Obamacare Kicks In

This Thursday, Americans will get their first taste of Obamacare as new provisions from the health reform bill go into effect.

Although the new healthcare law was signed back in March, the rollout of its actual provisions is a process that takes place over several years. This Thursday will see a few new provisions from the law go into effect. These provisions were touted as some of the most popular aspects of the new law, yet it is doubtful that they will have a meaningful affect on the already lackluster popularity of the bill. (Pollster.com currently shows that in the aggregate, 49% oppose the bill, and 41% favor it.)

Starting Thursday, new healthcare plans cannot discriminate against children with preexisting conditions, young adults can remain on their parents plan till their 26^th birthday, and insurance companies will no longer be able to put a lifetime limit on their coverage. (An additional summary of the other provisions can be read here.) Part of the logic behind Nancy Pelosi’s much maligned comments that the bill had to pass so the people can “learn what is in it” was that once Americans learned of these benefits, the bill would become more popular.

In practice, this looks unlikely. The reason for this is that it is unlikely a majority of Americans will actually notice an immediate change in their healthcare plans. According to Paul Howard of the Manhattan Institute, since the majority of Americans get their insurance through their employer, “they are either not going to see any benefit, or slight increases in money going out of their paycheck to cover premium increases.” This increase in costs is already happening. The Wall Street Journal reported that insurance companies are looking at premium increases of between 1% and 9% because of the new healthcare law.

Howard also noted that the most substantial parts of the bill, the health insurance exchanges and the expansion of Medicaid, don’t even come into effect until 2014.

The second reason these provisions won’t change the popularity of the bill is the current economic climate. With the unemployment rate at 9.6%, dissatisfied voters who might even benefits from the new provisions are still going to face the same troubling economic realities. President Obama will reportedly tout these new provisions in a speech on Wednesday. It’s doubtful there will be much impact from that.

Follow Noah on Twitter: @noahkgreen