Deep uncertainty and serious divisions within the Republican coalition about the way forward on Obamacare have surfaced in the new Congress, and they’ve put the future of repeal and replace in doubt.
It’s become evident that there is little GOP unity on how much a replacement plan should cost, how to pay for it, whether the Medicaid expansion should be rolled back, or how to fix the individual markets.
Furthermore, there is no evident agreement even on extremely broad questions such as, “What should the goals of the GOP’s replacement plan be?”
Accordingly, many Republicans in both the House and Senate are increasingly fearful about moving to roll back Obamacare too quickly when so little is settled about what comes after it. And their problems are compounded by the fact that while a reasonably comprehensive repeal bill could be rammed through with just 50 Senate votes plus Vice President Mike Pence, a serious replacement bill would need 60 Senate votes, at least eight of which would have to come from Democrats.
It is not impossible that President Trump and the Republican Party will overcome all these problems. But to do so, they will have to come up with consensus answers to these five very serious unsettled questions.
1) What is the goal here? …
2) What will they do about money? …
3) What’s to be done with Medicaid? …
4) How will they try to make the individual markets work better? …
5) Just how committed are they to this thing, anyway?
—Andrew Prokop
The 5 Biggest Disagreements Republicans Have on Obamacare
Heh.
The REAL bottom line is that the ACA is as “good as it gets” short of an actual national health system. Anything else pushes you back into the Bad Old Days of massive deductibles, denial of “preexisting conditions”, and horrendous markups on everything. The Republicans who actually know this are terrified because the rest of their cult is full of Know-Nothings that either don’t know (because they have pledged themselves to Magical Market Sparkle Ponies) or honestly sorta-know but don’t give a fuck because the only people going backwards will hurt are Those People; the blahs, the poors, the moochers…y’know…THEM.
I’m actually convinced that these idiots will jump off this dock because they’re hostages to the C.H.U.D.s that Hate Radio, FOX, and the rest of the Magical Thinking Wingnut Media have created.
With luck, those C.H.U.D.s will end up suffering and dying in such job lots that the Inescapability of Brutal Facts will finally hammer its way though their foot-thick skulls.
Nice CHUD reference! I haven’t heard that one in a long time. Now that’s a psychotropic film …
Although I do not wish any more people to die on the altar of our private insurance system (although many have, and continue to), I share your frustration that seemingly no examples of bad GOP governance ever reach our True Believing conservative citizens. At this point, I doubt if anything can. Low information voters, we can talk to. True Believers, there’s no chance. But there’s a lot of True Believers. Conservative, Hysterical, Utterly Deranged.
And, for the record, the answers are:
1) What is the goal here? Destroy the Negro! Destroy His Works! Glarbagh!!!! (What? They’re Republicans? You’re expecting sense?)
2) What will they do about money? Money? What money? Are there no prisons? Are there no workhouses?
3) What’s to be done with Medicaid? Who cares? It’s an entitlement for Poor People. Moochers. Better that they die soon and decrease the surplus population.
4) How will they try to make the individual markets work better? Markets, being designed by God, already work perfectly. It’s the poor and the sick people who don’t “work” (hee hee! That’s a GOP funny, get it?)
5) Just how committed are they to this thing, anyway? They’re committed to Destroying the Negro and All His Works, if that’s what you mean…