Washington’s ills painfully obvious in health care discord
Republicans are bent on fulfilling a promise they made to voters: repealing and replacing Obamacare.
But not only does the Senate-offered bill do neither of those things, it does nothing to address the real problems facing the health care system — like rising premiums and out-of-pocket costs, and insurers fleeing the marketplace.
But through all of their efforts, Republicans have accomplished something they never expected — they’ve made the once wildly derided Obamacare far more popular.
According to an NBC News/ Wall Street Journal poll, only 16 percent of Americans said the House-passed GOP bill is a good idea while 48 percent give it a thumbs-down. When asked the same questions about Obamacare, 41 percent said it was a good idea and 38 percent were against it.
So how will Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and other GOP supporters, assuming they’ll be able to convince members of their own caucus to pass the measure next week, sell the overhaul to an already skeptical public? Especially if the Congressional Budget Office predicts that tens of millions of people will lose their insurance, premiums will skyrocket and poor, middleclass and older Americans will be the ones bearing the brunt?
Good question.
Perhaps in this hyperpartisan atmosphere in D.C., GOP lawmakers are less concerned with pleasing voters as they are with declaring the death of an Obama-era policy (again, this bill won’t do that, but that’s how they’ll spin it). Maybe their love for tax breaks and health care industry donors overrides their concern for people who will get hurt — including those who depend on Medicaid for mental health and opioid addiction treatment.
Democrats aren’t off the hook here. They’ve had just as long to come up with a cure for what ails Obamacare. While Republicans crafted their plan in secret, Democrats could have waved their own plan and said to Republicans: “Hey guys, when you are done playing games, we’re over here ready to talk about real solutions.”
Instead, they’ve done a lot of talking — on the House and Senate floor, in front of TV cameras and in their districts.
At a recent Capitol Hill AHCA-bashing press conference, I asked if the Democrats had a plan ready to go if the GOP efforts failed.
“We have ideas,” Sen. Ron Wyden of Oregan told me.
Too bad “ideas” aren’t currency voters can take to the bank — or use to pay the hefty medical bills that are on the way.