Posted on 01/16/2017 8:26:11 AM PST by Signalman
Democrats are addicted to Obamacare. It has performed poorly, alienated far more people than it has aided, and been a political disaster. Yet Democrats can’t shake it. In 2010, it was the issue that delivered the House to Republicans. In 2014, it gave them the Senate. In 2016, it was one of the keys to Donald Trump's capture of the White House.
After all this, a rational party would want to scrap Obamacare or modify it significantly. President Obama has tinkered but nothing more. Democrats act as if it is as essential to national wellbeing as Medicare and Social Security. It's been "a big success," House minority leader Nancy Pelosi declared last week, and there were no reports of eye rolling among her colleagues. "We [had] three goals. One was to lower cost, [an]other to improve benefits, and the third, to increase access." That sounds great, but it's only true for those who had no health insurance and now get it free (at taxpayers' expense). The rest of us pay more and our access to specific policies and doctors is limited.
Oddly enough, the premise of the Democratic effort to "rescue" Obamacare is that the health care system will stumble during the transition from the time Republicans repeal it to when they replace it. Democrats want it to be seen as Trumpcare. Republicans will "own it [and] all the problems in the health system," Senate minority leader Chuck Schumer said.
The result will be national chaos, he insisted. "Because you cannot repeal a plan and put nothing in its place," he told Politico. Actually, Obamacare will still exist during the "transition" from repeal to replacement by a GOP plan. But Republicans will be in charge of it, Schumer said, "and I believe a year from now, they will regret that they came out so fast out of the box."
Schumer has been wrong before in foreseeing the future of Obamacare. Once implemented, he predicted, it would be popular. Wrong. But Obamacare's situation is different under Republicans. It's already dysfunctional. And Schumer has a point that Republicans may be in for trouble with it on their hands. He certainly hopes so.
Democrats believe they're no longer obligated to defend Obamacare. Instead they're free to concentrate on attacking Republicans, both on their temporary custody of Obamacare and their plans for a free-market, patient-oriented replacement to follow.
A hardy perennial has been added to the mix: Medicare. It's the most popular program in the history of health care. Obamacare is the least popular. Democrats treat them as two peas in a pod and claim Republicans want to "dismantle" both. In truth, Medicare isn't part of repeal or replace, but that's a fact, one of many, that Democrats ignore.
Medicare, however, may be the least of the problems Republicans will confront. When insurance providers quit the Obamacare exchanges, Republicans blamed President Obama and Democrats. Now blame will go in the other direction. Unfair? Perhaps, but that won't stop the assault on Republicans.
Democrats would like to bribe insurers to stay in the system by covering their losses. Obamacare originally allowed for that, but Republicans got a provision barring these bailouts in the 2015 omnibus budget. Democrats haven't forgotten. It gives them another reason to blame Republicans for the unraveling of Obamacare.
If Donald Trump decided to have free health care for everyone, the Democrats would complain that it costs too much. Whatever happens, whether healthcare becomes better or worse, the MSM will use it against the Republicans in 2018.
Dems see it as blame, we see it as praise.
Obama lied and told Romney he was proud of being the ACA’s namesake but while Obama and the Dems are loath to admit it the (nick)name of the ACA has become as much of a drag as the plan itself.
Obama is old news now and his ‘signature’ (read: preexisting and borrowed) legislation is similarly aged. Both have been found fraudulent and well short of expectations.
step 1: just repeal the damned thing and make sure President Trump takes full credit for the death of obamacare.
step 2: let us, the remnant of the American People, fully vet any proposed replacement.
do that, and you’ll come out smellin’ like a rose Mr. President.
Republicans in Congress will have a powerful ally in President Trump. He will go directly to the American people, and will bolster the Republicans in Congress, as long as they don't start wavering under the media firestorm, and try to distance themselves from him.
Everything in this article is why I am AGAINST the Republicans Repealing Obamacare.
The Main reason Obamacare is a Failure is there are not enough Paying Customers. President Trump can TRUMP ALL OF THEM on this issue.
Issue 3 Executive Orders:
1. All Waivers from the Affordable Care Act are hereby Repealed, effective immediately.
2. All Federal Employees,excluding the US Armed Forces, SHALL Sign up for and Purchase their own Personal and Family Health Insurance from the Affordable Care Act Exchange in the State they legally reside.
3. Any State that does not 100% of it’s Public Employees purchase their own personal and family health insurance from the Affordable Care Act Exchange, shall be Prohibited from Receiving Any Federal Funding for Education and Highways.
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