I think the personal and the party calculations are in perfect alignment. This bill is as bad for both individual senators as it is the party. The House has already royally fucked itself by going on record voting for the thing, but the Senate can still save itself by walking away from it. They can blame Democrats, blame PP, blame whomever. At the end of the day, the only people who are going to be truly upset about it is their base, and where else can they go? In fact, Republicans are pretty fortunate that they have a base who, despite being routinely shived in the kidneys by their electeds, will still slavishly turn out to vote for them. So, the question for most of them is: Do you stand a better chance staving off a poorly funded primary opponent with an electorate whose angry you didnāt vote on something, or a well-funded general election opponent with an electorate out for blood because of what you actually did? And the president has to be included in that calculation as well. Does anyone actually believe heāll be more popular in a year?
I think a better strategy is to carve out a handful of easily understood fixes to Oācare that include a public option. Medicare for all, single payer, is just too damn easy demonize, a lot of folks donāt understand it, and it leaves too much room for error. A public option is easy to understand, itās a group plan like the ones at big companies that allows you and folks all over the country to buy into a plan at a much cheaper cost, and itās much harder to demonize.
inducements to keep healthy people buying policies ā a step that helps curb premiums.
Yes, weāre going to get rid of that horrid, awful, no-freedom mandate, and replace it with āinducements to keep healthy people buying policies.ā
The only fix a public option would need over time is to adjust how its premiums are funded.
Iād suggest it be part of our taxes we all pay, put into a pool to find the public option.
Its not āsingle payerā if we all contribute.
If Republicans simply reversed all of the silly shit they pulled on the ACA, as a bill, the ACA would be 90% fixed. Return risk corridors, implement the Medicaid program nationwide, assure supplemental payments and then fool around with new delivery systems based on science. It could look like dumping the ACA and actually implement the Heritage plan from the first iteration. I bet it would work.
I am so disgusted by the state of the country I canāt even think straight some days, why not just work with Dems now and fix things or is that too much like the right thing to do? Heās basically admitted āObamacareā can be fixed.
Sensible people at that luncheon ( I know, I know) should have been offended by the nonsensical comments.
We keep calling this a debate about insurance.
Itās got nothing to do with insurance. Thatās the GOPās frame. Insurance is a bet you make on long odds. I bet you Iāll die, life insurance. Bet my place gets tossed. Renters insurance. Etc.
Health care is not the same thing as insurance. Health care is a certainty. The āpoliciesā that have won on the exchanges are āmanaged careā plans, not āinsuranceā: as such.
And thatās what people need. Preventive care. Chronic care. Acute care. Care.
Medicare offers care. Medicaid offers care. VA care is care. Insurance is something you might need. But everyone needs care. Everyone needs checkups, regular tests. Everyone needs help if they get into drugs, illegal or legal. Everyone needs help when their lifestyle, or just time, creates a chronic condition like diabetes.
Stop letting Republicans dictate the frame of this debate. Itās not about insurance. Itās about care.
Now you pull him into a negotiation that goes on and on and on and on and on and on and on until he simply gives up.
GOP: Canāt we just stomp on, pee on and set on fire Obamacare and leave replacement for some one else who gives a shit?
Wiping out Obamaās legacy is the most important thing to the GOP. Healthcare is hard work. Theyād rather not do it.
Single-payer.
Like Trump promised.
Good Lord, first Trump asks China to rid him of N Korea, now McConnell is whining that he will now have to askā¦gaspā¦the Democrat Party to save Obamacare like he is Scarlett OāHara
Whatās the difference between Mitch McConnell and Dominos pizza?
Dominos pizza delivers
Anything that makes McConnell uncomfortable is a win
Both bills approval rating is at 17% or lower so that means a lot of trumpistas do not like the idea of losing their access to health insurance even if āthose peopleā would lose theirs as well. Too much narco addiction amongst the trumpistas and they have been counting on having access to that methadone or whatever it is docs are using to wean addicts off narcotics nowadays.
It tests better in the donation requests than Benghaziā¦
Thatās not a political issue; thatās a branding issue. I think Fox and the Republican Party could pull off a con if they wanted to do so.
the end to the vid is appropriate to this thread.
In rural/small town America, you are judged very harshly, and sometimes for generations, for any addiction. It puts the whole family on āthe wrong side of the tracksā and not worth redemption.
āWeāve got the insurance markets imploding all over the country, including in this state.ā
These are the words of a forlorn legislator, feeling the pressure! I guess now at least no one should say āhe didnāt really try, he lacks the guts!ā Gotta be part of his calculus!
Mitch turns 76 y.o.after the New Year, the spry lad!
The crafty septugenarian already has shills lined up, so his capitulation can be fobbed off as someone elseās initiative: āInteresting idea!ā
I have always believed that the biggest problem the GOP faced regarding the ACA was how they would word the messaging to their supporters when they realized it had to remain in effect. It has to be very difficult to admit that the removal of all the restrictions they voted for would solve the problem.