The Republican leaders in Congress have mostly defined themselves by what they're against, but now they've announced what they're for -- the most popular parts of the Affordable Care Act (ACA).
I can only imagine the political identity crisis this is causing within the GOP. Their hallmark is opposing anything the President supports, even if it started as a Republican legislative proposal, and now they've plunged themselves into a partisan political abyss of their own making: they are supporting the key provisions of the president's signature legislative achievement, a law the Republicans have derisively and incessantly called "Obamacare" for two years. It turns out that the party realizes that may not have been such a good idea. So they're now pretending to come up with what amounts to their own version of Obamacare.
As Politico reports: "If the law is partially or fully overturned they'll draw up bills to keep the popular, consumer-friendly portions [of Obamacare] in place -- like allowing adult children to remain on parents' health care plans until age 26, and forcing insurance companies to provide coverage for people with pre-existing conditions. Ripping these provisions from law is too politically risky, Republicans say."
These provisions are not just popular and central to the law. They are among the few elements of the ACA that are inextricably tied to and, some say, dependent upon the individual responsibility provision, also known as the individual mandate. Yet the Republicans and their extremist friends in the corporate special interest crowd are challenging that provision and the entire law at the U.S. Supreme Court. You can call this irony or hypocrisy or both.
The simple fact is that Obamacare expands coverage to more than 30 million people and eliminates the worst insurance company abuses for those of us with coverage. It stops insurance companies from denying our care and jacking up our rates whenever they please. Apparently the Republicans have noticed that these things are good and popular with voters.
The GOP's political schizophrenia was evident in the quick backtrack by Speaker John Boehner and Budget Chairman Paul Ryan, who responded to the Politico report by stridently saying they would repeal the entire law, no matter what. Recognizing the political quicksand he was entering, Ryan offered uninsured families a single strand of hope: while the GOP has no intention of crafting actual legislation that could help actual people, which the ACA does every day, the Republicans may deign to share their "vision" with the huddled masses.
Republicans' political back-flips are staggering and make Mitt Romney, the presumptive GOP presidential nominee, look consistent by comparison. While telling their diehards they're repealing Obamacare in full, they're misleading the public and telling them they can keep the provisions that protect them from insurance company abuses. Many of the Obamacare provisions the Republicans say they'd like to keep are ones that are already in effect. If the court were to fulfill the desperate hopes of Republicans in Congress and overturn Obamacare, the Republicans would then try to immediatelly reinstitute much of what the court will have overturned. That's stunning and bizarre.
For two years the Republicans have promised to "replace" Obamacare as part of their non-stop repeal campaign. A fake plan like this is hardly a "replacement."
Just like their promise to protect Medicare, the talk about preserving the good stuff is an election year lie. The Republicans will always put the big corporations before the consumers they represent. They have an extremist agenda, and they're pursuing it at all costs. They've been driving an assault on women's health care, on health care in general, on every program central to the goal of opportunity and shared prosperity for all. Now that the election is getting closer, their right-wing agenda doesn't seem like such a great idea.
Boehner's words show that the GOP has discovered that hating the people they represent is bad politics. But how can the party reconcile that realization with its fundamental desire to do whatever big corporations say? They have to lie to the voters.
The Republicans in Congress and Mitt Romney will never do anything to help the middle class. They want to end Medicare as we know it. They support insurance company discrimination against the sick. They are waging an enthusiastic war on women and students and middle-class taxpayers. They want to give massive tax breaks to the 1 percent and protect outrageous things like big tax subsidies for the oil companies. Anyone inclined to entrust our nation's health care to this duplicitous party that exists to front for people who have grown rich off the status quo should remember that.
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Now they need to put something on the table to help the uninsured, the underinsured, the bankrupt, the ERs deluged with patients needing primary care.
Playing politics with people's access to healthcare may be their undoing.
There are a lot of sweaty GOP palms these days. Their hand just may be called by the Supreme Court decision. They've been bluffing. They have no REAL plan that will address the gargantuan crisis called health insurance.
There is no political winner when people die to the tune of 45,000/year because they cannot access healthcare.
Let the teapots stay back in the dark ages they love so much to tout about, and let those who believe in logic and planning a good solid way of getting the care they need, without stripping themselves down to poverty levels, go forward. Let the plan begin. Let the plan be enacted. Let their be light, at the end of our healthcare tunnel.
I can say this, the teapots will never admit they want logic, but as soon as affordable healthcare is needed by them, they will be the first to be at the door knocking.
Of these, 75% of those affected had health insurance...
Otherwise, things are OK, except it's still too "red" in this state for me.
I have learned how to duck and cover, and hide in the pool with a margarita (or two).
I get by...
Gee, ya think?
The Republicans have been pursuing ideological perfection for so long that they forgot what they were ostensibly sent there to do.
A rational person might think that an elected official who fails to pursue the best interests of his constituents would soon find himself out of office. Experience and observation of Republicans illustrates that they're not rational. Obama Derangement Syndrome is a dreadful thing to see, but in the end it may determine the outcome of the November elections.
People who had a child born with an illness are now covered from birth. All these provisions are proving very popular, no great surprise why, and when republicans talk about repealing ObamaCare because it not only is not good for American people, it will kill our budget (Paul Ryan liar liar pants on fire). He plays fast and loose with variables and forecasts economic doom. The truth is that ObamaCare will significantly reduce medical costs for people and government alike.
So let's tale a quick look at history here. First off everything was bad. Myths were perpetuated and there was a lot of confusion. A whole bunch of useless lawsuits gets filed, and finally gets a date in front of the Supreme Court. Meanwhile many of the benefits are proving hard to argue against. Trying to tell a senior who has been saved hundreds maybe thousands of dollars in prescription drugs that the law is bad and will mean an they will be denied Medicare when there is absolutely no evidence to back this statement and what evidence does exist SUPPORTS the bill. Try telling a man whose child is diagnosed with a long-term illness that he will no longer have to worry about meeting some moneyed deal breaker. Hard to tell these people that ObamaCare is bad.
If it's overturned the silver lining will be watching all of the trolls try to save face after incessantly beating these particular provisions of the AFA into the ground, and screaming about Government's roll in healthcare.
It shows that you know very little about the issues of ACA and how insurance works.
First every insurance company is already regulated by each state in the US by the sate insurance commissioner. State insurance commissioners control types of insurance as well as approving premium charges
Second, Anytime you add or increase risk you increase the potential for increased claim costs. Those increased claim costs have to be covered by increased premiums. There are very few options to cover the risk- increase premiums on everyone including those who do not have the pre existing condition, or place pressure on providers to reduce costs for procedures which many times lead to reduce quality in delivery of health care, or ask the insurance companies to make a smaller profit which ACA demands and will hurt investors such as retirement fund of union workers, government employees and teachers not to mention the pressures it will place on state budgets that depend on increased returns for their underfunded retirement plans
Prices, money and profit are the most efficient way of distributing scarce resources. Without it you can not make an economy to work for the greatest good. Yes you can socialize it all and have bureaucrats decide how much everyone should get but in the end more resources will be wasted and fewer people helped Look at the wait times in Canada for care people waiting months an operation-that is why those with the money go elsewhere to receive they needed care and those without the money has to wait.
No matter what system you end up with in distributing scarce resources there will be those who go without but the ones that go without do not have to be because of the inefficiency of socialism. No system can save everyone or give everyone what they need. You should read Basic Economics by Thomas Sowell before you make an emotional and uninformed critique of profit
A World View Founded Upon Emotion and Good intentions
Your article exposes your world view that is filled with emotions wishful thinking and good intentions. Unfortunately your view is nothing more than a framework for creating programs that cause unintended consequences that hurt the people a lot more than help.
Warm regards,
Michael Winters