Americans Getting Cold Feet on Repealing Obamacare

[Frodo]

We've seen the townhalls -now we have the numbers:

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http://www.politico.com/story/2017/02/obamacare-repeal-replace-poll-235245

[Trapsy]

Dems need to run on repair, It's a winning argument imo.

[The_Doctor]

And now, John Boehner says ObamaCare will stay the law of the land. I'm in complete agreement. There will be mild modifications, probably requested by the governors, but the Medicare expansion is here to stay, so are the exchanges, and so are the subsidies (guess who they go to? That's right, a lot of Trump voters!). Big Pharma and all the people who benefit will stand on the tracks to stop the repeal.  

I imagine the Trump base will move on swiftly to other issues and the GOP will gain collective amnesia that they ever wanted to repeal the law. In five years, it will be remembered as the "Affordable Care Act," not "ObamaCare."

Obama's victory on his healthcare law is breathtaking. He rolled the dice and it looks like he's won the game after all. And it looks like ObamaCare will be the transition point between our prior system and single payer. (Or as they will call it, "Medicare for All.")

The RNC really fumbled badly on not using the 5 years to come up with a replacement plan.

[ApatheticAustrian]

2012 was the last chance for republicans to do something about this.

[Frodo]

And now, John Boehner says ObamaCare will stay the law of the land. I'm in complete agreement. There will be mild modifications, probably requested by the governors, but the Medicare expansion is here to stay, so are the exchanges, and so are the subsidies (guess who they go to? That's right, a lot of Trump voters!). Big Pharma and all the people who benefit will stand on the tracks to stop the repeal.  

I imagine the Trump base will move on swiftly to other issues and the GOP will gain collective amnesia that they ever wanted to repeal the law. In five years, it will be remembered as the "Affordable Care Act," not "ObamaCare."

Obama's victory on his healthcare law is breathtaking. He rolled the dice and it looks like he's won the game after all. And it looks like ObamaCare will be the transition point between our prior system and single payer. (Or as they will call it, "Medicare for All.")

The RNC really fumbled badly on not using the 5 years to come up with a replacement plan.

I'm not seeing how Obamacare will be replaced by single-payer if Republicans end up repairing (instead of repealing) it.  If it's running like a well-oiled machine by the time 2020 rolls around, there will be very little incentive to take the next step and institute single-payer.  And -apart from some left-wing activists- why would we?  Why change that which is no longer broken?  Unless you are proposing it will be done by stealth, step-by-step, without anyone noticing.   

[The_Doctor]

And now, John Boehner says ObamaCare will stay the law of the land. I'm in complete agreement. There will be mild modifications, probably requested by the governors, but the Medicare expansion is here to stay, so are the exchanges, and so are the subsidies (guess who they go to? That's right, a lot of Trump voters!). Big Pharma and all the people who benefit will stand on the tracks to stop the repeal.  

I imagine the Trump base will move on swiftly to other issues and the GOP will gain collective amnesia that they ever wanted to repeal the law. In five years, it will be remembered as the "Affordable Care Act," not "ObamaCare."

Obama's victory on his healthcare law is breathtaking. He rolled the dice and it looks like he's won the game after all. And it looks like ObamaCare will be the transition point between our prior system and single payer. (Or as they will call it, "Medicare for All.")

The RNC really fumbled badly on not using the 5 years to come up with a replacement plan.

I'm not seeing how Obamacare will be replaced by single-payer if Republicans end up repairing (instead of repealing) it.  If it's running like a well-oiled machine by the time 2020 rolls around, there will be very little incentive to take the next step and institute single-payer.  And -apart from some left-wing activists- why would we?  Why change that which is no longer broken?  Unless you are proposing it will be done by stealth, step-by-step, without anyone noticing.    

I think ObamaCare - this has been stated somewhere, I don't recall - was always intended to be a middle transition point between our free market system and single payer. Or maybe I'm conflating the fact Obama was for single payer and has been on record favoring it since 1993. I also favor restricting coverage based on lifestyle choices (or hiking your premiums accordingly).

Anyway - let me lay out my thinking. Note I am among the group of conservatives that believe in breaking up the HMO's, and significant drug importation / patent reform to hold down prices in combination with ObamaCare alongside shrinking the Medicare expansion / curtailing it.

ObamaCare will never solve all the bugs in the system. Republicans can't repeal the law because it's a significant update over the old issues (using mostly conservative orthodoxy, I might add). But a lot of people would conclude that the law doesn't go far enough to hold down prices, which is the main flaw of ObamaCare, not coverage. The public option was designed to create competition but the votes weren't simply there to create that system (especially since we had just bailed out Fannie Mae & Freddie Mac, which are similarly constructed to how a public option corporation might operate).

But ObamaCare's major flaw remains that prices are still climbing upwards. They're slowing and the healthcare cost curve has slowed down considerably given the reforms but they're not slowing down enough. Ergo, we need a long term solution that limits costs that have risen drastically since the 1980s.

The Right doesn't have a solution, because let's face it, any conservative solution would need to break up Big Pharma, impose unpopular restrictions on healthcare coverage (for example, we'd have to start penalizing the obese). This will never fly among the populist Right, so how do you control costs?

If you're not willing to take on the big drug companies and the HMO's, and restrict healthcare coverage based on lifestyle choices ... you make the government the arbiter of costs and force doctors, hospitals and other providers to provide the good at the rates the government dictates. Yes, this is very close to socialism, but it has worked fairly well in Germany, the UK, and elsewhere. I don't like the system for various reasons, but that's the way the cookie crumbles.

Eventually the American left will ram through a single payer system that is probably modeled on an already successful model: Medicare.

[Wiz in Wis]

People oppose something new... in 2009, that was the ACA, now, its removing the ACA. In reality, every major expansion of the welfare state in the US has been met with fierce opposition from conservatives, who nevertheless then end up never killing it.

I mean, if the GOP hasn't killed the Dept. of Commerce by now, how the hell are they going to get rid of people's health insurance?

[Bojack Horseman]

I say to the GOP to ignore the town hall anger at your own peril: the town halls in 2009 did have people bussed in by AFP, but it was a sign of the anger of the country at large. You can draw the districts however you want, but when you hit people where it hurts (their wallets), you're going to get voted out before you can say the word "replacement."

[ApatheticAustrian]

trump earlier this day:

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https://twitter.com/RyanLizza/status/836238638388248577

[The world will shine with light in our nightmare]

I'm definitely more optimistic about Obamacare staying more or less in place now.  After Trump's election I thought for sure I'd lose my coverage and be forced to go on Medicaid or something, because Obamacare was the only reason me and my mother were able to buy insurance for ourselves.  But now it looks like the political tides are shifting away from flat-out repeal, thanks in no small part to John Kasich, apparently.  And these polls are welcoming news.

[Dr. Arch]

trump earlier this day:

You must be logged in to read this quote.

https://twitter.com/RyanLizza/status/836238638388248577

I.E. "I didn't know it could be so complicated."

[Blackacre]

This is why Obama's victory in 2012 was so important, and why 2012 was probably the third most important election in the last 40 years, after 2000 and 1980. The last chance the GOP had to repeal Obamacare was 2012 before its implementation. Now that it's in effect and people are benefitting from it, the pre-Obama status quo will never come back

[Absentee Voting Ghost of Ruin]

trump earlier this day:

You must be logged in to read this quote.

https://twitter.com/RyanLizza/status/836238638388248577

Republicans, you nominated and elected this idiot.

[ApatheticAustrian]

btw...republican pundits are now arguing, townhalls are getting occupied by paid activists and should be shut down for now.

i am pretty sure, this played out differently in 2009 and following.

[The_Doctor]

This is why Obama's victory in 2012 was so important, and why 2012 was probably the third most important election in the last 40 years, after 2000 and 1980. The last chance the GOP had to repeal Obamacare was 2012 before its implementation. Now that it's in effect and people are benefitting from it, the pre-Obama status quo will never come back

* Until the realignment

[Blackacre]

This is why Obama's victory in 2012 was so important, and why 2012 was probably the third most important election in the last 40 years, after 2000 and 1980. The last chance the GOP had to repeal Obamacare was 2012 before its implementation. Now that it's in effect and people are benefitting from it, the pre-Obama status quo will never come back

* Until the realignment

If/when Obamacare is replaced after the realignment, it'll be with a Medicare for All system, not what we had before the ACA. Assuming that's where you put the asterisk

[ApatheticAustrian]

as we have learned, arkansas is ground zero of this new fight....

.... i guess there is no chance in hell that the voters in arkansas chance their voting habits over such a thing....

.... more likely the arkansas republicans get more...compassionate.

[The_Doctor]

This is why Obama's victory in 2012 was so important, and why 2012 was probably the third most important election in the last 40 years, after 2000 and 1980. The last chance the GOP had to repeal Obamacare was 2012 before its implementation. Now that it's in effect and people are benefitting from it, the pre-Obama status quo will never come back

* Until the realignment

If/when Obamacare is replaced after the realignment, it'll be with a Medicare for All system, not what we had before the ACA. Assuming that's where you put the asterisk

I meant 2012 "most important election of the last 40 years" until the realignment. Eh, maybe the realignment starts a new 40 year epoch, so maybe you're right

[Shameless Lefty Hack]

trump earlier this day:

You must be logged in to read this quote.

https://twitter.com/RyanLizza/status/836238638388248577

Republicans, you nominated and elected this idiot.

In their defense, they apparently didn't realized it would be complicated until now either.

[ApatheticAustrian]

https://twitter.com/brianbeutler/status/836256034549280768

[Antonio the Sixth]

I hope you're right and they'll be forced to back down, but I'm still not comfortable.

[Hermit For Peace]

This is why Obama's victory in 2012 was so important, and why 2012 was probably the third most important election in the last 40 years, after 2000 and 1980. The last chance the GOP had to repeal Obamacare was 2012 before its implementation. Now that it's in effect and people are benefitting from it, the pre-Obama status quo will never come back

* Until the realignment

If/when Obamacare is replaced after the realignment, it'll be with a Medicare for All system, not what we had before the ACA. Assuming that's where you put the asterisk

And even Medicare is not that great. People are still responsible for large money outputs under this plan.

I'd like to see something better than Medicare, a better Universal health care model implemented. For now, the ACA is better than what we had before.

[Blackacre]

This is why Obama's victory in 2012 was so important, and why 2012 was probably the third most important election in the last 40 years, after 2000 and 1980. The last chance the GOP had to repeal Obamacare was 2012 before its implementation. Now that it's in effect and people are benefitting from it, the pre-Obama status quo will never come back

* Until the realignment

If/when Obamacare is replaced after the realignment, it'll be with a Medicare for All system, not what we had before the ACA. Assuming that's where you put the asterisk

I meant 2012 "most important election of the last 40 years" until the realignment. Eh, maybe the realignment starts a new 40 year epoch, so maybe you're right

Maybe I probably won't be referring to 2012 as one of the most important elections in recent memory after the realignment happens, but I'll probably always consider it underrated in its importance, precisely because it so easily could have gone the other way, and the consequences of it having gone the other way would have been immense.

[The world will shine with light in our nightmare]

https://twitter.com/brianbeutler/status/836256034549280768

rofl

people still think this spineless cuck is going to be president someday?  SAD!

[Badger]

And now, John Boehner says ObamaCare will stay the law of the land. I'm in complete agreement. There will be mild modifications, probably requested by the governors, but the Medicare expansion is here to stay, so are the exchanges, and so are the subsidies (guess who they go to? That's right, a lot of Trump voters!). Big Pharma and all the people who benefit will stand on the tracks to stop the repeal.  

I imagine the Trump base will move on swiftly to other issues and the GOP will gain collective amnesia that they ever wanted to repeal the law. In five years, it will be remembered as the "Affordable Care Act," not "ObamaCare."

Obama's victory on his healthcare law is breathtaking. He rolled the dice and it looks like he's won the game after all. And it looks like ObamaCare will be the transition point between our prior system and single payer. (Or as they will call it, "Medicare for All.")

The RNC really fumbled badly on not using the 5 years to come up with a replacement plan.

I'm not seeing how Obamacare will be replaced by single-payer if Republicans end up repairing (instead of repealing) it.  If it's running like a well-oiled machine by the time 2020 rolls around, there will be very little incentive to take the next step and institute single-payer.  And -apart from some left-wing activists- why would we?  Why change that which is no longer broken?  Unless you are proposing it will be done by stealth, step-by-step, without anyone noticing.   

The real next battleground is instituting the public option, which most analysts (CBO, OMB, plenty of private sector and academic experts) agree would help bigly in slowing costs.