Democrats told the White House they don’t like how the law’s implementation is going. | REUTERS Dems fret over Obamacare

Democrats are fretting that Obamacare is going to crush their hopes of big gains in the midterm elections, just like it cost them the House in 2010.

And as bad-news headlines and big-time dips in the polls pile up, the signs of anxiety are starting to show.


On Monday night, South Carolina’s Elizabeth Colbert Busch, a favorite of the Democratic left, couldn't get away from the law fast enough, calling Obamacare “extremely problematic” — a quote that got wide play from GOP groups like the National Republican Senatorial Committee.

Sen. Max Baucus warned that there could be a “train wreck” if the Obamacare outreach doesn’t improve — and he helped give birth to the law in the Senate.

And during at least two meetings with administration officials last week, Democrats told the White House they don’t like how the law’s implementation and messaging are going.

( PHOTOS: 10 alarmist quotes on health law ruling)

It's no wonder why: On Tuesday, a Kaiser Family Foundation poll showed just 35 percent of Americans hold a favorable view of the law, right as the administration is planning to roll it out.

All the panic forced President Barack Obama to rush to the law's defense, saying at a news conference Tuesday: “Even if we do everything perfectly, there'll still be, you know, glitches and bumps. … And that's pretty much true of every government program that's ever been set up.”

Obama’s goal was to dismiss what he called “all the hue and cry and, you know, sky-is-falling predictions about this stuff.”

Don't bet on that happening. Democrats have been fretting about the law since it passed, and they're not exactly falling in love with it now either.

(POLITICO Roundtable: Obamacare still poses problems for president, Dems)

The NRSC latched onto Colbert Busch’s comments from Monday night, sending out a press release boasting that she joins a “chorus of Democrats who are running for office and running from Obamacare.”

Colbert Busch, considered one of the most prominent Democratic candidates in the country, distanced herself considerably from Obamacare Monday night in a debate with former Gov. Mark Sanford.

She has to appeal to voters in a conservative district, just like other Democrats running in states or congressional districts next year will have to win over conservatives and independents, too.

But the Democrats were always going to face this moment — they designed the law so all of the core pieces would go into effect in 2014, in a midterm election year. And they also needed a lot of complicated pieces to work together smoothly: health coverage for everyone who asks for it, new marketplaces of health insurance in every state, expanded Medicaid coverage for low-income people, and — of course — the hated individual mandate.

( PHOTOS: Supreme Court upholds health care law)

Democratic strategist Chris Lehane says this all makes sense: midterm voters tend to be more moderate, and a lot of Democratic incumbents will be running in Republican-leaning states this year.

But he also said the dilemma goes back to the strategy used to pass the health care law in the first place — “the hangover of the fact that health care reform was passed by muscling it through a then Democratic-controlled Congress without necessarily building the broad public support and positive brand.”

Democrats are in full damage-control mode. Michigan Sen. Debbie Stabenow’s office sent a statement to POLITICO — unsolicited — that talked up the Obamacare benefits that are already in place, like young-adult coverage and better Medicare prescription drug coverage for seniors. “Now, we need to make sure that individuals and small businesses have the facts about how they can use the reforms that are about to take effect to lower their costs,” she said in the statement.

Meanwhile, Republicans have been quick to capitalize on the turmoil.

Obama also blamed Republicans for the rocky rollout.

“When you're doing it nationwide, relatively fast, and you've got half of Congress who is determined to try to block implementation and not adequately funding implementation, and then you've got a number of members of — or governors — Republican governors who know that it's bad politics for them to try to implement this effectively, … that makes it harder,” Obama said.

The key piece of the law left to be put in place is to get the uninsured covered — a goal that requires help from states.

The Obama administration has faced significant headwinds from Republican governors who have refused to build the health care marketplaces, even though some of them have taken the federal money for Medicaid expansion, to legislatures that have blocked the efforts of governors who have tried to go along.

And Obama’s team is getting ready to build up a louder drumbeat about the law. A White House official says the next steps will include implementation announcements that will draw attention to the benefits of the law, as well as more events to highlight benefits that are already in place, like speeches about its young-adult coverage and reports on the law’s preventive care benefits.

Obama tried to play down the significance of those steps, saying they’re just for the small group of Americans who don’t already have health insurance, but the reality is that there have already been glitches. And there will be more — all of which Republicans can easily exploit in next year’s elections.

One Democratic strategist predicted that incumbents who voted for the law will raise questions about the specifics of implementation as a way to establish independence from the Obama administration. The strategist noted that the law has been unpopular since it passed, which makes it different than the war in Iraq, for which public opinion shifted from neutral in 2004 to negative in 2006.

White House officials insist the Obama administration is working overtime to guarantee a smooth rollout and respond to all of the concerns they’re getting.

And Obama and his allies all cited Tuesday’s release of a three-page application form for Obamacare coverage — shorter than most private insurance companies use for individual health coverage — to replace the 21-page draft version that got so much criticism earlier this year.

Anne Filipic, president of Enroll America, the coalition of outside groups that will lead the big enrollment push this summer, said the new form “is a big step in the right direction and demonstrates that decision makers are committed to making the enrollment process consumer-friendly.”

White House spokesman Eric Schultz also pointed out that it’s not just the law’s favorable ratings that dropped in the Kaiser poll — it’s the unfavorable ratings, too.

And the 24 percent who are undecided are “gettable for us and will be our focus,” Schultz said.

Their success, however, depends on how good the big outreach efforts are.

They’re still planned for the summer, not now, and Democrats defend that decision. If Obama’s allies went out into the states too early and started selling the law to people who could use the health coverage, but there’s no place for them to sign up yet, supporters of the health care law are convinced that those people would just give up and not enroll.

Some congressional Democrats said the concerns are overblown.

“Some people are complaining so they can inoculate themselves among constituents who are unhappy, but I think it doesn’t make a lot of sense for them to do that,” Rep. Henry Waxman (D-Calif.), the ranking member of the Energy and Commerce Committee and lead author of the original law, told POLITICO. “I guess they figure if it goes well, they get credit, and if it doesn’t, then they were against it. They’re trying to have it both ways.”

Waxman also said he disagreed with Democratic critics.

“I know that there’s always some anxiety when you’re going to start something new. This is a major undertaking, but when the Affordable Care Act is fully implemented in January and starting in October, I think people are going to be quite pleased with it.”

He pointed to the pre-existing condition provision and the choices in picking plans from the marketplace as positives already popular with the public. “That’s not to say some of the kinks won’t be there,” he said, noting that some of the programs will be run at the state level. “People are going to be confused because it’s new. I think it’s going to work out quite well.”

National Democrats say there are plenty of ways that candidates can fight back against GOP attacks, citing Sen. Heidi Heitkamp’s response ad to attacks linking her to Obamacare in North Dakota. She talked about supporting changes in the law but referenced her own cancer story to say she opposes discrimination based on pre-existing conditions.

“Health care attacks are not new to voters, and implementation of the law will not alter the substance of the attack nor dramatically shift the politics,” said Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee Deputy Executive Director Matt Canter. “Republicans have already spent hundreds of millions of dollars attacking Democratic Senate candidates on this issue and it has not won them a single Senate seat. If the GOP wants to continue the same failed strategy, they are welcome to do that.”

And if Democrats are worried, other strategists say, the answer is to make sure it works — not fret about it.

“Democrats should not join Republicans in rehashing a four-year-old political battle,” Democratic strategist Donna Brazile said in an email to POLITICO. “The law was passed, it was upheld by the Supreme Court and we just had an election about it. It’s time for both Democrats and Republicans to work together on implementing this law. They have the power of oversight and should use it.”

James Hohmann contributed to this report.

This article first appeared on POLITICO Pro at 2:36 p.m. on April 30, 2013.