Discussion for article #222003
In Washington State, one that embraces ObamaCare, the estimate of uninsured before implementation was just under 1 million. Just under 600,000 signed up via WaHealthPlanFinder.
This statistic is insufficient to claim 60% reduction because of many factors. One is that it under counts people under 26 who gained coverage under parents policies earlier. Another is that it over counts those who had health insurance prior. Yet it also under counts those who bought directly from a broker or insurance company who did not have insurance previously.
What it DOES show is that a significant chunk of previously uninsured are now insured in Washington State.
It took RomneyCare many years to get to their current 98% insured rate. Tax consequences started small, and then increased. The web site was a disaster at first. Sign ups were really slow at first. Early sign ups were skewed more elderly and sickly. Later sign ups skewed more young and healthy.
ObamaCare has substantially the same design AND the same designers as RomneyCare. In similar States it should get similar results.
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People climb down out of a very tall tree one step at a time. The hardest step is the first one.
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Honestly, I liked him better in New Kids on the Block. Less stammering.
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In what this republican is saying is that some people are getting help but at the same time is still knocking down Obamacare because people are getting subsidies to help pay for health insurance they can’t afford. This is the republican party in a nutshell. If you are a blue collar worker and are getting help for even private health insurance than you are scum. But, if you are a billion dollar corporation like some of these super farms, or oil companies, cattle ranchers, big bankers than government subsidies are ok. It is really all about how much money you have in your bank account that counts for the republican party. If you aren’t a millionaire die quickly and forget about health insurance. Michigan voters, even republicans will wise up about how Obamacare is helping working Americans finally get healthcare.
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If you’re referring to GOPers who haven’t evolved, the first steps may be followed by a sharp THUD as they decend from the trees of their ape ancestors.
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Here comes the backpedaling.
Which will back up faster? Republicans excusing their actions on Obamacare or a guy walking out the jimmied rear door of a pawnshop late at night when he sees the cops?
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GOP ran out of tree a few years ago. Only no one told them.
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“I’ve also met people who are now being helped by being subsidized who say I never want to be subsidized by the government.”
Obviously he’s never talked to the Koch brothers, the Walton’s, or anyone in the defense industry.
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Ok, so if republicans can’t run on repealing Obamacare, what are they going to run on? They sure don’t give a crap about jobs or the economy.
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So what is about Republicans and math millions equal a few.
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But…but…but…but…some people don’t want to be subsidized! ((Shudder)) Who cares if some people die?
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“If you want to take my lousy, overpriced health insurance away from me, you’ll have to pry it out of my cold, dead hands…”
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Republican governors denying the expansion of Medicaid in their politically red states seemed, at the time, to be just another factor in the whole anti-obamacare effort, but that has now become the biggest liability for them at every level facing election or re-election this year.
Even the Democrats who think they need to take a “fix the law” approach can pivot on the Medicaid expansion and shout loudly at the governors who denied it, whenever their opponent tries to fool the crowd with one of their patent anti-obamacare scares.
Red state Republicans have opened the door to a big, surprise loss because they denied Medicaid expansion as part of their frantic, manic, dysfuntional attack on Obamacare. So many members of their own aging voter base were directly impacted by that denial, and every one of those who actually knows they were denied will have to weigh that very personal fact and their own self-interest against their own stubborn prejudices and inherent apathy.
One of the questions we will see asked and answered many more times before November is “How many Americans (Kansans, Virginians, Oklahomans, etc etc) were denied healthcare by my opponent and/or their party?”
answer “more than (40-400),000 just in our own state alone!”
follow up question
“Were you or someone you loved one of them?”
from there, it is very easy to flow right into the hometown horror stories…
“Well let me tell you about Joe Smith, one of my constituents from Blahblah County, he and his wife Janie can tell you all bout getting denied medicare when they needed it desperately… but Governor Blahblah apparently didn’t think they mattered as much as the billionaires who put him into office. Governor Blahblah refused to protect and defend his own constituents, even with $(80)billion dollars of YOUR OWN FEDERAL TAX MONEY on the table to pay for it, MONEY YOU EARNED AND YOU DESERVE, billions of YOUR taxpayer dollars that he just ignored while his own people suffered…
and there are stories like Joe’s all over the state and the country, good, hard working Americans who shouldered the burden of building our prosperous nation, yet they were denied the most fundamental healthcare when the opportunity came for us to pay them back for their lifetime of hard work and dedication…”
You can extrapolate a great speech for any Democrat in ANY red state from that fragment, for a very good reason; there are millions of uninspired potential voters who might be inspired to vote by pointing out their own personal benefit, or lack thereof, people who would have been covered by Medicaid but got stiffed by red state governors and their ALEC-allied legislatures.
And that is a very quantifiable number available for our candidates to utilize. If the State Dems just about everywhere are smart, they’ll make that headcount count, and post it profusely in every newspaper in the country, even if some of their candidates don’t think they should go there.
Those reticent candidates need to rethink their positions, while they may not choose to openly embrace Obamacare, they can still remind their audience how many of them would be covered by Medicaid if those Governors and their hired hands in their respective statehouses hadn’t chosen to protect the millionaires and billionaires instead of We, the people.
And keep in mind there really ARE stories like Joe and Jane’s, all over the country, in every red state where they refused to expand Medicaid. Whenever a Democrat is challenged by their Republican opponent about Obamacare flaws, they can respond with the number of people that the Republican governor in their state left twisting in the healthcare winds when they refused to expand Medicaid.
I don’t pretend the deepest red states are going to flip because of it, but some of the state wide races we are watching lean back towards Democrats might just prove me wrong. The failure of these red states and their recalcitrant governors to take care of their very own voter base may come back to haunt them, much sooner than they realized.
I think it is already happening.
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We can only hope Democrats take your excellent advise. Well said, JEP07.
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By some, he must be referring to the 14.4 Million to 23.5 Million ACA signups?
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The only people the ACA hasn’t worked for are those in red states who are being denied state exchanges and Medicaid expansion that would not cost the state a penny. The evidence is building in all 50 states that Republicans are hurting their own base. It’s going to be very, very hard for more of them to deny it by the Midterms.
The success in KY has been stunning. There is no way the TeaParty rupes in red states are going to watch one of their Dixie strongholds get relief from healthcare expenses and lack of coverage for those with pre-existing conditions without demanding it themselves.
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another half-informed Republican with a whole opinion…
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asjogren, you just gave me a thought… were the anti-obamacare zombies so desperate and animated and outrageous because they KNEW as this law matured it would prove unquestionably beneficial to a huge majority of voters who might have otherwise stayed out of the ballot booth or voted for Republican? Did they KNOW it would become incrementally more popular every day, like the Mass achusetts law??
OK, give me a big group “duh”, I would guess that is just simple logic.
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Clearly a commie. Koch brothers, time for you to work your magic on this heretic.
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