Beleaguered members of Congress who support Obamacare and squeaked by in the recent election now have a nemesis – a PAC of doctors, surgeons and nurses demanding they change their ways because the health-care law will only wreak more havoc in 2015.
“A lot of the Democrats in Congress have gotten the message in this past election of people’s unhappiness with Obamacare,” said Dr. Jeffrey Singer, a co-founder of Our Patients First PAC. “The pain of the Affordable Care Act is just going to get worse, not better.”
Singer, an Arizona surgeon, formed the PAC in September after watching helplessly while many of his patient’s policies were canceled and others found that he wasn’t in their networks.
Three of them were enrolled in Medicaid by default because their policies were deemed “not ACA compliant.” Access to providers in Medicaid is even worse than in the private plans available in the exchanges.
Our Patients First now has representatives in 15 states and hopes to expand significantly next year. It has been sponsoring radio and television ads in five congressional districts where the newly elected incumbents lost by fewer than 10,000 votes and could be vulnerable in the next election.
The dangers of Obamacare will become even more apparent after Jan. 1, Singer said, when several mandates that were tabled will become reality. For example, the employer mandate to offer insurance in companies that employ more than 50 people will start being enforced. Cancellations that were postponed will happen and premiums will rise.
“All these things are churning and its imperative that the subject of the ACA come up (in Congress), Singer said. “The ACA is not sustainable. We want to play a role in influencing the agenda to make sure patients are first.”
The group is running ads in Iowa, home of the first presidential primary, and in Central California, the Florida panhandle, Omaha, Neb., and northeast Arizona.
