GOP ‘confronting a new reality’ on healthcare

[babylonsister]

Posted with permission.

http://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow-show/gop-confronting-new-reality-healthcare


GOP ‘confronting a new reality’ on healthcare
12/27/13 09:30 AM—Updated 12/27/13 11:42 AM

By Steve Benen


The Obama administration won’t have an official announcement on December’s health care enrollment numbers for a few more weeks, but chances are good that we’ll see a spike in the number of newly enrollment Americans. At the end of November, the Affordable Care Act had helped bring coverage to about 1.2 million people; by the end of this month, that total will include millions more.

And with each new enrollment, it slowly dawns on congressional Republicans that the larger calculus has changed in fundamental ways. Jonathan Weisman reported overnight that GOP policymakers are “confronting a new reality.”

The enrollment figures may be well short of what the Obama administration had hoped for. But the fact that a significant number of Americans are now benefiting from the program is resulting in a subtle shift among Republicans.

“It’s no longer just a piece of paper that you can repeal and it goes away,” said Senator Ron Johnson, Republican of Wisconsin and a Tea Party favorite. “There’s something there. We have to recognize that reality. We have to deal with the people that are currently covered under Obamacare.”

And that underscores a central fact of American politics since Franklin D. Roosevelt signed the Social Security Act during the Depression: Once a benefit has been bestowed, it is nearly impossible to take it away.

Quite right. The Republican repeal crusade, whether the party wants to admit it or not, is over. Sure, Boehner & Co. can schedule a few dozen more repeal votes to help Tea Partiers feel warm and fuzzy, but even that’s less likely in light of the millions of consumers who’ve signed up for coverage – in an election year, candidates don’t generally thrive running on a platform that says, “Vote for me so I can take health care benefits away from your family.”

Indeed, GOP officials are desperate to talk about the “cancellation notices” a small sliver of the population received, but it gets a little tricky for these same Republicans to draw up plans to cancel millions more health care plans on purpose.

As we discussed a few weeks ago, the fight over health care is no longer an abstraction over hypothetical benefits. There’s a profound difference between “Republicans are voting to deny you a benefit you don’t yet enjoy” and “Republicans are voting to take away your health insurance and replace it with nothing.” The former struck GOP officials as plausible; the latter is politically suicidal.

So, as of this minute, what’s the Republican position on health care? No one, including GOP policymakers themselves, has any idea. For years, it was a straightforward push to repeal the entirety of the law, regardless of the consequences or human suffering. Now, some still want to pretend repeal is possible, others want to tinker around the edges with “reforms.” Some believe it’s time for Republicans to craft a policy alternative of their own to present to voters, others believe incessant complaining should be enough to give the GOP a boost on Election Day.

“The hardest problem for us is what to do next,” Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) told Weisman.

Ya don’t say.

[jimlup]

1. Bull's Eye!

[TBF]

2. It's Obama's fault.

[jwirr]

3. They have never stopped trying to get rid of Social Security, Medcaid and Medicare. I suspect they

will still be trying to repeal all of them 50 years from now - they have a hard time recognizing reality.

[ChisolmTrailDem]

4. Would there be a spike in enrollments if the requirement to have health insurance wasn't mandatory?

[AAO]

7. It's not really mandatory, just "mandatory".

There is no mechanism for the IRS to enforce the law, AFAIK.

[TroglodyteScholar]

8. You're right, these people were probably all only actuing under coercion.

Restore our freedom to be bankrupted by illness!

[ChisolmTrailDem]

11. I'm sorry, did you answer my question or just attack me for asking it? n/t

[TroglodyteScholar]

23. Do you have any information indicating that an uptick in enrollments relates to the mandate?

Or were you just tossing out bait?

[ChisolmTrailDem]

24. I wasn't tossing out a goddamned thing! I was just asking a fucking question! Do you have an

answer to my question, or not?

If not, then move the fuck on!

[Myrina]

27. +1

How dare you ASK A QUESTION????

[TroglodyteScholar]

36. See my first reply. n/t

[ChisolmTrailDem]

37. Just as suspected. n/t

[snooper2]

45. If one doesn't have an answer can we talk about something else?

Look what I found on autotrader earlier!

Used 1993 Dodge Daytona IROC R/T
$19,900




This 1993 IROC R/T Turbo is so incredibly amazing!!! Twin Cam 1 of 15 Produced!!!!! Red on Red Leather.

[freedom fighter jh]

16. Think so.

I believe the for enrollment to avoid the penalty is 4/1. If you were enrolling just to avoid the penalty, you would not likely persevere through the very difficult enrollment process 3 months early.

How many people have enrolled and will enroll just to avoid the penalty? I think you'll get your answer in 3 months.

[ChisolmTrailDem]

17. Thank you for your reasoned and polite answer. Much better than stupidity from a troglodyte. n/t

[freedom fighter jh]

41. Some people come here for a real discussion.

Others come to bond with people whose opinions are similar to their own.

Trying to discuss matters freely among people looking for idea-bonding can be perceived as walking into a family gathering (someone else's family) swinging a machete. I do it as much as I dare, not nearly as much as I want, but it is not often welcome.

[Proud Public Servant]

30. Enrollment isn't mandatory, per se

You can enroll, or you can pay a trivially small fine -- oops, I mean tax. Many, many people who are enrolling (the vast majority, I suspect) are enrolling in plans that will cost them more than the penalty for not enrolling. So faced with a choice between enrolling or doing something simpler and less expensive than enrolling, people are enrolling. So I have to think, yes, the spike would be there regardless.

Edit: I typed that before seeing freedom fighter's response, which gets at the same point.

[ChisolmTrailDem]

31. Cool, thanks. I'm beginning to think (since posting my question) that the penalty is so small right

now that it's probably not because of any degree of the "mandatory" aspect. The "mandatory" requirement was the #1 negative talking point on both sides of the political aisle there for a time, which is why I wondered if it could explain the apparently good enrollment numbers.

Anyway, I'm looking at ~$200/mo for a Silver plan and will complete my enrollment and pay the premium once I've worked it into my budget sometime between now and the end of March. I've always been relatively healthy and haven't felt the urgency to be completely enrolled by Jan 1.

[hue]

5. The ACA is just 1 reality that is ever soo hard for Repukes to face!! How about the fact that they

are not significant/obsolete for most of the US!

[ErikJ]

6. Possible GOP solution; Medicare For All?

In debates with RWers, I have mentioned that we should repeal Obamcare if it is replaced by Medicare for All to which they seemed to have very few complaints! It could possibly be their solution -if they were smart that is.

[CaliforniaPeggy]

9. The hardest problem for us is what to do next.

And THAT is because these idiots do not have any good ideas at all.

You can't cure stupid.

And they are stupid.

[hue]

15. Yup! And that's why the 1% uses them and ALEC writes all the legislation. They are puppets!

[Thor_MN]

10. “The hardest problem for us is what to do next,” Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.)

We just don't know what to act offended over. It's not easy to work up a good hissy fit.

[Jim Lane]

13. Maybe there should be more hearings about Benghazi. (n/t)

[Motown_Johnny]

12. Except for the ~3.5 million people who already gained coverage through the ACA

http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/a-timeline-of-the-affordable-care-act/2013/11/02/76b6f9b6-43f9-11e3-a751-f032898f2dbc_story.html

^snip^

Sept. 23, 2010: The law bars insurance companies from refusing to cover children with preexisting conditions, from dropping people who get sick and from placing lifetime limits on coverage. It allows people to stay on parental health plans until age 26.







The GOP has already been arguing to take away their health care coverage and replace it with nothing. This has been going on for over three years now.


Again, they are slow to grasp reality. There will be a couple million more January 1st, and the numbers will continue to rise from there. I'm not sure that this will force change from all of them. Some are just so far gone that they will continue with the same message no matter what. Of course, they are in safe districts with teabagger voters who want to hear that message. At least this will continue to hurt their brand nationwide for the foreseeable future.

[tblue37]

14. Not so sure about whether Repubs think they dare not snatch away a benefit.

They have not had a problem blocking extension of unemployment insurance or reducing veterans' benefits, nor have they found it uncomfortable to try to reduce food stamps even at the same time that they allow unemployment insurance to expire *at Christmas*!

They feel quite sure that the corporate media will cover for them and convince the plebes that it is all the fault of the Dems--or at the very least that the Dems are equally to blame.

[Berlum]

18. That's what the Repubbies get for lying lying lying to Americans about health care

[jimlup]

38. My concern is that we have to be sure to get safely to this point by Nov. of 2014....

Right now we are not there. The media is still running with the "ACA rollout disaster" as their big political story. We have time so I think that the tide will turn in time but I'm not sure. I'm mad as hell at the (mainstream) media for fixating on the "ACA rollout disaster" as their mainstay take home story.

[ConservativeDemocrat]

19. How about appeal to leftist purity trolls and get them to bash it?

For not being absolutely 250% of what they want now now now now now now now?!?

It seems to work on the D.U.

- C.D. Proud Member of the Reality Based Community

[yurbud]

20. what Lindsay Graham should do next is easy: go fight one of the wars he advocates

[cprise]

21. The USPS has been a 'reality' for a long time

That doesn't stop the GOP from trying to kill it.

I think the only way ACA will have a long-term legacy is if states use it as impetus to switch to single-payer. Otherwise, you have the GOP and the Finance sector creating new 'instruments' so that it becomes a way to suck the money out of people.

[malaise]

22. Good

Fugg the ReTHUGs.

Happy Holidays sis!!!

[SheilaT]

25. I just wonder if, next election, just over 10 months from now,

the voters who voted in all those Republicans, tea party or otherwise, will remember that these are the people who wanted to keep them from having health care coverage, and will vote accordingly.

If every single person who is benefitting from the ACA, which is just about everyone in this country, would vote against those clowns, it would be wonderful to behold.

[ProSense]

26. Wendell Potter on Obamacare

Wendell Potter on Obamacare

by teacherken

in an interesting piece at Reader Supported News dated yesterday and titled Obamacare: What's in It for You? Plenty, So Take Time to Find Out.

He notes a number of things that most Americans do not seem to know, in large part because of how the media has covered the roll-out, starting with this: the average increased in premiums of 4% much lower than the average of the past decade.

Here's a few more things people don't seem to know:

- 3.1 million young adults have been added to the insurance rolls because they cabn stay on their parent's policy until age 26

- $1.2 billion in rebates in 2011 and $2.1 billion in 2012 from insurers who did not spnd the requisite 80% of premiums upon benefits

- $7 billion saved on prescription drugs by Medicare beneficiaires as a result of closing of the "Doughnut Hole" in Part D

- > 25.4 million people on original Medicare program receiving at least one preventive service at no cost to them during just the first eleven months of 2013

We know the numbers of those enrolling are surging.

It is unfortunate there have been glitches in the rollout, in the sign-up procedures.

But the Affordable Care Act is working, and providing real benefits.

Now, if only the media would do its job and tell the WHOLE story.

Peace?

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2013/12/25/1265241/-Wendell-Potter-on-Obamacare#

Merry Christmas, and thanks to all Democrats who stood by and supported the health care law.
http://www.democraticunderground.com/10024227754

[BlueStreak]

28. It is only a problem for Republicans if Dems take the fight to them

And so far, I see no indication that will happen. 95% of the Dems have been running and hiding on this issue so long, I can't see them growing a pair in the next 5 months -- and that is when the action really starts to get hot.

[RBInMaine]

42. Nah. It's EARLY and it IS coming. Hold your powder there partner.

[BlueStreak]

43. I'm talking about a unified message

When have the Democrats ever been unified about anything?

I can think of only one example in the past 20 years. Fortunately that was a recent case when standing up to the teabaggers on the shutdown. Was that an aberration, or can they do it again?

I have my doubts because the politicians tend to go with whatever the media is saying, and the media is still talking like this is some kind of disaster. I don't expect the media to ever change that narrative. They will simply stop talking about health care once they figure their narrative is no longer tenable.

[RBInMaine]

46. Unified enough to elect Clinton and Obama twice each. It'll be a unified narrative. It's early.

[BlueStreak]

47. There weren't ANY unified messages across the party in those elections

Both Clinton and Obama pretty much ran apart from the party -- Obama was COMPLETELY separate from the party and didn't go anywhere near most other candidates.

By unified message, I'm talking about something like this:

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2013/12/22/1263930/-A-Democratic-contract-with-America-How-to-retake-the-House-and-combat-economic-inequality

That doesn't include anything about health care, which is my point exactly. Democrats are still huddled in their bunkers afraid that somebody will bring up the subject of health care. Baloney!!! Every Democrat should be running aggressively on health care. By election time every American will have a family member or friend who has been helped in a very dramatic way by the ACA and we need to take credit for it. And we ought to be out in front of the parade identifying the improvements that are still needed.

[tularetom]

29. We'll know they've given up when they start referring to it as "Romneycare"

[MoonRiver]

32. The fact that more Americans having health insurance is their worst nightmare,

perfectly underscores how despicable those Thugs are.

[Pretzel_Warrior]

33. tough shit, repukes. you are on the wrong side of history far more often than not

I'll grant the GOP tha joined with LBJ on Voting Rights Act (most from the north and west), and I'll grant GOP in Civil War was on the right side.

Otherwise? Pretty much never ever since all the southern racist corporate freaks coalesced around GOP starting in Nixon years.

[Quantess]

34. All they are good for is taking fat paychecks from taxpayers

and being as counterproductive as they can. They are total leeches.

[grahamhgreen]

35. The republican position is: if you get sick, give all your money to big insurance, then die.

[Beartracks]

39. GOP: The Party of Petulance. n/t

[chungking34]

40. How predictable to see the GOP go apeshit over this issue

But then again, selfishness and greed have been one of the main values of the GOP.

[Scurrilous]

44. Boink