Super Sunday Obamacare Schadenfreude

I hear there's an important football game happening sometime today; but until then, I guess life goes on, and so does Obamacare Schadenfreude.

Perhaps the leader of today's batch is this statement by Clinton apologist Lannie Davis that Nancy Pelosi should apologize for the way the healthcare rollout has gone:

Nancy Pelosi should say that. We messed up!

Wearing a pair of rosey glasses, Eric Cantor proclaimed that Obamacare is doomed, doomed!

Cantor: 'Obamacare is on borrowed time'

The end of the Affordable Care Act is within sight, House Majority Leader Eric Cantor says, outlining Republican plans to propose health care legislation later this year.

“In my opinion, Obamacare is on borrowed time,” the Virginia Republican said in an interview for Sunday on CBS’s “Face the Nation.” “As we begin to see the further growth in terms of implementation of this law, you will see, I believe, more and more people negatively affected. And there's going to be a real problem, a real need for an alternative.”
. . .
“There is a consensus about Republican solutions for a healthcare system that works for everybody, which includes those without a job, which includes those who are sick,” he said. House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Dave Camp (R-Mich.), Energy and Commerce Chairman Fred Upton (R-Mich.) and Education and Workforce Committee Chairman John Kline (R-Minn.) “are all working on different elements of this that I believe will turn into an alternative for Obamacare.”

Optimism is a blessing I haven't yet achieved with respect to Obamacare.

William Teach at Pirate's Cove takes a somewhat more measured view, that we are stuck with Obamacare in some form unless conservatives take control of Congress and the presidency: Experts Proclamin Obamacare Will Be Impossible To Get Rid Of

Some said slavery would be impossible to get rid of. Same with other laws. Yet, we got rid of them. The web headline reads “Repealing health care law would mean higher costs”, while the Android app one reads “Health law locked in, experts say”

(USA Today) Republicans may not agree with President Obama’s State of the Union call to drop the idea of repealing the Affordable Care Act, but health experts say the law has taken such hold that it may be impossible to get rid of it.
The consequences of repeal, health care officials and industry analysts say, go beyond the fact that 9 million people would suddenly lose their insurance or that anyone with a pre-existing condition would either lose insurance or pay much higher premiums.
All consumers would take a huge financial hit, because health care costs would continue to rise, and insurers would probably recoup their losses by charging higher premiums. . .

It will be tough to repeal and replace Ocare. Any legislation will have to incorporate many of the popular ideas, such as not being able to be dropped because a person gets sick. And the plan will have to create a slow walk over at least several years where people are moved from the government option plans to other plans, without massive economic disruptions…or not, consider the massive market and consumer disruptions caused by Ocare, such as the 6+ million who lost their plans, with potentially tens of millions more coming in 2014 to early 2015.

But, nothing can truly happen unless the Republicans win the White House in 2016, and have control of the Senate and House. However, if a Republican does win the White House, he or she has quite a bit of power to change a lot of Obamacare, regardless of Congressional control. The ACA gives the heads of multiple Executive Branch agencies enormous latitude to create rules, particularly the head of HHS. The contraception/ sterilization/abortifacient “mandate”? It could be whacked with the stroke of a pen, because it is a rule. The definition of part time could be changed. A good chunk of the tax rules can be deep-sixed. Calorie counts on vending machines and menus? Other insurance requirements? Gone. Change the rule on Congressional reimbursement for Exchange plans.

A Republican president can also rescind all the exemptions for all groups, companies, and unions who received them, who, strangely, were also big supporters of the law.
It won’t be easy, since nothing can truly be done till 2017. Do you know what else was hard? Sending men to the moon. Creating a nationwide interstate system. Building massive skyscrapers. Crossing the country in horse drawn wagons. Doing away with slavery. It takes American will and know how. And we can replace Obamacare with ideas and legislation that works for all Americans. There shouldn't be losers.

Finally, Obamacare is suspected of being a factor in the increased cost of generic prescription  drugs.

Generic drugs such as Pravastatin, which treats high cholesterol, and the antibiotic Doxycycline spiked upwards of 1,000 percent in 2013, according to a survey by the National Community Pharmacists Association. According to the survey, 77 percent of pharmacists said they experienced 26 or more instances of a large increase in the acquisition price of a generic drug within the last six months of 2013.

The survey found an additional 84 percent of pharmacists said price fluctuations prevented them from providing care and remaining in business due to the fact that filling prescriptions resulted in losses when some patients refused their prescriptions because of costs.
. . .
 “If you ask the pharmaceutical company, they’ll say, ‘Oh, we had a shortage,’ which makes no sense because they were making other milligrams,” Belk wrote. “By the time the pharmacy has figured out the price spiked, it’s dropped back down again.” However, Dan Mendelson, CEO of consulting firm Avalere health, says prices of generic drugs have gone up because demand for them has risen.
. . .
“I think people will continue to use these generic products because they’re cost effective and needed when prescribed,” Mendelson said. “There’s no question in my mind demand is going to go up because of the Affordable Care Act [ObamaCare], and these markets respond to demand.”

Since ObamaCare requires all health insurance plans in the exchanges to cover prescription drugs, the new health reform law may increase demand for drugs, causing prices for generic medications to rise even higher in the future.

Good, or bad; I don't know. With higher demand, pharmaceutical companies will increase the capacity for production, and the prices should smooth out, although probably at somewhat higher prices.  Price controls (the preferred liberal solution) will just create permanent shortages, as they are finding out in Venezuela, where ordinary toilet paper is in short supply due to price controls and the resulting black market.