January 4, 2014 by David K. Sutton
Hey Republicans, What Happened To Obamacare Repeal?
I’ll tell you what happened. Millions of Americans now have health care coverage because of the Affordable Care Act. Millions more will gain coverage over the coming months and years. If Republican efforts to repeal Obamacare were unsuccessful before anyone was officially covered (and let me tell you, they tried many times), then how will future repeal efforts fair? That is, if there are any future repeal efforts.
Here’s the problem for Republicans, they still want to repeal Obamacare, but they know it got a lot harder to do once people actually started seeing the benefits of the health care law. Before that time, the law was ambiguous at best for most Americans, and it was all too easy for Republicans to fabricate, and I mean flat-out lie, about what the law means to the average American. But now that millions have coverage under the new law, those right-wing scare tactics will need to be refined.
Oh sure, the official launch of the health care exchange through the federal website known as HealthCare.gov was truly awful. But you know what? There’s a hidden gem born out of Republican opposition to the health care law. The states that chose to properly participate in the law built their own exchange websites. And they were free to “brand” those websites as they saw fit. So in those states, usually Democratic-controlled, many residents could be buying health care plans and not realize Obamacare made that possible. And because so many Republican-controlled states opted out, choosing to let their residents shop on the federal exchange website, that means residents in those red states who buy a health care plan through HealthCare.gov will know they are buying an Obamacare plan. To Republicans in red states who opposed the Affordable Care Act, I simply say — tasty pick, boneheads.
Health Care • News • Politics