Explain Obamacare at last

By Dean Obeidallah,

Can someone please explain to me the details of Obamacare? And when I say “someone,” I’m looking at you President Obama — or at least members of your administration.

I can’t fathom how Obama — one of the best orators of modern-day politics — could be such a poor advocate for what’s arguably the crowning legislative achievement of his administration? I can assure you that if there were a law named after me — such as “Obeidallahcare” or “Deanaid” — I would be crisscrossing the country explaining it so people would understand and support it.

Sure, most of us get the broad strokes of the Affordable Care Act commonly known as Obamacare — But the law is close to 1,000 pages and will spur hundreds if not thousands of regulations — what else does the law offer, and how will Americans be able to gain access to its benefits?

It’s remarkable that there’s such confusion surrounding a piece of legislation signed into law more than three years ago — in March 2010.

Even more concerning is that a recent poll of doctors found by a wide margin that they are “not at all familiar” with how certain key provisions of the law will be implemented. And astoundingly it appears that Democratic members of Congress don’t even fully grasp how Obamacare will be put into effect. That point was made crystal clear when Democratic Sen. Max Baucus, one of the early champions of the law, recently labeled the rollout of Obamacare, “a huge train wreck coming down.”

The consequence of Obama ceding the battlefield can be seen in a new poll that found 54% of Americans disapprove of the law and a record-high 39% want Congress to repeal it.

And what’s even more bizarre is that polls show strong support for many key provisions of Obamacare.

The administration has recently started organizing faith-based and community groups to help get out the word. The federal government just launched a multimillion-dollar campaign to educate people about coverage options under Obamacare.

It’s clear that Obamacare needs a massive infusion of PR care if it is going to succeed.

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