Posted on 11/10/2010 6:48:23 AM PST by SeekAndFind
Everyone expects the new Republican House of Representatives will vote to repeal Obamacare. This move will probably be blocked in the Democrat-controlled Senate, however; and failing that, the president will use his veto pen to save the Democrats’ crown-jewel policy achievement.
Then what? Having health care as an issue may actually be a blessing for the GOP. Obamacare has been a gift to the Republican party. It was the single most important reason for their historic gains in last week’s election. Better still, it’s a gift that can keep on giving, if appropriately managed.
Remember, the really bad features of the law (mandates for individuals, fines for employers, federal regulation of everyone’s insurance, government-run health-insurance exchanges) don’t kick in for several more years (in 2014). In the meantime, Republicans don’t really lose very much if the best argument for voting Republican in the 2012 election remains in place.
On the other side of the aisle, the health-care-reform bill is an albatross hanging around Democrats’ necks. I doubt if any Democrat wants to cast an up-or-down vote on it again. And as long as it’s there (especially if it’s never really implemented), it will cost the Democrats many congressional seats. Imagine that the start date keeps getting pushed back. Along the way, Obamacare will be a big issue in every election. That scenario would be a nightmare for the Democratic party.
There is precedent for this. Under a 2003 health bill (a Republican bill, as it turns out), Medicare growth was supposed to be slowed by the gradual ratcheting down of payments made to doctors. Yet in the very first year of implementation, Congress voted to delay the cuts. Then they voted to delay them again. In fact, the cuts have been delayed for seven straight years. Even though no cuts have been made, each year the Medicare trustees’ report assumes they will be made in all succeeding years. And the issue returns for doctors and for the American Medical Association (AMA) every time we have an election. The so-called “doc fix” is always temporary, never permanent.
Ideally, one hopes the two parties will work together to reform health care in a way that’s good for doctors and patients. If President Obama leaves us all with no choice, however, some have suggested using the House’s control of the budget to deny funding for the program. That may be a good idea, but if it’s all the Republicans do, they risk being seen as obstructionists and labeled “the party of no.” Fortunately, there is much more that can be done.
Republicans should begin by voting to repeal the most politically unpopular features of health-care reform. That means no individual mandates, no individual or employer fines, and no regulations of the type that might cause McDonald’s to drop coverage for 30,000 low-wage employees and the 3M Corporation to drop coverage for all its retirees. If there is a budgetary cost for these measures, pay for them by pushing back what I am going to call O-Day. That’s the day (Jan. 1, 2014) when all the subsidies and mandates are supposed to kick in.
The Democrats will probably be able to block these moves, by either Senate filibuster or presidential veto. If they do, that will frame the issue for voters in 2012.
Then Republicans should come to the rescue of senior citizens. If nothing is done, Medicare will have to reduce its payments to doctors by 25 percent on Jan. 1, 2011. In the succeeding years, reduced payments get really brutal.
According to Medicare’s Office of the Actuary, Medicare payments to doctors and hospitals will fall below Medicaid rates by the end of the decade. Think about what that means. Right now, Medicaid’s low rates make it difficult for low-income families to find any private-practice doctor who will see them. As alternatives, they often turn to community health centers and safety-net hospitals. Now imagine seniors having to do the same thing, but being pushed to the rear of the waiting lines, as even poor people (with their Medicaid cards) pay the doctors more than what Medicare will pay for the elderly.
The short-term goal should be to push back the dates of these rate cuts by an election cycle or two. To pay for that action, push back O-Day as well. Just as the doc-fix problem gets postponed year after year, O-Day could be postponed again and again. If the Democrats resist, in each election the central issue will be: Do we want to put seniors on the ice floe in order to provide health insurance for young people? If the Democrats never yield, Republicans will eventually build up veto-proof majorities — even if Barack Obama is reelected president.
Ah, I know what you’re thinking. Don’t we need to think of ways to spend less, not more, on elderly entitlements? Isn’t controlling Medicare spending essential to get the nation’s fiscal house in order?
The answers to those questions are yes and yes. Obamacare is not a realistic solution to these problems, however. It claims to pay for insurance subsidies for the young with cuts in Medicare spending that the Democrats in Congress will never allow to take place. As explained above, if the cuts did occur, seniors would soon find themselves in a separate (and inferior) health-care system.
Let’s hope Republicans and Democrats agree on Medicare reforms that will really control runaway entitlement spending. In the meantime, though, the Republican approach should be to cancel cuts that are never going to be made anyway and pay for the cancellation by delaying the implementation of Obamacare.
What has created such a rich opportunity for the GOP on health care is that the Democrats hugely miscalculated in putting the health-care-reform bill together.
The main beneficiaries of the new law are 32 million to 34 million people who otherwise would have been uninsured. Another group of potential winners are those with preexisting conditions. Let’s generously estimate the entire group of beneficiaries at about 50 million people. That leaves about 250 million who are on the other side — expecting to lose more than they gain. Think about that. There are five losers for every winner under health-care reform!
Even more interesting, the gainers are largely dispersed and disorganized. In fact, most of them do not even know who they are. Do you know if you will be uninsured four years from now? Few people do. The reason? Uninsurance is like unemployment: It affects people unpredictably for short periods of time. The health-care-reform bill promises to spend billions of dollars four years from now on people we can’t even identify today.
People who are going to pay for the reform, by contrast, are organized, focused, and aware that they are in the target zone. If you work for a tanning salon, if you make wheelchairs, if you are a health-insurance agent, etc., you may not know your exact burden, but you know that the law was not written for you. And seniors are politically focused and potentially organized.
Through it all, the Republicans should never forget their principles. A smart GOP will not merely exploit the weaknesses of Obamacare. It will also get firmly behind an approach to health-care reform that its members will seriously be prepared to enact if the Democrats are willing. This would include a commitment to making health insurance portable, affordable, and fair and a willingness to solve our most important health-care problems by removing perverse incentives, empowering individuals, and letting competition in a free marketplace control costs and improve the quality of care.
— John C. Goodman is president and Kellye Wright Fellow of the National Center for Policy Analysis.
VOTE TO REPEAL THIS 2,600 PAGE GEOURGE SOROS BUILT MONSTROSITY
AND DO THAT OVER AND OVER UNTIL ANY PRESIDENT SIGNS IT.
The was an article by a Liberal Doctor that gives a blueprint to defund the Obama Care in the New England medical Journal. Starve the beast with no funding.
I dont like this strategic idea that “Obamacare” is good for a GOP issue. Obamacare is BAD FOR AMERICA. Period. Needs to be repealed.
I can see targeting the most unpopular features of Obamacare and forcing Democrats to defend them against repeal. It is a political albatross around the Democrats’ neck and the more they resist, the more it will boomerang on them. This is going to be an issue for the next few election cycles yet.
IMO, the House Republican leadership must go on national TV and expose the hidden evil within the DeathCare bill and expose what the ramifications of this Soros-funded destruction is all about. Reagan bypassed the RATs by going to the American people. Exposure is the key to defeating the enemies within this Regime and what’s left in the House and Senate. Exposure is what they fear the most. The wrath of the American people isn’t a pleasant thing. November 2nd was just the beginning.
Agreed. But we can fillet Obamacare in the meantime. The things people like about it least are the things they want changed. The Democrats have to decide at every point over the next two years whether they they want to defend them or have their political pink slips issued to them in 2012.
But too many are led by the AARP/SEIU alliance which are masters at disinformation campaigns.
Both organizations need to be discredited and broken.
Filleting carries the real political risk that, at some point, the sheeple will be convinced that the worst provisions of ObamaCare have been reformed and what remains is either good or something we can live with.
That's why I vote GOP!! They can kick the can as well - no, much better than, the Rats!!
this was written by the guy who played Roseanne Barr’s husband?
Whatever.
I want it killed. Now. I have no interest in the GOP using it the way Democrats use DADT for gays. I expect Republicans in every office around the country to use every means to kill it starting now and I expect and hope it reaches the Supreme Court within a couple of years at the latest where Kennedy had better strike it unconstitutional. I’d be happy if it were struck dead by the higher court before 2012. Then the GOP would have to scramble to make small government and cutting spending their platform and actually run on something rather then against something.
Absolutely! Not only did the people in Congress NOT even read the ObamaCare bill, but now it’s going to go to “panels” to be interpreted and implimented; and these panels can find ANY interpretation they choose in what is essentially 2000+ pages of confusing mishmash. But we have ONE thing to show for it that’s guaranteed: another trillion added to our national debt!
While I agree that the ‘really bad’ aspects of this monstrosity of a bill don’t kick in until 2013 & 2014-—well after Nobama will no longer be Predident, there is another really bad part of the bill.
This person obviously has never tracked data & gathered information in order to correctly prepare 1099’s for the government.
I have....for over 40 years for my bookkeeping clients..... & I have been reviewing the current year’s data in mentally preparing for this new requirement starting 1-1-2011.
I absolutely do not know how I can fully comply with all the details. I have clients who use a service truck to install & repaid Air conditioning & heating mechanisms in homes, churches, & offices. His truck can be anywhere in a 3-4 county area. Telling him that he cannot buy fuel at any gas station unless he gets a W-9 properly filled out first will me impossible.
I have to have him start this process as of 1-1-2011, because neither of us will know how much business he will do with any particular location in the coming 365 days.
I cannot send a 1099 to ‘Chevron’ for the gasoline he purchases on that credit card. Those purchases are done in a number of different locations.
I cannot send a 1099 to ‘Master Card’ or ‘Visa’ or ‘Discover’ either, because the purchases will be from a number of locations.
The suppliers he has used for many years will not be such a problem, but will still require detailing every supplier within the expense account “Goods Purchased”.
All 1099’s need to be done & in the mail by 1-31-2012, so I have truly less than 30 days to do all this detail preparation & typing of forms. Keep in mind, I have never seen the forms in the stores before mid-November.
Who knows how many forms will be needed? Who is printing up & stocking all those forms? Everyone will be guessing.
What if I cannot get enough forms & get this chore done before Jan 31? There is a fine for every form not done...a stiff fine.
I'm with you. We don't need to keep ObamaCare as a pet issue to beat the Dems with every two years. We need to kill it. If the Tea Party members of Congress fail because they lack the numbers, that's one thing. If they choose not to try, I will not be amused. It's time to govern for the sake of governing well, rather than as a tactic to prepare for the next election cycle.
There is absolutely NOTHING in this bill which has any redeeming value that we have been able to find so far.
It all needs to be dumped & let the states & insurers do their job. It isn’t necessary for the Federal Government to control 18% +|+ of the economy in this manner. PERIOD.
But an hour of prime time & get about 10 of the best known GOP leaders & rising stars at the table to expose the real costs of this HELLTH care bill.
Robbing Peter to pay Paul & taking over about 18% ++ of the entire economy isn’t the answer.
Paul never objects to this arrangement—but Peter does & rightly so. Those who are the producers can decide they will just stop producing. They will “Go Galt”.
Nope, put up one bill after another to repeal and defund it asap. DON’T let them put the pieces in place for implementing. How do we know for sure 2012 will not end up a DEM’s YEAR?
Very cynical, shortsighted, and stupid.
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