The Daily Plunge

In the movies the Kraken always dies. If it were only that easy with ObamaCare.

Unleash the Kraken! Long after all the celebration ends and the progressives focus their guilt elsewhere, the law of unintended consequences rears its ugly head. Zeus (Obama) has unleashed the Kraken (ObamaCare) on America and the hits are already coming. At least six large insurers have gotten rid of child-only health policies because of the inept legislation. The hipster dufus crowd won’t notice this because they’re on to the next one already. Tough subjects like moral hazard and profit aren’t covered on intellectual electronic fare like The Daily Show.

Here’s the problem: It also means that parents attempting to enroll their children in these policies might have the option to wait until the last minute to pick up coverage and then drop that coverage immediately thereafter. There’s an enrollment period that’s supposed to limit jumping on and off insurance, but as Politico notes, the rules don’t “address how to cover anyone — healthy or sick — outside the open enrollment period if, say, a child’s parent loses his or her job and coverage.” Consequently, the article explains, “insurers are worried that children — or, more likely, their parents — might apply for coverage literally on the way to the hospital or doctor’s office and cancel it once treatment is complete.” That would drive up expenses for child-only policies, which would push more people out of the insurance pool, which would further drive up coverage costs, and so on and so forth spinning faster and faster until the out of control merry-go-round has thrown off just about everyone.

If our progressive friends ever get around to reading about this problem they’ll just blame the evil insurance companies for not offering the policies anymore. Better yet, they’ll argue that this just reinforces the need for a “government option.” Liberals are fantastic at finding money-losing opportunities for the American taxpayer.

Bitter, Party One: President Jimmy Carter is still bitter after all these years. He’s mad at Ted Kennedy for supposedly ruining CarterCare. He blames the Iranians for his loss to Reagan. Carter wasn’t a good president and he’s even worse at humility. He claims to be the “greatest ex-president ever.” I wonder what President Clinton thinks about this? Perhaps Carter should challenge Obama in 2012. Better yet, how about Obama-Carter 2012? Hope, Change, Inflation, Long Gas Lines and High Interest Rates! Now we’re talkin’!

One quick note. President Carter has been praised for decades for all his accomplishments after leaving the White House. When Carter cites his record and says he’s best ex-president ever it devalues his accomplishments. Did Carter do all these things just to improve his image? Carter sounds like a man who had his ego badly damage and his willing to do or say anything to make people love him.

More Bad News for Democrats: As if things can’t get any worse for Democrats this election season, the generic ballot might be overestimating the party of Andrew Johnson. Who knows, but I do know the Republicans are going to have a huge advantage redrawing all the districts after the Census is finished.