Post by ShivaTD on Oct 30, 2013 18:32:39 GMT
There is no question in my mind that "Obamacare" as some serious problems and many have been noted. It is also well known that Republicans don't want to fix the serious problems with "Obamacare" either.
In response to the disastrous rollout of key parts of President Barack Obama’s federal health care law, Republican lawmakers are asking questions on a daily basis about how and when HealthCare.gov, the website where Americans can find insurance options, will function properly.
Despite their concern, it can be easy to forget that the GOP has no interest in actually fixing the problems that plague the law, and Republican House Speaker John Boehner on Tuesday offered a friendly reminder.
“There is no way to fix this monstrosity,” Boehner said after a meeting with House Republicans. “The idea that the federal government is going to supply the health insurance for every American and write all the rules defies any, any sense from my standpoint.”
news.yahoo.com/a-reminder-that-republicans-have-no-interest-in-fixing-obamacare-problems-155706552.html
While it is arguable whether "this monstrosity" can be fixed or not the fact is that stating it can't be is nothing but defeatism as it simply establishes that the challenge of attempting to fix it won't even be attempted. For example the Republicans are in an uproar over the problems with signing up on the federal insurance exchanges but the question for me is if they had a "magic wand" that would instantly fix the problems would they use it? I believe the answer it obviously that they would not. They don't want it to work and the Republicans are disingenuous in their condemnation of it because they wouldn't fix it even if they could. If problems of "Obamacare" could be fixed the Republicans wouldn't fix it anyway. The Republican position is "Repeal" and only "Repeal" of "Obamacare as they've offered nothing to replace it.
The problem is that there is majority support by Americans for some of the Key Provisions contained in "Obamacare" that would be lost based upon just "Repeal" of the law.
•72 percent of respondents wish to maintain the requirement that companies with more than 50 workers provide health insurance for their employees.
•82 percent of respondents favored banning insurance companies from denying coverage to people with pre-existing conditions.
thinkprogress.org/health/2012/06/25/505526/poll-most-americans-support-obamacare-provisions/
All of these provisions would be lost because the Republicans haven't offered a single proposal related to replacing "Obamacare" with something better. The Republicans haven't offered a single comprehensive health care proposal that would ensure that every American would receive quality health care even though that is a political plank of the Republican Party. Republicans have made proposals in the past that might make private health insurance slightly less expensive but that only addresses those that can afford private health insurance and that would choose to purchase it even if it was less expensive. It leaves about 30 million American still uninsured and ultimately unable to afford the health care services they might need.
To date the only Republican proposal is to "Throw out the baby with the bathwater" because they won't even address retaining the some of the key provisions of "Obamacare" that have huge support by the American People.
We can also look at history related to providing health care for the roughly 10% of Americans that don't have insurance of any kind, public or private, and can't afford the health care services millions of them require. In 1993 another "monstrosity" of Health Care Reform was proposed and the Congress rejected it. It didn't require "repeal" because it never became law but it would have covered those that couldn't afford health care services and/or that could afford or choose not to purchase private health insurance. So what happened after 1993?
Well, former President Bush did make a proposal to address insurance but it didn't provide health care for the roughly 10% of Americans that weren't covered by insurance predominately because they couldn't afford it. While we should credit Bush for his limited health care proposals the fact that they didn't address the actual problem must also be noted. Congress sat on it's butt knowing that a serious problem existed and did nothing to address the problem for over 15 years. Congress had 15 years to create a bipartisan solution to fix the problem but did nothing.
If "Obamacare" is simply repealed we can only expect the same action by Congress that happened after 1993 and that is that they will do nothing to fix the problem. In fact, Congress has become even more partisan and the likelihood of a bi-partisan solution is far less likely today than it was after 1993. Worse still is the fact that the Republicans haven't proposed anything to replace "Obamacare" so they don't even offer a "partisan" solution to the problem of tens of millions of people without the ability to pay for health care services or insurance. Republicans even object to government subsidies that actually allows millions of people to afford insurance that they would otherwise be unable to afford.
No, the Republicans are not proposing "Repeal and Replace" the "monstrosity" they claim "Obamacare" to be but instead Republicans are proposing "Repeal and Ignore" the problem of millions of Americans that can't obtain health care and the tens of thousand that die annually because they aren't treated in time to save their lives because they can't afford to go to the doctor. If "Obamacare" even with all of its problems that we know exist is repealed then it will not be replaced and even the key provisions that the vast majority of Americans support will be lost.