Seems like the press is really underplaying the insanity of throwing a bomb into the health care system with no plan beyond neenering Obama.
— Schooley (@Rschooley) January 2, 2017
Meanwhile, far from the Village of Media Idiots…
Republicans are debating 3-yr or 2-yr ACA repeal delay. There's also talk of a FOUR-yr delay to avoid 2020 election. https://t.co/GG6tIqBUGG
— Sahil Kapur (@sahilkapur) December 29, 2016
… Republicans are debating how long to delay implementing the repeal. Aides involved in the deliberations said some parts of the law may be ended quickly, such as its regulations affecting insurer health plans and businesses. Other pieces may be maintained for up to three or four years, such as insurance subsidies and the Medicaid expansion. Some parts of the law may never be repealed, such as the provision letting people under age 26 remain on a parent’s plan…
To cushion the political blow of upending the system, party leaders are putting out a stream of statements portraying Obamacare as collapsing on its own.
But the Department of Health and Human Services reported that signups reached 6.4 million by the Dec. 19 deadline, an increase of 400,000 over the previous year’s number at this time. Earlier, President Barack Obama said that more than 670,000 Americans signed up for coverage on Dec. 15, “the biggest day ever for Healthcare.gov.”
“The overarching challenge is that the Affordable Care Act is the status quo, and disrupting the status quo in health care is always controversial,” said Larry Levitt, a health policy expert at the Kaiser Family Foundation and former adviser to President Bill Clinton’s health-care efforts. “There are so many moving pieces to this effort involving lots of money and lots of interest groups. So piecing together the votes is daunting.”…
Some Republican aides say they may pursue a replacement through a series of small bills as opposed to one big measure. Leading Republicans such as Senate Majority Whip John Cornyn of Texas have said they want Democratic buy-in on a replacement plan. Breaking a filibuster would require the support of at least eight Democrats.
Obamacare continues to be viewed unfavorably by Americans, but the politics of undoing the law are complicated. A Kaiser Family Foundation poll after the election showed 26 percent want to repeal it, while 17 percent want to scale it back. Nineteen percent want to move forward with implementation and 30 percent want to expand it…
Democrats have made clear they won’t go along with Republican attempts to repeal Obamacare. Some are taunting the GOP as it attempts to write a replacement.“Bring it on,” incoming Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer of New York said this month. “They don’t know what to do. They’re like the dog that caught the bus.”
Several of the law’s provisions are popular, most notably the regulations prohibiting insurers from denying coverage or raising costs on people with pre-existing conditions. And of the 14 states with the largest percentage of non-elderly people with pre-existing conditions in 2015, Trump carried 12, according to a Kaiser Family Foundation study released last week. He also got one electoral vote in Maine, the 13th state in that group…
Future Democratic campaign ad: Trump took your vote. Then he took away your healthcare. The “keep guvmint hands off my Medicare” folks ought to love that one…
Yeah, it’s completely effed up and bullshit, but at least twenty million people will — while we keep up the guerrilla warfare — be able to hold on to their healthcare.
And the longer this is the New Normal, the less the GOP career politicians are going to be willing to screw around with it. The true believers, the morons, and those Repubs looking for a guaranteed lifetime career on the Wingnut Welfare Wurlitzer circuit will keep looking for weak spots, but if we can hold the line now, time is on our side.
NEWS: @mike_pence will huddle with House Rs Weds 2 talk Ocare repeal; countering Obama's Ocare rally w/Dems same day https://t.co/v8kWXzGlx2
— Rachael Bade (@rachaelmbade) January 2, 2017
Smedley Darlington Prunebanks (Formerly Mumphrey, et al.)
This shitshow fail parade is still almost three weeks from beginning, and I’m already sick of it.
Schlemazel
They will kill it and blame Obama and the Dems and the press will be too polite to point out they are lying.
James E Powell
The “keep guvmint hands off my Medicare” people are still going to vote Republican because the Democrats will still be the party of “those people” and the lesson of 2016 is that that concern overrides all others combined.
We are just going to have to wait till they die.
Trentrunner
You and most others here are more savvy than me, but I have been paying attention:
The GOP will repeal Obamacare, lock, stock, and barrel, and won’t give a shit about the repercussions.
They’ve been saying this for years, their base has been screaming for it, Trump & Co ran on it–and now they’re going to do it.
This is not hard. It’s fucking tragic, but it’s not hard.
Ghost of Joe Liebling's Dog
So, 49% want to continue or expand it while only 43% favor scaling back or repealing it — “viewed unfavorably”?
Baud
If they are keeping the filibuster, they ain’t repealing shit.
Trentrunner
@James E Powell: I’m fine pulling a few plugs to move the process along. Anybody with me?
Baud
I love how the press is now reporting this number in talking about Obamacare’s “unpopularity.”
raven
Crush the VA!
Elie
I am just hoping that I get to see photos and videos of poor and working class whites sitting in ERs waiting to see docs for untreated preventable illness. Especially in the red states! Yay!
Smedley Darlington Prunebanks (Formerly Mumphrey, et al.)
On a kind of random note, when did this “Why should California get to decide the election?” shit begin? I’ve heard that more times in the last few weeks than I can count. Yesterday, the Washington Post had three or four letters, all telling us how great the electoral college is, and they all said that same dumb thing, “If you throw out California’s votes, Trump would have won the popular vote. Why should California get to decide the election?”
I truly don’t get this. I mean, yes, it’s literally true, but so what? If you go back to 2004, and you threw out Texas and Oklahoma’s votes, John Kerry would have won the election. But again, so what? We don’t just randomly throw out states’ votes because we want the outcome to go some other way. Yes, California and New York and Illinois do have an outsized say in who gets elected, but that’s only because that’s where so fucking many of the voters live. I don’t get this. Now having lots of voters is a reason that we shouldn’t count those votes? We should count Wyoming and South Dakota more because they have fewer voters? What the fuck is this? Republicans are always bitching about “punishing success,” but wouldn’t throwing out the votes of the biggest states because they’ve drawn so many people to live and vote there because they’re such great places to live pretty much be the definition of “punishing success”?
I mean, a much fairer thing to point out is that three states, overturned the will of the majority of the voters, with a margin together of only about 80-90,000 votes. Why isn’t it much fairer to ask why 88,000 voters get to overturn the will of the whole country? I know this isn’t the subject here, and I’m sorry for dragging things off to the side, but I’ve been wondering this for days now, and I just can’t understand this.
I guess this is kind of akin to what we hear a lot about how, “Well, if you don’t count Black people’s votes, Democrats have lost every election for the last 50 years in landslides,” shit. Maybe it’s a step forward that they’re doing this by state rather than by race now…
Pogonip
“Well, honey, you’re 25 and getting married. Anything you’d like to ask me?”
“Yes, Mom, there is. Ever since I can remember, some old guy gets on TV every December and says ‘In January we wlll repeal Obamacare!’ Why does he do that?”
Another Scott
900,000 Michiganders who would lose healthcare coverage, by county
886,000 Texans who would lose healthcare coverage, by county
From Charles Gaba, who reminds us that there are 13 days remaining to sign up for February coverage.
He’s not going to do all the states, but folks who have friends/family in those two might want to let them know…
Cheers,
Scott.
debbie
@raven:
Why?
Suzanne
@Smedley Darlington Prunebanks (Formerly Mumphrey, et al.): Did you read this?
I want to know why we let shitty little states decide things.
germy
How about some sort of “opt out” law for people who voted republican? They can switch to coupons or vouchers or health savings accounts (good luck!) and leave the law intact for everyone else?
trollhattan
@Smedley Darlington Prunebanks (Formerly Mumphrey, et al.):
That particular 12% of the population does not count.I’ll entertain leaving California out if we also ditch all slave states.
Smedley Darlington Prunebanks (Formerly Mumphrey, et al.)
@trollhattan: Well, let’s let Virginia keep voting, at least. Maybe even North Carolina. I think they’re about where Virginia was 10 or 15 years ago. The rest of them, though? Yeah, they can go fuck themselves. Screw their votes. Assholes.
Another Scott
@Smedley Darlington Prunebanks (Formerly Mumphrey, et al.): They use any “evidence” that they think will convince their supporters that they’re right.
I saw one of those maps of the country by county, colored in red for GOP and blue for Team D. “Of course Donnie won – just look at all that red!!11” (not intended to be a factual statement, but close enough).
Only acreage should vote!!!11
:-/
Cheers,
Scott.
Baud
@Smedley Darlington Prunebanks (Formerly Mumphrey, et al.): I’m at a loss as to why you are trying to intelligently analyze GOP drivel.
Juju
As one of those 20,000,000 people who now have health insurance, I certainly hope it’s become a third rail.
Elie
Hmmmmm. I like that. Gonna start calling all the red states “slave” states.
Baud
@efgoldman: I hadn’t heard any news about it today. I suppose they could nuke it anytime.
Davis X. Machina
A failure to actually repeal has the possibility of splitting the Congressional GOP.
Ryan’s on borrowed time.
McConnell’s the next to roll.
The ultras want blood. They don’t want four years of tap-dancing.
Bringing the US and the world economy to the brink of collapse over timely payment of US debt didn’t strike them as a big deal.
In comparison, blowing up the ACA is tame.
If we’re lucky, hundreds of thousands of people will sicken unnecessarily and the GOP will split.
If we’re not lucky, hundreds of thousands of people will just sicken unnecessarily.
Wag
@Trentrunner:
One of the ongoing themes after the first two years of Obama’s term was that they overplayed their hand by “forcing through” Obamacare. Any takers on a bet about the next narrative being that the GOP “overplaying” their hand with repeal?
Yeah, I didn’t think so.
Suzanne
@Suzanne: Sorry, here’s the link.
JDM
Since they want to get rid of it but not affect their reelection status, why not just go all the way and make the repeal take effect in 100 years.
Baud
@efgoldman: I would have won, too, if we didn’t let non-Juicers decide the election.
Elie
@Juju:
You have my sympathy but you must suffer to make all white people free in the slave states. Only when we make all white people free of health care we all pay for will America be great again
Baud
@JDM: I would be OK if the Dems signed onto that.
Although we’d have to hear the cries of those who believed the Dems sold them out by eliminating the chance for single payer.
Schlemazel
@Baud:
I wish I shared your optimism but reality keeps intruding.
debbie
@efgoldman:
I agree. It wasn’t just the states who voted to secede. Let’s be inclusive!
Smedley Darlington Prunebanks (Formerly Mumphrey, et al.)
@Baud: Well, mostly because, whether we like it or not, we share this country with them. We have to find some way to reach these people. I keep hoping that if we can understand why they think the way they do, and believe the things they do, then maybe we can find a way to get through to them. I know, a lot of them are shitstains, and they lie and they don’t believe half of what they say, but those aren’t the ones I’m talking about. I’m talking about the ones who are truly misled here, the ones who buy into this shit and get fucked over for it. I know some of these people, and I’d dearly like to help them overcome their benightedness. I know that sounds, well, “elitist,” I guess, but it’s still true for all that,
Elie
@efgoldman:
Nope. They are slave states That is pretty clear to me. Traitor states ????
raven
@debbie: Because “we” vets overwhelmingly voted for this fucking asshole. Reap what you sew shit-heads.
Eric U.
republicans never listen to me, but I kept hoping they would make the ACA a little more generous, do some other tweaking, and call it Trumpcare. If they just keep it, that will be fine too.
raven
@Smedley Darlington Prunebanks (Formerly Mumphrey, et al.): I’d like to “reach” em with an 11.5 triple E Red Wing Boot to the ass.
Baud
@Smedley Darlington Prunebanks (Formerly Mumphrey, et al.): Sorry, anyone who questions why Californians get to vote is beyond redemption.
debbie
@raven:
Got it, thanks.
Juju
@Wag: I’m just amazed that McConnel can say the Republicans have a mandate with a straight face or without his nose growing or his head catching fire. It’s clear to most sane people that what they have is the exact opposite of a mandate.
Princess
Why don’t they just end Obamacare and replace it with the already-law Affordable Care Act? That should convince their voters.
Smedley Darlington Prunebanks (Formerly Mumphrey, et al.)
@raven: Well, believe me, I can understand that urge, and I often feel it myself. All the same, I think some of these people are reachable. Lots of these people in Tennessee or Oklahoma or Idaho and other places like that are beyond help. But the ones who went nuts and tipped things for Trump in Michigan and Wisconsin and Pennsylvania, well, some of those people voted fro President Obama. These are people who, for whatever fucked up reason, and I sure as hell don’t understand it, went for Trump this time. I think we can get a lot of them back, but it would help to understand just what sent them over the edge.
Another Scott
If the repeal bill is like HR-132, then it is a sop to the Teabagger purity ponies:
That’s it. That’s the whole bill.
I don’t see how one can pass something like that but say, “Yay! We passed it!! But it won’t take effect until January 1, 2021 (or whenever)”
“If it’s so easy to pass, why can’t it be made effective the day that Donnie signs it?” I can’t see that there’s any way that the mWWC and the Teabaggers who voted for Donnie and the rest of the GOP are going to accept any answer that is given.
They want it gone yesterday.
They hate the mandate. They hate the “out of control” rate increases that the GOP tells them are all due to Obamacare. They hate the “job killing” nature of it. They’re not going to accept “we have to go slowly to allow the system to reset…” or something. They’re going to be furious if they’re told that…
Plus, they’ve got to decide if they want to keep the filibuster so that Team D can save them, while simultaneously slitting their own throat if they don’t do what they’ve promised for 8 years…
They’ve got a rabid tiger by the tail and think that they’ve won.
Cheers,
Scott.
p.a.
Give me one day as one of those Hollywood switch places movie characters: tomorrow I wake as a Dem US Senator. I see Cornyn. “John, take your Democrat buy-in hopes and shove them up your Texas crude oil lubed ass.”
Gindy51
@Princess: When you call it the ACA they love it. It’s only when you call it Obamacare that they have a shit fit about it.
Schlemazel
@Juju:
It was clear to most sane people ACA was working as well as it could. It was clear that Trump was unqualified and unprepared for the office of President of the US. Yet, here we are
Juju
@p.a.: I think once the filibuster issue is settled, we’ll see more fight. In the Dems shoes I’d seem all sweet and open to compromise. Once I knew the filibuster was safe, I’d tell the Thugs to eat used cat litter.
Kristin D
@Smedley Darlington Prunebanks (Formerly Mumphrey, et al.): the weirdest thing is that this argument always gets made in favor of the electoral college, which has just let 3 states elect the President. And is always followed by “it’s a republic, not a democracy!” It’s totally nonsensical, but it’s not at all thought out. I think they just copied it from some other FB commenter.
StringOnAStick
A sudden repeal of the entire ACA, or of just the parts they don’t like will throw the entire health insurance system into chaos. If you’ve been reading Richard Mayhew’s posts you know that the rates and coverage details get hashed out over a year in advance. The kind of change the teabaggers are demanding will crash the system for everyone on the ACA and NOT on the ACA; e.g., the whole damned system. Insurance is a huge, big money corporate entity in the US, and they can’t be pleased about these crazies screwing with their business plans in such a reckless and information free fashion.
Rather than add to all the defeatest sentiment I read here, I’m going to add that I think the ACA is well enough embedded into the US health care system that extracting it alone could cause a recession, and voters turn out the dominant party when there is a recession. They trash the ACA, then they are gutting their re-election prospects – the only thing any elected official really cares about.
Dr. Ronnie James, D.O.
“Obamacare continues to be viewed unfavorably by Americans, but the politics of undoing the law are complicated. A Kaiser Family Foundation poll after the election showed 26 percent want to repeal it, while 17 percent want to scale it back. Nineteen percent want to move forward with implementation and 30 percent want to expand it…”
Considering that, let’s face it, the number of Americans who actually understand what the ACA does has to be < %2 at the absolute utmost, this question may be a great natural political experiment, basically a Rorshach blot, with 4 answers effectively proxies for the hard right (~27%!), center-right, center-left and hard-left.
frosty
@Smedley Darlington Prunebanks (Formerly Mumphrey, et al.):
Just anecdata from South PA but I suspect Clinton Derangement Syndrome flipped enough votes to lose the state. I certainly heard plenty of it during the primary.
Steeplejack (tablet)
How in hell does 43% negative vs. 49% positive mean “Obamacare continues to be viewed unfavorably by Americans”? WTF.
catclub
@Baud:
They can repeal the taxes that pay for it under reconciliation. That 2.5-3% tax on investment income, ferinstance.
people say that they want to repeal the first part of the 14ht amendment, but I think they want this part gone:
Baud
@Steeplejack (tablet): It always had. The 30% has always been counted in the anti-Obamacare stat.
catclub
@Steeplejack (tablet):
Because those 30% that want to improve it say they do not like it now – so it is negatively viewed by them.
rikyrah
This is 1/6 of the American Economy, and the phuckers in the MSM are not reporting on the ramifications of phucking with that.????
Baud
@catclub: They can do that. But that would destroy the system precipitously and they don’t want that on their hands.
Steeplejack (tablet)
@James E Powell:
Don’t hold your breath. There were plenty of young bigots at Trump’s rallies, and there are plenty of alt-right Pepe frogs at Reddit, 4chan, etc., and in Cheeto-littered basements across the heartland.
SFAW
@Steeplejack (tablet):
Villago might be able to shed some light on that
jon
Are the Republicans willing to be nihilists? Haven’t they promised that for a generation now?
Whether they really believe their fundamental philosophy is one of those questions that leads to “What is their real fundamental philosophy?” rather than a Yes or No answer.
I’m guessing they’ll manage to wreck it somehow, then come up with enough of a poor fix to call it their plan. That’s a guess. All the facts point to that being an optimistic guess, but it’s mostly a question of who sells it. And the Democrats did a shit job of selling the ACA. The Republicans might just piss off every thinking person in the country and come up with a better sales pitch. And since the GOP electorate is as craven and partisan as their leaders, they’ll eat it up.
Is that a good thing? Nope. It’s a maddening possibility. But it might not kill as many people as their philosophy would like to.
I hate this world.
RandomMonster
@Steeplejack (tablet): I was just about to pose that same question.
Shomi
@James E Powell:
Maybe we shouldn’t wait. Pogroms for Republicans.
Kathleen
@Steeplejack (tablet): Wilmer Math,
SFAW
@Shomi:
Fuck you. I can’t tell if you’re the “real” troll, or the parody troll, but either way: fuck you.
Shomi
I shouldn’y have said that. Sorry. I’m just really pissed off with these people. I didn’t mean it.
Elie
@rikyrah:
Absolutely! This will majorly impact providers who hire lots of people who then go out and buy things and support families and such….But no worries! This will also decrease ER capacity as the financial reimbursement is scaled back, leaving fewer places for people to go when their untreated problems flare up.
catclub
@jon:
Kevin Drum calls this the Democrats hack gap. Forget about paying for it all, just double the subsides and everyone would love it.
SFAW
@Shomi:
Thanks.
Dsagneri
@Steeplejack (tablet): There are plenty but not nearly as many per capital which is sorta important.
Steeplejack (tablet)
@Baud, @catclub:
That’s some disingenuous, misleading bullshit right there.
hovercraft
@Baud:
That’s what reconciliation is for. So what if they scremed bloody murder when the democrat party used it, the rightful ruling party is back, so 51 is now totally a-okay. If the democrat party refuses to allow them to rule, then the fillibuster will die tomorrow. I think that it’s gone either way, just look at NC, they have no shame.
PsiFighter37
I’m starting to question if they will actually do it. Ryan and McConnell (Trump is a moron, so he wouldn’t know/care) have to know they would be throwing a grenade into the health insurance and overall healthcare market if they actually follow through on this. If I had to bet – they know they are in good shape when it comes to the 2018 map – so the House will quickly pass something, but it will ‘magically’ get gummed up in the Senate. That way, the Freedom Caucus can continue to rage at mean ‘ole Senator Turtle, but nothing will actually change.
Of course, maybe they all are fucking idiots, and January 21st marks the end of Obamacare. Or maybe Ivanka pushes the right buttons on Daddy’s conscience. Who the fuck knows? The only joy I will get out of ACA being repealed is that the asshole morons in red states are going to get exactly what the fuck they voted for, and I hope they get it good, and hard, and repeatedly. I might not have white skin, but I’m not the one who is going to be in trouble. And I don’t live in Bumblefuck and refuse to do anything with my life because my great-great-grandfather made muskets for beaver trappers and I have the same God-given right.
PF37 +3 and not happy that tomorrow is a work day
Elie
@PsiFighter37:
And remember, its not just ACA they want to dismantle but Medicaid and all the wrap around services that are essential if you are chronically disabled (such as a huge number of folks in West VA). Hey! Business is sure gonna want to move their employees to a country where they can’t easily get health care or get a quality education for their kids. They would if it were cheap to live here. But it aint so with shit health care, horrible quality of life with the lifted EPA rules and poor educational capabilities, we will be seeing a brain drain from all the now hated Asians and others who were lured here to service hi tech and other innovative industries. These folks don’t get the role that all of this plays together. They have hated Obama and the libruls so long they don’t think anymore…
Gretchen
Delaying the repeal won’t save them. Saying it will be repealed in the future and we have no idea what it will be “replaced” with will cause more uncertainty and chaos than just repealing it now. Uncertainty and chaos in the insurance market starting the week after Trump’s inauguration is not going to help his popularity.
Lurking Canadian
Is it not the case that if they didn’t kill the filibuster today (start of new session) they can’t kill it now? I thought the 51 votes to kill it thing only worked when the session rules are being decided.
With respect to ACA, they can certainly use reconciliation to kill the taxes, and probably the subsidies too. I would imagine they need to pass a real law to undo the regulatory changes, though.
gene108
@Smedley Darlington Prunebanks (Formerly Mumphrey, et al.):
They are white. Most folks in CA are not.
PsiFighter37
@Lurking Canadian: The filibuster was killed on non-SCOTUS presidential nominations in the middle of 2013 – so I would presume it can be modified otherwise.
Does anyone know if Garland actually could be confirmed for a lifetime term tomorrow? I’ve seen some stuff floating around on FB saying that before Biden swears in the new senators, the Democrats will have a small majority and could jam through some stuff. I assumed the best was that Obama could appoint him to a recess term that will almost certainly only be 2 years long.
I have zero delusions that will actually happen, though, because Obama isn’t a dick or plays politics dirty. If I had to bet, ACA would not have gotten passed after Scott Brown’s election if Pelosi hadn’t told everyone to grow a pair and sack up.
SFBayAreaGal
@raven: Yup. A couple of months ago I was at the VA in Palo Alto. A veteran in there was complaining how bad Obama was for the VA. Supposedly he had voted for Obama the first time, didn’t vote for Obama the 2nd time. Told everyone that people were stupid if they voted for Obama the 2nd time. I really, really, wanted to call him a jackass.
SFBayAreaGal
@raven: I don’t get why vets continously vote for the party that wants to destroy their benefits. I’m a woman vet and I voted for Clinton knowing she would protect veterans benefits.
FlipYrWhig
@SFBayAreaGal: The only reason anyone who isn’t rich already votes for Republicans is because they want to crack down on the lazy dark-completed moochers they’ve been taught to blame for everything wrong with America.
JGabriel
@Schlemazel:
If by polite you mean craven
No One You Know
@StringOnAStick:
That somehow reminded me…
Medicare requirements, the business rules that implement them, and the audits that verify them, change annually, and on any notice (often the rules themselves have short deadlines). The IT problems as well as straight administration get deeply affected.
Repealing the ACA turns that situation into the 9th Circle of Hell for underwriters and providers alike. 2018 would be a year of agony, 2019 would ripple through the newly uninsurable, and 2020 mid-terms would go to the best, most disciplined messengers about how this happened.
I wonder how important identity political values will look when that happens, and how the loss of coverage, care, and life get explained.
Regulations are written in blood. This is why we have them. These aren’t just abstract values arguments.
RealityBites
@Smedley Darlington Prunebanks (Formerly Mumphrey, et al.): It was three COUNTIES that overruled the will of the majority of the people.
pattonbt
I think expecting consistency of thought from the R base is a worthless exercise. They don’t really want to get rid of ACA, they just wanted something easily identifiable to rail against (Benghazi, Emails!!!!, etc.) to gin up their teams enthusiasm and rain hate down on the D’s. Two problems for them. 1, they have now elected people who actually believe all that they have railed against (except for a few oldster R’s – McConnell, etc.) and are willing to go full bore after those parts of the agenda. 2) actually implementing what they have rallied for would hurt them immeasurably.
Someone above said it best, all the R ‘s in Congress and the Senate have to do (with everything a D has ever done) is “repeal” the old law and replace it with the exact same thing and call it “Reagan”-whatever and it will be beloved.
The only thing the R base really wants the R’s to do is keep bringing the hate on the “other”. The R base is fine with the D platform just without any consideration for “the other”. Now if the R’s could go the extra mile and keep all of the “socialist” aspects of the safety net and enshrine in law “the other” gets none, all is good for the R base. As long as “the other” is worse off, and demonstrably so, the R base is happy.
No One You Know
@No One You Know: 2020 election, dammit.
+2
RealityBites
I think the re-Thugs will gradually cut the funding streams and when the crippled ACA is floundering about and the markets are in upheaval, then they will point out how it no longer works and say that they have no choice but to pull the plug. The public has a very short political memory, and won’t link up the cause and effect.
TriassicSands
@Elie:
Look at what you’ve written. You’re going to enjoy looking at photos of sick and suffering people. Really?
TriassicSands
@RealityBites:
You may be right. The GOP needs to separate the failure of Obamacare from their own votes. That’s what is behind the idea of repeal, (delay), and replace. If they can cripple the program, so that the people benefiting from it stop benefiting, then they can kill it. Their replacement doesn’t have to be acceptable to millions of poor and sick people — they often don’t vote and they don’t have the money to fight back — it just has to satisfy enough people who do vote. “Universal Access” the Republican euphemism for their plan to cut millions out of health insurance is a cruel joke. Truthfully, the Republican plan should be called “We Don’t Care.” Universal access is sort of what we had before the PPACA — if you could afford care, you got it. The change could be that the Republicans will prevent insurance companies from saying “no” to pre-existing conditions. Will they require them to offer coverage to everyone at the same price? I seriously doubt that. And if that is the case, then “universal access” simply means, if you can afford it, you get it.
Adam5
From an election standpoint, I see two possible outcomes:
1. They don’t repeal the ACA. Team Red voters, assured that voting doesn’t really change anything, continue to vote Team Red (Go Team Red!). Non-voters feel justified in not voting.
2. They repeal the ACA. Team Red voters are outraged that the government is taking away their health care, and continue to vote Team Red. Non-voters protest the government by refusing to vote.
Of course, a lot fewer people die in outcome 2, so it’s better and stuff…
NotoriousJRT
@James E Powell:
Don’t underestimate the youth who subscribe to the sparrow-on-a-curtain rod point of view.
sunny raines
@James E Powell:
spot on!
Raoul
.
I’d only add: Trump took your vote. Then he and his special friends Paul Ryan and Mitch McConnell took away your healthcare.
Raoul
@sunny raines:
A less charitable person than I might suggest that gutting their Medicare might help things along.
cmorenc
@Ghost of Joe Liebling’s Dog:
The manner in which media reporting on O-Care approval typically headline-aggregates and footnote-distinguishes the % who disapprove of O-Care because it didn’t go far enough (e.g. toward single payer) are lumped in with those who disapprove of O-Care because they think it’s a good idea but the implementation was flawed vs those who don’t think it should exist in the first place, has grossly distorted coverage of support for the ACT, and made it seem as if the shouldn’t-exist-ers are the majority.
shoeflying
@efgoldman: You seem to be assuming you will still be able to get Medicare at 65…I sure hope so.