Dr. Manny: President’s speech puts more Americans at risk

President Barack Obama pauses while speaking about his signature health care law, Thursday, Nov. 14, 2013, in the Brady Press Briefing Room of the White House in Washington. Bowing to pressure, President Barack Obama intends to permit continued sale of individual insurance plans that have been canceled because they failed to meet coverage standards under the health care law, officials said Thursday. (AP Photo/Charles Dharapak) (AP)

We’ve been waiting for it, and finally on Thursday, the president held a press conference to address the newest batch of issues surrounding the implementation of ObamaCare. His speech showed how ineffective his health care policy is and how ill-prepared the administration has been in dealing with the deadly side effects of his reform.

Even though he acknowledged that he should have done a better job with the ObamaCare rollout, he also tried to create another villain to share the blame. To him, that villain is the health insurance industry – which is already viewed unfavorably by the American people.

But this time, do not blame the insurance companies. For President Obama now to try to change the regulations he originally placed on the individual insurance marketplace, and to say to those insurance companies: ‘Oh never mind, give them back their original policies,’ is irresponsible and dishonest.  And as the president and his administration know perfectly well, it’s also not doable.

How can a president run the government like this? How can any CEO run a company like this?

What am I supposed to tell my patients? How do I counsel a woman who is looking to me to help plan her pregnancy when she has multiple high-risk factors? How do I tell the woman who just lost her insurance that we have to enroll her in another clinical care service so that she can have continuity of care?

During his speech, the president heavily relied on the fact that the system was broken before the ObamaCare debacle. Yes, the system was broken, but at least we were able to identify what those problems were. Now, we have even more problems piling up, and it seems that he doesn’t know how to begin addressing them.

As a child, I used to love the tale of the “Emperor’s New Clothes,” a story about a proud ruler, tricked into walking naked through the streets. None of his subjects dared to tell the him he wasn’t wearing any clothing, for fear that they would be considered stupid or incompetent.  That tale reminds me: Rather than tell Obama he is wearing no clothes, the American people need to stand up and tell the president, “You have no solutions.”