The Health Care Fiscal Cliff is Next

No matter where your political views lie- most will agree that President Obama is a really good communicator. He’s easy to listen to, what he says seems to sound logical, and he just comes across as a “nice guy.” But, like everything else on the political scene anymore, I just don’t know if I trust him.


Obama gave another “photo op” speech yesterday to try to get the general public more engaged in the fiscal cliff debate in Congress. In front on an obviously staged audience, and standing in front of 14 “average Americans,” the President encouraged those watching to keep the pressure on Congress to get a deal done to avert the economic collision they created. Once again, his comments sounded logical, he was easy to listen to, and he seemed like a nice guy.

But he made a comment during his remarks that took me by surprise- and it was about Medicare.

Ever since March, 2010 I’ve been trying to get behind the health care model that was created by the Affordable Care Act. I don’t like the law, I don’t agree with many aspects of the law, but it is the law. Something has to be done to fix the crisis we’re going to experience with health care costs and the Affordable Care Act is what we have to work with. There are some provisions in the law that makes sense and a lot of things that don’t. But I thought it was all supposed to be based on changing the trajectory of health care costs (including Medicare) and contribute to a reduction in our deficit over time.

Yesterday, to highlight his willingness to compromise on a fiscal cliff deal, President Obama said, “For example, I’m willing to reduce our government’s Medicare bills by finding new ways to reduce the cost of health care in this country. . . We want to make sure that Medicare is there for future generations. But the current trajectory of health care costs has gone up so high, we’ve got to find ways to make sure that it’s sustainable.”

Silly me, I thought that was the whole idea behind the Affordable Care Act.

With the exception of enrolling more people into a high-cost, inefficient, health care system- I’m not sure what the Affordable Care Act is about any more. All I know is that it’s going to be expensive and it’s going to get even more complicated; not what I thought I was signing-up for.

Happy New Year