In 2012, the Denver Broncos signed an injured, aging quarterback whose future was very much in doubt. At Peyton Manning's introductory press conference, John Elway was asked about his backup plan in case the risky move didn't go well. “I don't have a Plan B,” Elway said. “I'm going with Plan A.”
Plan A paid off last year with the Broncos winning it all — Elway's lack of a contingency plan was rewarded in a big way. But there's a reason their season is labelled as a storybook ending — this approach rarely works in real life.
Few thought Donald Trump had a realistic chance of becoming the 45th president of the United States, so it's somewhat understandable that many Democrats were confident leading up to Election Day. According to Buzzfeed's Kate Nocera, many Dems found “the idea of Trump actually winning so unimaginable, no one [had] given much thought to how they'd handle him winning the election.”
Texas Rep. Marc Veasy said, “It's never talked about in much depth or detail because the guy is such a joke. We can't fathom it and therefore are not planning for it.”
One senior Democratic Senate aide told BuzzFeed, “No one is sitting around planning for a President Trump. No one is meeting, no one is contemplating, no one is meditating about this.”
To be fair, some interviewees specified that no plan was necessary “because they disagree with everything he says,” so their course was already laid out. Still, some are likely ruing their lack of planning as they scramble to make sense of the new political landscape.
Meanwhile, many are celebrating the forthcoming Trump presidency and impending ACA repeal. But Eric Johnson, a broker sales executive for freshbenies, (who shares three of his health care predictions on page 30), advises caution and circumspection.
“Before criticizing one side and assuming the other side will fix everything, I recommend studying the history of the ACA. We know it was based on a program that was put in place under a Republican governor, but many don't realize that the Massachusetts bill had its origins in a 1993 bill with 20 Republican co-sponsors that was introduced as an alternative to Hillarycare. One reasons Republicans have had so much trouble introducing a replacement plan is because nearly every idea they had was embedded in the ACA.”
Whatever your current mood, this election offers a good reminder of the importance of Plan B. Because no matter which side of the aisle you sit on, there will never be a happily ever after.
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Paul Wilson
Paul Wilson is the editor-in-chief of BenefitsPRO Magazine and BenefitsPRO.com. He has covered the insurance industry for more than a decade, including stints at Retirement Advisor Magazine and ProducersWeb.
