Posted on 11/08/2017 1:45:30 PM PST by Oldeconomybuyer
WASHINGTON — Barack Obama may not be running for anything these days, but his signature health care law was a big winner in Tuesday’s elections, as voters rebelled against Republican lawmakers who have blocked Obamacare's Medicaid expansion.
Democrats are hopeful their victories are a harbinger of further gains as they look to capitalize on the law's rising popularity in polls — and repeal legislation's deep unpopularity — with more ballot initiatives, legislative efforts and campaign messages.
In Maine, voters passed a ballot initiative that would expand Medicaid to an estimated 70,000 residents by a margin of 18 points, 59-to-41, doing an end run around Gov. Paul LePage, a Republican who has vetoed five bills to do so.
Maine wasn't the only place where the results are relevant to Obamacare. The Democratic tsunami in Virginia, led by Gov.-elect Ralph Northam, also has health care implications.
In exit polls, 39 percent of respondents named health care as the issue most important to their vote, far more than topics like immigration and taxes, and these voters backed Northam by a whopping 54 percentage points, 77 to 23.
The results are in line with national polling, where surveys have found deep unease with Republican efforts to replace Obamacare all year. An NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll last month found just 27 percent of respondents approved of Trump’s handling of health care versus 57 percent who disapproved.
(Excerpt) Read more at nbcnews.com ...
The voters get what they want.
Let’s see how happy they are with the looming tax hikes.
Isn’t that what we wanted them to do. ‘Cept we want to give out block grants...and let them figure it out.
So a Blue state continues to destroy itself from within and the media calls it a big win?
More power to them.
Yup. LePage was trying to save them from themselves.
The Stupid Party decided it can live with Obamacare.
So why shouldn’t voters conclude they can live with it, too?
They aren’t stupid.
Clinton lost because she got arrogant and out of touch with real people.
We should not imitate her.
The healthcare message the Republicans have sent in 2017 is that Trump-Ryan-McConnell are clueless what to do. What they presented was Obamacare light in that both Obama care, Ryancare and McConnellcare were focused on welfare to big insurance. It did not bode well that Tom Price was more focused on his own personal comfort than on the comfort of millions of taxpayers and millions of sick people.
It was widely and accurately predicted that the Republican healthcare fiasco would not bode well come election time.
Of course, healthcare was not the big issue in VA and NJ as it was in ME. It was a secondary issue.
I’m curious.How many Trump supporters boycotted Gillespie?
How did the LP do?
None of the people who promote Obamacare are not on Obamacare.
Obamacare is more or less a fact of life.
Republicans have no idea how to change it without doing themselves political harm.
People apparently like Medicaid expansion. Republicans run against it to their political peril.
You’re not going win arguing for cuts in medical coverage for low-income people. Period.
No one likes a Grinch.
Yes, it was a significant factor in Virginia.
BECAUSE THE REPUBLICANS HAD PASSED NO ALTERNATIVE!!!
Poorer Virginians had got tired of waiting for what everyone else already was getting!
What’s the GOP alternative? I’m still waiting to hear it.
They can’t agree among themselves on what health care reform should look like or how it would work.
LePage won’t implement it until the legislature funds it.
https://content.govdelivery.com/accounts/MEGOV/bulletins/1c3279e?reqfrom=share
Entitlements are forever. It’s worse than Heroin addiction to the Libtards and others. Obunghole “care” should have be destroyed when the Kenyan was in the White Hut.
Yeah we’ll see how the folks in Maine like paying for that expansion
Feds fund most of it. Its low risk.
If Mainers had to pay for it themselves, it would have gone crashing down in flames.
Every one is in love with single payer. Until they have to pay for it.
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