The Empty Can Rattles The Most

CLAIM: Obamacare will cost Americans more and it is bad public policy, therefore it needs to be repealed.

The Truth:

The non-partisan Congressional Budget Office just released a study showing that if we repealed the Affordable Care Act using the latest Republican-backed bill, H.R. 6079, we would reduce spending by $890 billion but slash revenues by $1 trillion, thus increasing the federal budget deficit by about $109 billion from 2013 to 2022.

A little over a week ago the Republicans unsuccessfully tried to repeal "Obamacare" for the 31st time. By the way, the most popular definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result...

But still, Mitt Romney and the GOP are promising that if he is elected, then they will repeal "Obamacare". Now everyone knows that the current health care system is unsustainable because the costs continue to skyrocket and it leaves too many good people under-insured or uninsured.

So the GOP is promising to totally repeal the law and replace it with . . . NOTHING. Well, actually some of the more level-headed Republicans want to save the most popular provisions of the law and simply repeal the mandate that requires most Americans to purchase health insurance, but the non-compromising, "my way or the fricking highway" Tea Party Ron Johnson types of the GOP are not even allowing that, still clinging to the claim that the Affordable Care Act is "bad public policy".

Allowing your child to stay covered under their parents' plan until they are 26 is good policy. Making it illegal to charge women more for health insurance because they have a vagina is good policy. Making it illegal for an insurance company to drop a person once they become seriously ill is good policy. Making it illegal to deny coverage because of pre-exhisting conditions is good policy.

I agree that hitting people with a fine may not be the best public policy, but the reality is that by writing that into the law it was the only way the insurance companies would promise not to lobby against it because then they would have a larger pool of (healthy) people to insure and not go bankrupt or fire everyone in the process of covering only sick people.

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Barack Obama won the Presidency in 2008 by stating that "Health care was a right, not a privilege," and that "Health care is the economy." He also vowed to change the current health coverage system to make it more affordable and to cover as many people as possible - These are the statements and the promises that got Obama elected (plus the thought of having Sarah Palin serve as President in case McCaine croaked scared the living crap out of people).

So when Obama and the Democrats passed The Affordable Care Act, which is modelled off of Romney Care, he was fulfilling a campaign pledge, something Republicans care little about.

Republicans will tell you that we are wasting our tax money covering people who are too lazy to get jobs with insurance and that illegal aliens will be pouring into doctor's offices to get treated. Any program will have those who find loopholes and take advantage of the system, but this is not about those people - they will always be there. This is about the millions of people like you and I who play by the rules and hold down jobs and pay premiums and end up getting dropped by our insurance companies the minute we get really sick.

The Affordable Care Act is not perfect, but it fixes the terrible laws that previously allowed good people to get rear-ended and blind-sided by their insurance companies the minute the risk became too great.

The Affordable Care Act was passed by Congress, like it or not. The Affordable Care Act was modeled after Romney Care, like it or not. Almost all of the provisions in The Affordable Care Act are popular, when mentioned separately, like it or not.

Now it is time to implement it. But some extreme right-wingers like our very own Scott Walker and Rick Perry of Texas think that they are above the law and do not have to abide by a Federal Law simply because they don't agree with it.

There are plenty of laws that I don't agree with and have hopes that they will be repealed... Why drive 55 when I think the speed limit should by 65 on I94? Why not text and drive if I think I'm a great driver? I'm a great driver, so why should I bother paying for car insurance (required by sate law) in case I get into an accident? -

Because I'm not egotistical - like my Governor. Because these laws aren't about me - they are about everyone else around me. These laws are for the greater good of everyone, but the Republicans, who only think of themselves and their pocketbooks simply don't give a damn and they have falsely scared the daylights out of the public about the Affordable Care Act by slinging false accusations about the impact it will have once implemented.

The Republicans tell us the ACA will bankrupt the nation and cause employers to drop employees like flies. Since we all know that the ACA was modelled after similar legislation in MA by then Governor Romney, let's look at how MA is doing since implementing "Romneycare":

How has "Romneycare" had an effect in MA? In 2006, before the law passed, 86.6 percent of adults in MA had health insurance. In 2011, the most recent year for which data is available, that total has raised to 98 percent. Also, the percentage of unemployed residents in Massachusetts remains at a lowly 6 percent compared to the national rate at 8.2 percent. A 2011 poll by the Boston Globe and the Harvard School of Public Health showed that 63 percent of Massachusetts residents supported the state law, which has a mandate, thanks to Romney. 

Massachusetts is not on fire. Businesses have not left the state. They are doing just fine and people are employed at a higher rate than before and are healthier. The sky is not falling over Boston Harbor.

On the flip side is Texas, which has the highest percentage of people uninsured at 26.9% - and Scott Walker wants to get on the Rick Perry bandwagon of not implementing the ACA because he doesn't like it? What are we supposed to do if we get sick and are dropped from our insurer, have a huge bake sale to cover the costs? What if we didn't raise enough funds by selling grandma's cookies? Should we just curl up and die as quickly as possible so we don't accumulate tons of medical debt for our surviving spouse?

If Romney wins the presidency in November and the GOP reclaims the Senate they could repeal the Affordable Care Act, but they would be repealing the most humane law congress has created in the last 40 years - which is modelled after the one and only good thing that Mitt Romney has done that did not directly benefit himself - create a system that allows the average person to receive more affordable, more-comprehensive health insurance. . . and now to be a "true conservative" he has to run away from such a deed?

It's sad, but in order to get the backing of the extremely-right wing Tea Party activists Romney must shy away from the best piece of legislature he ever had a hand in - "Romneycare".

The Republicans had total control of the government for years while George W. was in charge and it was during that time that we saw the cost of health care skyrocket, seniors were forced to pay more for less under Medicare Part D, we gave tax breaks to the rich and started two foreign wars and paid for them by going into debt to China . . . 

A vote for Romney is a return to that train wreck and two steps backwards.