The Affordable Care Act—the so-called
“Obamacare”—continues to be the subject of the highest hypocrisy by its opponents. Polls show
belated majority support for the ACA as the reality starts to sink in that it
actually may be repealed and not
replaced, since no one in the Republican leadership has indicated that they
actually have agreement on any “plan” to replace it now, or have a “time table” to
come up with one. It is ironic that the ACA as it is now constituted is essentially
the same as the Republican “alternative” in 1993, but naturally they oppose it
now because the “other” party is associated with it.
House Speaker Paul Ryan’s “Better
Way” plan would do away with the individual mandate, which affordable care
supporters will be a huge mistake, because it will result in higher premiums for
low-income people who will not be able to afford it. His “plan” offers “incentives”
to maintain continuous coverage, which in reality will only allow insurance companies
to take advantage of this and premiums spiral out of control, and those who try
to get a different plan will be “penalized.” Ryan’s claim that he will offer a plan that
will not make those already on an ACA plan “worse off” thus will be, and to
those currently on an ACA plan, it is hard to stomach the mendacity. Ryan’s
“plan” doesn’t have much support, of course, and Donald Trump has said that he
won’t take a “wrecking ball” to the act. But as usual, Trump speaks out of both
sides of mouth; his Health and Human Services nominee, Rep. Tom Price, is
another extreme opponent of the ACA who has nothing good to say about it.
Whatever Ryan does, of
course will be subject to, as the New
York Times’ Frank Bruni recently wrote, rummaging “through his wobbly
endoskeleton and make fresh acquaintance with his spine. Until that happens,
this sadly groveling Boy Scout will be lost in the woods.” But at least he has
a “plan,” fake or not; Senate Republicans have no plan at all, and never did.
People should waste no time in demanding that Trump and the Republicans don’t
touch the ACA at all until they have a replacement that does essentially the
same thing it does. Price’s claim that "The American people are
paying more for health care and getting less – less access, less quality, and
fewer choices” because of the ACA is high hypocrisy on many levels; health care
before the ACA was out-of-reach for millions of Americans, with costs spiraling
out of control by as much as 20 percent a year, and nearly all insurance
companies refused to offer individual
coverage. People on the ACA will doubtless say that Price not only doesn’t have
a clue about what he is talking about, but his insensitivity to the problems of
low-income people (which he shares with most on the Right) is inhuman.
Meanwhile, insurers claim that
they are being “hurt” by spiraling costs supposedly induced by the ACA, but as
Wendell Potter of healthinsurance.org points out, they are talking out of both
sides of their mouths as well. He writes this past March that rather than “killing”
the health insurance industry, “The first seven years of the Obama
administration have been ‘yuge’ for the health insurance industry, to use one
of The Donald’s favorite words.” In fact, “unbelievably ‘yuge’ for people who
own stock in health insurance companies.” For example, “On Friday, February
19, shortly after the stock market closed for the week, the government
announced that it was giving a big raise to the private insurance companies
that participate in the Medicare Advantage program, the private alternative to
traditional Medicare. Based largely on that news, investors rushed
to buy as much of the health insurance companies’ shares as they could get
their hands on. By the time the market closed on Friday, February 26, just
seven days later, Cigna’s stock was up 5.5 percent. Humana’s was up a whopping
8.1 percent. By comparison, the Dow Jones industrial average was up just 1.5
percent.”
Potter points that
health insurance companies had “record-breaking profits” last year. Despite the
fact that insurers like UnitedHealth had $11 billion in profit (after CEO Stephen Hemsley’s $66 million
paycheck) thanks to investment spurred by the ACA, it says that it “might” opt
out of individual exchanges because it lost $720 million on that part of its “business.”
But as Potter points out, the ACA portion of its portfolio is actually only a
small portion of its operations; on the other hand, “UnitedHealth has been
making money hand over fist from federal and state governments, thanks to
Obama, just as WellCare has. In fact, far more than half of the $157 billion it took in last year came from
Medicare, Medicaid and other government programs (i.e., from you and me, the
taxpayers).”
The reality is that
the ACA has been beneficial to those who need it, and the “harm” it is causing
is well overblown by those whose opposition to it is more a function of their
politics and social attitudes. The bottom line is that we need decision-makers
who have the long-term interests of the people and the country in mind, not a
function of their bigotry. Unfortunately, “Obamacare” has been used to
manipulate many voters dislike of Obama personally, and one suspects that many
Republicans feel they have painted themselves into such a corner they can’t extricate
themselves from without losing what little credibility they ever had on the
issue.
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