Who knew opening up healthcare to interstate competition would be the main idea Republicans could come up with to replace Obamacare?
January 5, 2017

I don't think anybody who supports the ACA would say it doesn't have problems, but it still has helped millions of people acquire healthcare when they never could before and kept people on plans when they wouldn't have been able to before.

I definitely won't re-litigate the healthcare fight from 2009, and how Joe Lieberman sold Americans down the river out of pure spite when he opposed a healthcare bill that would have expanded Medicare to the age of 55.

It was a policy he had supported until President Obama took office.

No, I won't bring that up, again. Nope.

But I do believe Duncan Black has hit on something when he writes about Republican opposition to the ACA.

Republicans Hate Obamacare Because _______

I'm not one to defend the worst parts of Obamacare and those who find themselves on the receiving end of the mandate with no subsidies have some genuine complaints, but generally the bit that goes in the blank there is "it was the blah president's signature legislative achievement."

It was President Obama's signature legislation and Republicans hated and feared his early support like nobody's business. Hence the creation of the Tea Party and the alt right.

In the above video, former Sen. Jim DeMint, who is now a big muckety muck at the Heritage Foundation and has been an opponent of the Affordable care Act since 2010, couldn't even come up with anything concrete when CNN's Carol Costello asked him what Republicans would replace Obamacare with.

Carol said, "So how do you take care of people much better than they're taken care of now? How can everybody be covered...the government would pay for that?"

DeMint said, "Step by step, over the next year, Congress can pass and the President can sign legislation that will make insurance more available and he can make insurance available to every American that's more affordable than what we have now."

Costello asked, "So the insurance companies will just go along with that, especially if you want to keep the part where, you know, they have to accept people with preexisting conditions and that people can keep their kids until they're 26 years old on their policies? The insurance companies will say, sure, whatever you want?"

DeMint replied, "The insurance companies don't have to go along unless they want to stay in business. What we have to do is create competition. Donald trump has talked about more competition across state lines, which we have not allowed in the past. We can create a vibrant, competitive insurance market that will make health insurance much more affordable and create a lot more choices.

Costello said, "So who has that plan? Who has that plan? Because, you know, Republicans in Congress have voted to repeal Obamacare 60 times. They were supposed to come up with some sort of plan to replace it, but they haven't come up with one plan that everybody can agree on. So is it only going to take a year because I find that hard to believe."

DeMint said, "The last thing they should do is pass another 200-page comprehensive bill."

That's the way the entire conversation went. DeMint had no concrete plans outside of telling you what was wrong with Obamacare. he's had six years to propose either changes to the ACA or have Heritage hawk one of their own.

He did neither.

Republicans have nothing.

It's cray cray!

Discussion

We welcome relevant, respectful comments. Any comments that are sexist or in any other way deemed hateful by our staff will be deleted and constitute grounds for a ban from posting on the site. Please refer to our Terms of Service for information on our posting policy.
Mastodon