DALLAS, TX: Merrill Matthews, Ph.D., resident scholar at the Institute for Policy Innovation (IPI) is available for interview following today’s press conference on the state of the Obamacare roll out.
Matthews predicted the day before the website was launched that Obamacare could, ironically, result in increasing the number of uninsured. With not even 27,000 Americans signed up in the federal health care exchange, and with over 5 million policy cancellations, Matthews’ prediction appears to be all too accurate.
And as reports pour in of Americans facing steeply higher health insurance premiums and canceled coverage, the administration just imposed last Friday new regulations mandating health insurers cover mental and behavioral health to the same extent they cover physical health care, which Matthews predicts will only worsen problems by making coverage more expensive and increasing fraud and policy cancellations.
“If you thought the Obamacare website rollout has been a disaster, wait until these same people start coordinating your health care,” says Matthews. “And when that implodes as badly as the website, we’ll get to see a replay of all those responsible running for cover and claiming it was everybody else’s fault.”
Democrats running in 2014 elections are worried, and they should be, says Matthews. “Had Obamacare kicked in last year, there’s a good chance that dissatisfied voters would have given the president and some Democrats the boot. Now that the public knows the truth, Democrats are getting increasingly, and justifiably, nervous about 2014.”
Merrill Matthews, Ph.D. is resident scholar with the Institute for Policy Innovation (IPI), an independent, nonprofit public policy organization based in Dallas, Texas. Matthews is available for interview by contacting Erin Humiston at (972) 874-5139, or erin@ipi.org.
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