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June 3, 2015 2:00 pm - NewsBehavingBadly.com

Republicans have no contingency plans in place should their constituents lose health coverage in the event the Supreme Court rules against Obamacare subsidies. In spite of years of rhetoric that they’d like to “repeal and replace” they have worked only on repeal. While busly voting unsuccessfully to repeal the Affordable Care Act more than 50 times, they have no plan about what to do if the ACA is gutted.

Republicans’ history of promising and then not delivering comprehensive health care legislation — a history, after all, that goes back decades — hints at a deep, fundamental disagreement with the entire idea. Republicans will talk up the importance of helping people with pre-existing conditions or providing financial assistance to people for whom insurance is too expensive. But creating a truly universal coverage system — in which everybody has access, regardless of income or health — requires taking steps that many conservatives simply can’t abide.

Specifically, universal coverage requires some combination of regulation, taxes and redistribution (from healthy to sick, and from rich to poor) that Republicans tend to find economically destructive, morally noxious or both. That’s true of wholly nationalized, single-payer systems like you find in France or Taiwan. It’s true of universal schemes of regulated private insurance, like they have in the Netherlands, Singapore and Switzerland. It’s even true of programs in the U.S. that have existed for a long time — not just Medicare but also, to some extent, employer-sponsored insurance.

The hostility Republicans feel toward the principles of universal health care could be defended intellectually, and maybe even politically — although the fact that GOP lawmakers can’t repeal Obamacare on their own, without a court order from friendly conservative judges, suggests otherwise. But if that’s what Republican leaders think, it’d be nice if more of them came out and admitted it. They should make clear they preferred the world as it existed before Obamacare — a world in which more people suffered because they didn’t have money to pay for medical care — rather than carrying on with the illusion that they’re busily thinking up some better alternative and just waiting for the right moment to unveil it.

D.B. Hirsch
D.B. Hirsch is a political activist, news junkie, and retired ad copy writer and spin doctor. He lives in Brooklyn, New York.

13 responses to Republicans Totally Unprepared If SCOTUS Overturns Obamacare Subsidies

  1. anothertoothpick June 3rd, 2015 at 2:27 pm

    The future of repeal and replace.

    • Larry Schmitt June 3rd, 2015 at 6:38 pm

      If that’s a republican dog, he thinks he’s having lunch. He also thinks someone is biting his tail. He can’t make the connection between the two.

      • whatthe46 June 3rd, 2015 at 7:38 pm

        i laughed so damn hard and loud! sweet JESUS that was soooo funny. thanks.

    • Hirightnow June 3rd, 2015 at 7:19 pm

      Heh. “Well, now that I’ve gotten what I’m after, what now?”

  2. Um Cara June 3rd, 2015 at 3:38 pm

    Their plan is to blame Dems for passing a “bad law”. Their base will then blame Dems.

    Never underestimate Republican ability to blame others. Never overestimate Republican base’s capacity for critical thinking.

  3. Red Mann June 3rd, 2015 at 6:06 pm

    “The hostility Republicans feel toward the principles of universal health care could be defended intellectually”
    I can’t quite fathom an intellectual defense of “let the poor suffer and die”. This would be apologia worthy of William Lame Craig.

  4. TKList June 3rd, 2015 at 7:51 pm

    Get government out of the health care business as much as possible. Limit them to limited regulations and financial support to those who need it.

    Obamacare, Medicaid, Medicare and VA hospitals should be abolished.

    People under these programs and those who are financially below the poverty level should be given a yearly amount that they could use to purchase health insurance.

    Keep the federal regulation stating that insurance companies have to cover pre-existing conditions as long as the person had previous insurance.

    Allow people to purchase insurance from any state.

    Deregulate state health insurance markets.

    Unhinge medical insurance from employers in the tax code.

    Getting government out and increasing competition in this way will lower health care costs. It cuts the bureaucracy costs, cuts the fraud costs and improves competition and quality of care.

  5. Warman1138 June 3rd, 2015 at 8:50 pm

    I wonder how much it cost to purchase a justice on the court? And who or what profits the most for a setback to the ACA?

  6. johnnybizzoy June 3rd, 2015 at 10:51 pm

    Health care is a service, it costs money. Some people work hard for their money, and make good decisions. Others don’t. Let people who work hard and make good decisions, trade their social value for money, and use that money to purchase health care. And if they wish, let them give freely to charity, to help the less fortunate. Get government out of the business of using force to maintain social contracts. Let society grow it’s own legs and walk.

    • rg9rts June 4th, 2015 at 4:55 am

      Karma baby karma….YOU will get yours..

      • johnnybizzoy June 4th, 2015 at 3:23 pm

        I also believe in karma, although I can’t explain it rationally. I find that when I have good intentions and choose to think positive thoughts rather than negative thoughts, that things just seem to work out better for me. I also find that when I choose negative thoughts, or foster ill-will towards others, that things tend to go wrong, and I become unhappy. So, here’s me hoping that YOU are wishing me a pleasant day because what I said resonnated for you in a positive way, rather than that you are expressing a desire for me to suffer. Because I would hate for you to suffer as a result of a karmatic mistake like that 🙂

  7. Obewon June 4th, 2015 at 2:20 am

    A record 90% of America now have HC insurance today thanks to the $1.5 T+ federal deficit reducing ACA! 2015 covers 31.8 M HC.gov and state exchange buyers.

    Estimated ACA-Enabled Policy Enrollment: 31.8 M
    10.1 M Paid/Effectuated Exchange QHPs,
    8.0 M OFF-Exchange QHPs
    300K SHOP
    13.4 M Medicaid/CHIP. http://acasignups.net/

  8. rg9rts June 4th, 2015 at 4:54 am

    They have their but covered and the rest of us can to to hell …they will pray long and hard over us…