President Obama Could Make GOP Health Care Victory Pyrrhic

[kpete]

TUE MAR 27, 2012 AT 12:27 PM PDT
President Obama Could Make GOP Health Care Victory Pyrrhic
byMets102
It's simple. It's elegant. It's obvious. Robert Reich nailed it. Through the use of a little leverage, President Obama could make a Supreme Court decision that strikes down the individual mandate a pyrrhic victory for Affordable Care Act opponents. Reich presents the dilemma for for-profit insurers in a post-mandate world thusly:

Yet the only way private insurers can afford to cover everyone with pre-existing health problems, as the new law requires, is to have every American buy health insurance – including young and healthier people who are unlikely to rack up large healthcare costs.

He then posits that the for-profit insurers, in order to maintain their profits, will push for the elimination of the provision mandating they cover people with pre-existing conditions. The solution put forth by him is simple, obvious and elegant:

When this happens, Obama and the Democrats should say they’re willing to remove that requirement – but only if Medicare is available to all, financed by payroll taxes.

http://robertreich.org/post/19972321637
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2012/03/27/1078284/-President-Obama-Could-Make-GOP-Health-Care-Victory-Pyrrhic

[AldebTX]

1. While I would LOVE to see Medicaid for All

I just don't see it being allowed. The howls that would go forth that it would put the private insurers out of business would doom it. I'd love to see medicaid for all and a requirement like Thom Hartman pushes that no medical insurer can make a profit.

[Vincardog]

2. That is exactly the conversation I had today with Christie Vilsack D candidate to replace

the repulsive Stephen King in IA.

[Firebrand Gary]

3. K&R