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Their health care policy is to not have a health care policy.
Every day for about a year, the line congressional Republicans took on health care was always the same: "repeal and replace." It's pretty obvious now that the poll-tested phrase was a sham, and Ed Kilgore's alternative description is far more accurate: "repeal and reverse."
Politico reports today that, despite all the talk from the GOP about an alternative to the Affordable Care Act, Republicans haven't even tried to come up with a health policy. Perhaps more importantly, the L.A. Times added that the GOP now rejects the very idea that they should come with "replacement legislation" that expands health coverage "as much as the current law."
In other words, Republicans intend to kill the entirety of the law, including the popular provisions Americans have come to expect and rely on, and if they get around to replacing it with anything, GOP policymakers won't worry too much about whether it leaves millions of Americans with nothing.
The usually mild-mannered Matt Miller is unimpressed (and seems kind of angry).
The party may not have officially adopted the "let him die" policy of right-wing hecklers at that CNN primary debate, when Ron Paul was asked what should be done when an uninsured man shows up at the hospital. But as a practical matter, Republicans are in pretty unsavory territory. [...]
Fifty million uninsured Americans would be the immediate casualties of the GOP's "let them eat the emergency room" mentality. But all of us would be at risk. In America -- alone among wealthy nations -- everyone is a pink slip or job change or new illness away from finding they have lost coverage or are uninsurable.
This is the shameful reality behind the GOP's rhetoric on health care. Republicans don't want to spend a penny to insure the uninsured.
This is demonstrably true. The House Republican plan in 2009 ignored the uninsured, and right-wing governors are blocking Medicaid expansion this year in order to make sure the uninsured stay that way. For generations, the Republican Party at least paid lip service to bringing access to affordable care to those without, but those days are long gone. As Chait recently put it, the GOP is "the only mainstream political party in the advanced world" to believe it's acceptable to deny basic medical care to citizens based on their wealth.
And for the first time anywhere, this has become a point of pride for 21st century Republicans. If the uninsured were political engaged and voted, the GOP would have a lot to worry about.
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OK, once more with feeling. That political party thinks that the uninsured consists of minorities, illegal immigrants, and loose women in search of "free stuff". In the unlikely event that a white male be uninsured it is almost certainly because he is lazy or a pot smoking hippie. There is no gray area in their interpretations.
I'm sure the GOP woud happily draft legislation formally preventing the uninsured from voting.
They would pass legislation keeping democrats from voting. Why limit the law..
On the flipside, if voting were mandated rather than entirely voluntary, the GOP would not survive even one more election cycle. Which is of course why we don't have mandatory voting.
The Three Blind Mice.
"Did you ever see such a sight in your life, / As three blind mice?"
Hear nothing, see nothing, speak nothing.. pretty close to the truth.
The 3 Stooges of the 21st century. They just need one to cover his ears, another to cover his eyes and the other to cover his mouth. Wonder how they would react if the electorate actually had any say in what they intend to do.
The mentality of the GOP is what is setting an end goal of making the US into a third World country. 3rd world countries have pitiful education and health systems and no middle class and a huge war budget. Does this sound familiar? Our healthcare system is 39th in the world. Our education system isn't even in the top 20. People of the US are delusional if they think the US is a global leader. It is at best a 2nd tier country.
..all three of them will be re-elected in Nov. That scares me and i live in Canada.
Canada ...... is the worlds # 2 best healthcare sysytem in the world , the republicans will tell you anything to dupe you to get you on their side on this issue , just more lies and deceptions by the Gop ,
the credibility of the gop is hanging around 1% believability .
They can't come up with a plan because their plan is already law. The ACA is their plan. I guess they where for it before they where against it. The Liberal plan is single payer!
They don't hate Health Care, they HATE that Obama did what they refused and could not do for years.
If Obamacare had been devised by a Republican--any Republican (in power--for example, Dubya)--they would LOVE it.
Hating it, repealing it is just part of their plot to get rid of Obama. You know, the one hatched on the very night Obama was being inaugurated? Yep, that one.
It (or a significant part of it) WAS devised by a Republican: Governor Mitt Romney of Massachusetts.
"Republicans are frozen in the ice of their own indifference." (Franklin Roosevelt 1936)
What do you expect from a party that thinks health care is a privilage? I think they also think voting is a privilage that you have to pay for if you are elderly, poor. or minorty.
You know what--if I did my job the way the House Republicans are doing their jobs, I'd be fired. And I should be fired and would not even be surprised to be fired. This is the biggest bunch of do-nothings I've seen in my 63 years. I am so fed up with them I could spit. I only hope things are different after November and Obama will get somebody who will work with him.
The rhetoric of the repubs is especially confusing since Obamacare can only be described as market driven and conservative.
The GOP will wedge themselves if this is the stance they take to the coming federal election.
Consider: virtually every other western world country has a form of single payer system or a mix of state subsidy and health insurance for those that can afford it. However in America the GOP have pushed for (and have now got with Obamacare) a radical free-market based insurance system with single payer for particular classes of citizen (the elderly, vets etc) and enforced private insurance coverage for the rest. So this new American health care experiment seeks to reinvent the systems that have suited all the other first world countries and replace the government 'single payer' with private insurance. (Needless to say from an outsiders perspective this looks to be a lunatic thing to do but for the sake of this particular argument that is neither here nor there.)
But anyways: now you have the GOP turning on this conservative model just because Obama embraced it - with what result? What dynamics result from this going forward?
1 - the GOP will have forsaken any health care reform (as the most radically free-market sytem possible is the one they have just rejected).
2 - going back to the Obamacare model in any hurry will be precluded by their current rhetoric.
3 - the new choice for the argument in America will be to either retain the enforced insurance model or to extend medicare to all Americans (by degrees)
interesting dynamic!
The Swiss have a private insurance system much like the ACA and it's been working very well since 1994. They spend much less than we do and have better outcomes.
Oh - for interested Americans please see the Australian model for inspiration. It works brilliantly. We have private insurance for the wealthy and a single payer system for everyone else. Free hospital and doctor. A Pharmaceutical benefits scheme that subsidizes essential medicine (no more than $6). Our medicare system is backed by all political parties as it is loved by all citizens - the easist way for a pollie in Aus to lose their seat is to threaten our Medicare system. (We also get eternal unemployment benefits, sickness benefits, workers comp, matched super payments in a compulsory scheme, aged and invalid pensions, a first home owners grant, etc etc - you know - all that stuff that every other government in the world provides for its citizens!
Oh - and no we don't pay outrageous personal taxes but we do ask our companies to pay their fair share
@James - lovely. Unfortunately, we got one of Australia's most toxic exports - Rupert Murdoch/Fox News. That's why we can't have nice things.
But you don't have a military large enough to take over several countries at once.... what are you thinking? That all that other stuff is more important? How silly. Does Australia even have a battleship group? How many aircraft carriers? Enquiring minds need to know.
I hope people are paying attention. The GOP wants to take away your healthcare, take away your rights to your own uterus, give your money to the super-wealthy in the form of tax breaks, let the companies you work for go bankrupt in the name of profits, and take away your rights to vote.
They not only want to kill the AHA, but also everyone that depends on it!
I am uninsured AND politically engaged AND voting! (And steamed with the GOP. The smirks on those three faces. Smirk-jerks.)
Is my imagination especially perverted today, or do all three of them have one hand suspiciously near their joysticks? Getting a little excited over the possibility of @!$%#ing the American people, are you, boys?
It does look like they are playing pocket pool, smiling at the fantasy of screwing over millions of women (possibly other than women, too)
You need to put MUDCAT back on! You looked a little taking back with what he said about Canter, but he needs to be put back on. Canter needs to go.
Please Help - I posted the following on a friend's page:
"I like the fact that the more people learn about 'Obamacare' the more it's viewed in a positive light. Even at that, the House is still voting to repeal it for the 31st time. Wish they'd spend their time working on the jobs bill instead and getting people back to work, but no ... they've voted on more anti-abortion bills in the last 3.5 years than anything else."
My comment was refuted with this:
"The fact is the more the public learns about Obamacare the more they dispise it. Jan 2013 (that is 6 months from now) 5 New taxes on the middle class go into affect: 1.Medical devise manufacturing tax. Every pacemaker, every operating table, every prosthetic etc is taxed additional 2.3% (manufacturing job killer for small and medium job creaters) 2. High medical bills tax. Currently 7.5 % of gross raised to 10% puts the majority of middle class in higher tax bracket. Hits seniors and preretirement middle class the hardest. 3. Flex account cap. This one is just cruel. Currently no cap on health flex accounts. Lowered to $2,500! Braces alone cost $7.500. Special needs children $14.000 tax credit gone! 4. Surtax on Investment income currently 15% going to 20%. Didvidend rate 15% jumps to 39.6 and 43.4%! Oh, and think of selling your house after Christmas you will pay 3.8% of the selling price to Obamacare. Now, you want to tell me that is a positive light on my retirement, my 401K, my home, my future. Can you see why job creators hands are tied? Republican plan: Simple, Open the purchase of medical insurance plans to be purchased across state lines just like your car, home and life insurance is!!! That way millions will be in the group which means the cost of covering preexsisting conditions won't be an issue and premiums stay low for individuals and employers. No new taxes necessary, just reduced regulation. WAKE UP AMERICA!!!"
I've found that although Flex Account caps are currently unlimited (capped or not by individual employers); there WILL be a medical device tax paid by manufacturers on retail sales; and the 3.8% tax on home sales is an urban myth, I cannot find citations to address the other comments. Anyone here have insight??
My rebuttal is this:
If the insurance providers/administrators have raised premium rates because of medical costs have gone up. That is consistent with other countries costs are much less.
The premiums have also gone up because of increases in services such as removal of cap on coverages.
57% of insured can write off some of the out of pocket costs.
Also, the law is supposed to regulate that 80% of insurance premiums are used for medical care. Allowing 20% profit.
The uninsured that use health care and do not pay are factored in to pad the bill for insured. That is the point, to get more people insured, covered, paying into the pot for medical care.
I am not sure about how that tax kills jobs, but I did see a local job offer for making catheters just a couple of days ago.
Here is some reading which cites many sources and facts:
http://www.factcheck.org/2010/11/the-truth-about-health-insurance-premiums/