After their first two attempts bombed, House Republicans finally succeeded in rounding up enough votes to repeal Obamacare. It’s a disaster for 22 million Americans. It’s a dream come true for Democrats.
Publicly, Democrats immediately condemned Republicans for their vote, while privately, they applauded the vote. And why not? There’s nothing more delicious than watching your opponents commit political suicide.
You have to wonder what birdbrained politicians (I think we know) came up with this brilliant idea. We’ve finally seized control of everything: the House, the Senate and the White House. So let’s make our first priority the repeal of the most successful health insurance program ever.
Here’s a plan: More than 14 million working-class Americans are now, for the first time, according to Families USA, protected under the expansion of Medicaid, thanks to Obamacare. Another 13 million, for the first time, have health insurance for themselves and their families, thanks to Obamacare. And millions of others, inflicted with diabetes, high blood pressure, epilepsy, cancer – or any other of what we euphemistically call “pre-existing conditions” – can now, for the first time, afford to buy health insurance. Again, thanks to Obamacare.
Here’s a plan: Let’s take it all away from them. Why? Not because it’s not working. It is. Not because there’s any public clamor for repeal. There’s not. In fact, Obamacare is more popular now than ever before. For the first time since 2007, more Americans view the law as a more positive one than bad. And in the latest Pew Research Center survey, 60 percent now say it’s the responsibility of the federal government to make sure every American has health coverage.
And that public support is more visible every day. In 2009, organized by the Koch Brothers, crowds showed up at congressional town halls to protest enactment of Obamacare. In 2017, on their own, after having benefited from Obamacare for seven years, Americans flocked to congressional town halls to protest repeal of Obamacare.
More than anything else, the back-and-forth battle over pre-existing conditions shows the folly and failure of the GOP strategy. The GOP’s first repeal plan, which was supported by only 17 percent of Americans, left protection for those with pre-existing conditions in place. But that was too much for members of the Freedom Caucus. They killed the bill.
So Donald Trump and Paul Ryan caved in. For round 2, they added a Freedom Caucus rider allowing states to opt out of coverage for pre-existing conditions, which was too much for moderate Republicans. So Trump and Ryan caved again. For round No. 3, they left the state waiver in the bill, but added an $8 billion, five-year kitty for those states that choose to set up a “high-risk pool” to help those with pre-existing conditions, which is nothing more than a sick joke.
Under the bill, states are not required to set up such a high-risk pool. They can choose to drop coverage for persons with pre-existing conditions just like 19 of them dropped expansion of Medicaid. And, according to the American Medical Association and AARP, $8 billion over five years will not even come close to what’s needed for anywhere from 50 million to 129 million Americans with pre-existing conditions. The Kaiser Foundation estimates it will help only 160,000 of them.
That means you can tell your mother with a heart murmur, or your husband with high blood pressure, or your sister fighting breast cancer: Forget about it. You may have been able to buy health insurance for a while, under Obamacare, but you’ll never be able to afford it again. You’re on your own, baby.
And here’s the point: This wasn’t forced on them. Republicans CHOSE to make this their top priority. Why? Because they’re stuck in 2009. They’ve been promising to repeal Obamacare for eight years. And they’re determined to deliver on that promise – even though most Americans now support Obamacare, and even though they still have no idea what to replace it with.
Which is why Democrats – while regretting the harmful impact the repeal will have on so many American families – can rejoice in their own political good fortune. Republicans may have won the House over Obamacare in 2010, but they will lose the House over Obamacare in 2018.
And one of the biggest losers is Donald Trump. Hasn’t he learned anything? Bill Clinton and Barack Obama both squandered the first two years of their presidency trying to force complicated health-care legislation through Congress, only to lose control of the House in the mid-terms. Now Trump is making the same mistake.
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