imagesRepublican David Jolly, in a hotly contested election, defeated Democratic nominee Alex Sink to win the special congressional election in Florida, filling the seat of the late Rep. Bill Young in Congress.

This race has been seen as a bellwether for the upcoming congressional mid-term elections this November and with the Affordable Care Act or “Obamacare” being the top issue.

Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee chairman Steve Israel attributed Sink’s loss to outside Republican money.

“Despite those millions from Republican outside groups, they underperformed because the only message they offered voters—repealing the [Affordable Care Act]—is out of touch and failed to bring them even close to their historically wide margins,” Israel said.

The unfortunate aspect is that Sink outspent her Republican challenger Jolly to about 4-1, and being better well known from her narrow loss to current Florida Governor Rick Scott.

NRCC chairman Greg Walden said in a statement. “Tonight, one of Nancy Pelosi’s most prized candidates was ultimately brought down because of her unwavering support for Obamacare, and that should be a loud warning for other Democrats running coast to coast.”

The biggest take away from this hotly contested was “Obamacare” and during the debate between the two candidates, especially during the first debate, questions were posed to Sink, but she had little to about the law.

Sink defended the law and gave the widely used moniker of many Democrats that Obamacare should be fixed, but gave few actual ideas on how to fix the law.  This is also a problem for Democrats nationally who state they want to fix the law but so far have given no practical ideas on how to do it.

Jolly pressed Sink on how she would overall the law, her only proposals were to allow the government to negotiate for lower prescription drug prices for Medicare, and to repeal the medical device tax. Other ideas were mentioned, but never explicitly stated what they were.    

Unfortunately, neither of these ideas would alleviate higher premiums, higher deductibles, a hugely unpopular mandate, and narrower choices of doctors, hospitals, and prescription drugs for the American public.  Democrats would have to fundamentally change the law, which seems highly unlikely, especially the individual mandate.

Now Republicans have to be careful not to read too much into this special election, as in 2010, Democrats won three special election and then went on to lose big in the mid-term elections of that year.

Either way the Affordable Care Act will be a huge issue leading up to the mid-term elections.  Democrats own this as it was passed on a strictly partisan vote.

As of right now fewer people are signing up, fewer young people are signing up, and less money is flowing into insurance companies from premiums being paid.  As I have repeatedly written, what happens at the end of the month when all this comes to a head, will the insurance companies receive a bailout?

This is difficult problem for Democrats as the nation moves closer toward the mid-term election, and the biggest prize who controls the Senate come 2015.        

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