if THEY try to repeal health care reform, we can counter with removing only the unpopular mandates

[unblock]

other than insurance company executives and shareholders, no one cares for mandates, and that's where all the tea party hatred regarding health care reform is coming from.

people like the provisions against retroactive rejections and removing the lifetime caps.

so let's counter with "ok, we hear you, we'll repeal the mandates you don't like but keep the restrictions against abusing insurance company practices that nearly everyone likes."

then let the republicans backpedal or figure out how to cope with that strategy.

repealing ONLY THE MANDATES would be immensely popular with voters.

[Unvanguard]

1. Yes, it would be. Too bad it would totally destroy health care reform.

The popular elements of the bill--all the ways the legislation bans the terrible things insurance companies do to people who get sick or at high risk of getting sick--are totally dependent on its unpopular element, its guarantee that people will not try to game the system by waiting to pay in until they are high-risk.

[unblock]

6. you're talking policy, i'm talking politics.

a repeal is simply not going actually happen, whether it's the entire health care reform or only the mandates.

they're proposing repeal of the whole thing knowing full well that if it somehow passed the senate as well, there's not a shot in hell that obama wouldn't veto it, and also knowing full well that they don't have anything near the votes needed to override a veto. it's all political posturing.

i'm just talking about a counter to that. i agree, repealing mandates only wouldn't fly. but there's also not a chance that it would become law. no way is a republican house going to let that happen and watch insurance companies go bankrupt because of something they passed into law. they're going to have to back down.

it's all political posturing. why should we let the republicans have all the fun?

[Unvanguard]

10. The Republicans would call the bluff.

They know health care reform cannot survive without mandates. So they will accept the repeal of mandates only, and then politically benefit when the result is higher premiums and an increasingly dysfunctional health care system, for which they will blame the Democrats.

[Drale]

2. I've said from the beginning

the only way that a mandate can work is if they offer an affordable public option.

[Drale]

3. Self Delete

double post

[Nuclear Unicorn]

4. What happens to the cost model after that?

The purpose of the mandates (hated though they may be) is to get healthy people into the risk pools.

Take the healthy people out of the risk pools and its the sick abandoned to paying for their own care all over again.

[unblock]

8. see post #6. we'll say we want to improve it by getting rid of the unpopular mandates.

let's put the republicans on the hook to figure out how to pay for it.

if they don't we can say we're agreeing to repeal the unpopular parts but they're the only ones wanting to repeal the popular parts.

the cost model is only relevant this idea becomes law, but it never will.

[JustAnotherGen]

5. Another change I can live with

:rofl: It also makes me wonder if we could 'just as a START' get something in there where people 55 or older can 'purchase' medicare as an option. ;-) <---- Let's start there then pressure, pressure, pressure - keep lowering the age.

[tritsofme]

7. This would blow up the cost of the bill.

The mandates weren't added just for fun.

[unblock]

9. won't cost a dime because it'll never actually happen.

that's the cynical beauty of a gridlocked congress.

both sides can advance proposals they know will never become law.

[bluestateguy]

11. Insurance does not work if everybody is not in the pool

If only older and sick people are getting insurance then costs will skyrocket beyond anything that exists today.

That's why the insurance cos. actually favor the individual mandate. The whole program would fall apart without it.

You can say the same thing for homeowners and car insurance. Imagine only people with burned down homes and car accidents suddenly deciding to buy insurance.