"we've been telling you lies about ObamaCare for the past four years"

[pampango]

"YOU KNOW ALL THAT STUFF WE HAVE BEEN SAYING FOR FOUR YEARS? NEVERMIND!"

Via Andrew Sullivan, Don Taylor notices Doug Holtz-Eakin and Avik Roy effectively saying "we've been telling you lies about ObamaCare for the past four years":

Obamacare Obstruction Begins To Crack II « The Dish: Holtz-Eakin and Roy’s piece was and is primarily political, and doesn’t really have much to do with any facts or policy. They both (and many others) have overstated the case against the ACA for quite a while in my mind; that doesn’t mean I don’t read their stuff. And Holtz-Eakin was Senator McCain’s chief health policy advisor and Avik was an advisor to Gov. Romney. Given all this, the main content of the piece was reform of Obamacare v. strident ideological language arguing against something without offering an alternative that has been the norm for most opponents of the law for the past 34 months. So, even though my first thought was “Switzerland! I thought you guys hated mandates” I am personally glad to welcome them down from the ledge.

http://delong.typepad.com/sdj/2013/02/douglas-holtz-eakin-and-avik-roy-you-know-all-that-stuff-we-have-been-saying-for-four-years-nevermind.html

It takes a lot for partisan, non-fact-based republicans to abandon their mindless opposition to the ACA. In some cases it is happening.

[Delphinus]

1. Good to hear

the lies being talked about.

[AnotherMcIntosh]

2. Truth: 1) It is a substitute for universal health care, 2) It will not lead to universal health care

3) This substitute for universal health care began with the Republicans.

4) The fact that there are high-level Republicans opposed to ObamaCare (and may have even been opposed to RomneyCare), does not mean that it is other than (a) a substitute for universal health care and (b) it will not lead to universal health care.

5) We have no political power to change that, and whatever is posted here is not going to change that.

6) If you want to benefit from ObamaCare, do what some of the high-level politicians did who voted in favor of it and parties related to them: Buy shares of stock in health insurance companies.

[pampango]

3. More from Krugman on the same issue: More Swiss Myths

...the OECD offers standard data on public and private health care expenditure; according to these data, America does indeed have public spending of 8.5 percent of GDP — but the Swiss number is 7.4 percent (not the 3.5% that they claimed in their op-ed).

...some countries simply pay for health care out of public funds, while others use a combination of regulation and subsidies to achieve similar result, but with lower on-budget outlays. Here’s how I do the comparison when I teach it. First, a single payer system:



Here all of the spending shows up in the government budget.

Next, ObamaRomneycare (or, actually, the Swiss system), in which everyone is obliged to buy insurance, but the government subsidizes premiums for lower-income families:



Here only the subsidy component shows up in the government’s budget — but the two systems produce pretty much the same results. Oh, and ObamaRomneycare doesn’t save money relative to single payer — it just arranges that much of the cost takes the form of premiums rather than taxes.

http://krugman.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/02/22/more-swiss-myths/

I would love to see a National Health Service approach added to those charts along with the ObamaRomneySwisscare and Single Payer. I don't know how it would compare but would love to see it included.