick GIFs that have absolutely nothing to do with Obamacare. But I just couldn’t see a winner in this terrible law.
So, in celebration of Obamacare’s birthday and its latest marketing gimmick, I decided to create my own version of the ACA bracket. It’s a list of the 16 worst things about Obamacare, and I call it the “Sour Sixteen.”
- When PolitiFact named Obama’s promise, “If you like your health care plan, you can keep it,” the Lie of the Year
- That time Harry Reid said “all” Obamacare horror stories are untrue
- That it has been changed nearly three dozen times, with more than half of those changes coming directly from the administration
- That it will cause 2.5 million workers to leave the workforce over the next decade, and that the left said this is a good thing because it frees people from “job-lock”
- That it caused more than 6 million Americans to lose their health insurance
- That the average Obamacare insurance premium in Nevada will be 179 percent higher than residents’ pre-Obamacare rates
- When Harry Reid became the only top congressional leader to exempt some of his staff from the law
- When the Nevada man mentioned above was left with a $407,000 hospital bill after the Nevada Obamacare exchange had no record of his coverage, which he had been paying into for months
- The rollout
- All those times Harry Reid promised America: “If you like the coverage you have, you can keep it”
- When Nancy Pelosi justified passing it by saying, “We have to pass the bill so that you can find out what is in it”
- How it will increase costs for most small businesses
- Predictions that Obamacare premiums will skyrocket in the coming months
- How it discourages business growth through a litany of new costs and regulations
- The way it expands Medicaid and increases the use of emergency care
- How the law encourages adults to embrace child-like dependence #Brosurance #PajamaBoy
Hopefully, my NCAA picks in NPRI’s bracket challenge will turn out to be a little sweeter than the items on that list (though my track record from recent years makes me seriously doubt it).
Speaking of which, congrats to “B Land,” who’s currently leading the field in NPRI’s tournament challenge.
Have a great weekend, and good luck with your picks!
Andy Matthews
NPRI President
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