The Trump administration executed an elegant face plant in a shit swamp on Monday, asking a court to kill all aspects of the Affordable Care Act/Obamacare. ALL of it. They want to erase the private insurance markets that cover 15 million Americans, the Medicaid expansion that covers another 15 million, and the protections for people with preexisting conditions, the mandate for contraceptive availability, the option to keep young people up to age 26 on parental coverage, etc.
As a political stance, this is downright nuts. We just lived through a midterm election largely fought between Democrats who promised to supply more and better access to health care and Republicans who had voted to reduce access. Democrats won almost 9 million more votes nationally than GOPers, netting 41 House seats. Health care was the highest concern of 41 percent of voters according to exit polls; 75 percent of those voters went for the Dems. No other issue area polled over 25 percent.... the Trump administration’s clear, consistent, and unequivocal position is that millions of people should lose their health insurance and that people should not be protected from discrimination based on their medical history.
It would be hard to think of anything less likely to be popular than Republicans trying to kill off health care access for many of us. We like being able to go to a doctor when we need one. More and more of us think medical care is a human right. Do they want to run against that?
Perplexed, I consulted Dr. Google to try to find out what the GOPers' beef really is?
This involved wading through a lot of what I was not seeking. I wasn't looking for Republican "argumentation" in policy debates which usually comes down to the contention that health care access is "a job killer" (nonsense, the sector is a growth opportunity) or it would cost too much (yeah, so do tax breaks for billionaires).
I wasn't looking for talking points or scare stories: remember "death panels"? Nor was I interested in what are essentially complaints about the health care "system" which blame the ACA/Obamacare for inequities and costs that law failed to curb, like rising insurance company co-pays and drug company profiteering. GOPers aren't proposing alternatives; they are trying to kill the existing law.
I was looking for the genuine reasons Republicans hate giving people access to health care.
Here's what I found; honestly it was pretty thin.
- "Conservatives and libertarians strongly object to the federal government becoming ever more involved in the nation’s health care system. [KHN]" They simply fear government interference in anything as an intrusion on their individual liberty. Suspicion is not completely crazy. But it makes collateral damage in the community -- suffering and death -- hostage to some people's understanding of their personal freedom. The rest of us have a right to contest this assessment.
- "Conservatives have also decried the act as an unwarranted intrusion into the affairs of private businesses and individuals. [BBC] " More of the same here; these folks probably like driving on roads where all drivers have licensing requirements and obey stop signs -- or maybe they don't. But the rest of us have decided the utility of some rules of the road overrides our individual druthers.
- "... and then there is the question of who actually deserves health care. .. [some[ warned of the dangers of people getting health care who didn’t work or contribute to their society" [Vox] GOPers live with a terror that someone somewhere will get something for nothing. They feel that possibility demeans their personal struggles. They are doing their best. Is the other guy struggling too?
And among some white folks, there's too often a suspicion that the undeserving someone somewhere is Black or brown -- somehow Other.
- Or, just perhaps, conservatives don't accept the premise of health insurance at all. Ed Kilgore tried to explain during an earlier round of this struggle:
Conservatives have long believed that “third-party” health insurance — health insurance provided by employers or the government — encourages over-utilization of health services and thus is responsible for high rates of medical inflation. And many believe the only legitimate purpose of health insurance should be to cover catastrophic costs, not the routine medical services that people used to pay out-of-pocket in the days before a combination of tax subsidies, collective bargaining, and employer competition made employer-sponsored comprehensive insurance plans common.
... They ... fight every feature of the health-care system that involves spreading the risk — and the cost — of poor health, which is the basic function of private as well as “government” health care. It might clear the air and foster a real health-care policy debate if conservatives would just come out and admit they oppose health insurance as we know it. But it does not sound like much of a winning message ...
The republicans have wonderful healthcare and a great pension and care nothing for the rest of the people in this country, other than to get their vote. And they do this by pandering to trump’s cult, which is so easy to do. They just throw out some racism to them and they bite.
ReplyDeleteAlso on Obamacare, I think a lot has to do with, that it was Obama who started this and they hate him, especially the cult, and why? Simple, he is black and had concerns for the less fortunate. They hate the less fortunate. And they don’t consider themselves less fortunate, because they are white.
Now trump wants to defund the special Olympics, as they are defective (in their minds).
And cutting a large swath of money for public education, because the cult demands the Bible be taught in schools. And since it’s easy to do in private religious schools, old Betsy is demanding billions for that cause.
The heartless mob is ruling our country in collusion with the republicans and trump and the rest of us don’t seem to be able to do a thing about it.
Our one chance at a clearer picture of the "true" trump and the evil in our country was lost this week thanks to the so called lack of evidence by the investigation. I believe this has set the country back once again, as disappointment is infectious and trump, the republicans and the cult have been given a "gift" and one certainly not earned.