The demagogues within the GOP and the party's Christofascist/Tea Party base rant and whine about "Obamacare" yet have no real plan as to how to address the nation's horrible lack of access to health care for millions of Americans. Unlike virtually every other developed industrialized country, the USA still treats its citizens as disposable trash and leaves countless millions without access to health care, especially in terms of preventive health care. We spend more than any other country on a per capita basis yet have the most inefficient health care delivery system. True, if you're Mitt Romney and able to buy whatever health care you want - or a member of Congress with a Rolls Royce health care plan - then America has a wonderful health care system. For the rest of us, many still have to think whether or not they should go to the doctor and pay their out of pocket co-pay or deductible. Now, with the U.S. Supreme Court possibly handing down a decision on the challenge to "Obamacare," the GOP has to face the music: if Obamacare is struck down, what will they propose to the millions of Americans who will either lose coverage completely or see significant curtailments to their health care coverage. Right now, the answer is nothing. And that is something that could give Obama a club with which to beat the GOP over the head in the run up to November. Talking Points Memo looks at the sudden realization coming over the GOP demagogues. Here are highlights:
Over the last week, the signals have been abundant that congressional Republicans are pivoting from their total opposition to “Obamacare” toward supporting the more popular chunks of the law.
It’s an election-year strategy to mitigate the fallout if the Supreme Court grants them their wish and strikes down the law next month. The House GOP is weighing a replacement plan to reinstate its more popular components, such as guaranteeing coverage regardless of pre-existing conditions, letting people under 26 stay on a parent’s policy and closing the Medicare “doughnut hole.” The idea is also percolating among Senate Republicans.
“I think it is all part of the fact that repeal was so far away in 2010 and even in 2011. Now, as the possibility arises that part of the law could be repealed is only a month away, there is some disorder,” said a well-connected health industry lobbyist and former GOP aide.
Republicans don’t want to be accused of throwing a swath of disabled people, young adults and seniors to the wolves if they succeed at scrapping “Obamacare.” But those fixes were made possible thanks to the unpopular provisions that accompanied them, most notably the individual mandate. Forbidding insurers to turn away sick customers is ultimately unworkable without a provision to expand coverage to healthy people. Health policy experts — and policy-savvy Republicans — recognize this economic reality.
In other words, Republicans are offering voters an implausibly rosy proposition: Enjoy the popular pieces of the Affordable Care Act but don’t worry about the unpopular components. But if the GOP actually tries to put that plan into effect, they’ll run into a world of problems — not least of which would be an all-out assault from the insurance industry, which will feel the hardest pinch from the GOP’s “have your cake and eat it too” proposal. That raises questions as to how serious Republicans are about the replacement plan.
“Market reforms won’t work without a mandate,” said an insurance industry source. The industry has been at pains to explain the inextricable link between guaranteed coverage for pre-existing conditions and a mandate to purchase insurance.
As a short-term political posture, it has served them well. But now that the Supreme Court might give them what they want, they’re forced to deal with the reality of what it would mean. And that’s a huge wake-up call for the party, especially one without a clear leader to herd the cats as they figure out their next move.
As one Republican health care aide put it to TPM, “I do think some Republicans are finally starting to realize they could be the dog that caught the car.”
I for one would love to see the GOP's demagoguery bit it in the ass big time. It would also be delicious to see the party that wraps itself in religiosity be firmly tied to throwing the poor and elderly to the wolves - which is what the Christianists love to do to anyone who doesn't subscribe to their poisonous beliefs..
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