Yesterday I Think I Stumbled Upon Why The Repugs Want To Repeal Obamacare......

[global1]

I was talking with my staunch Repug neighbor whom continually votes Repug against his best interests. He lost his business under Bush when the economy started to tank. He's had heart surgery. He's got four kids all in college. That means along with his wife - 6 cell phones, 5 cars and all kinds of bills. Everything the Repugs have been espousing is directly in conflict with this family and they have been hurt by the Repugs.

He told me yesterday that the family is hanging on without any kind of health insurance because they just can't afford it. If anyone is in need of Obamacare - its this family. I indicated that soon he should be able to purchase affordable health insurance under Obamacare and I kept reiterating all the pluses that Obamacare is bringing to the healthcare system.

I got an acknowledgement from him that if that happens he'd switch parties. Then it dawned on me - the Repugs have too much at stake if Obamacare is successful. They've been lying to their base for years about Obamacare. They know they stand a chance to lose their base if Obamacare is successful as they have been bad mouthing it since before it was passed into law.

Their base will quickly understand that they've been lied to by their Party and I believe they will abandon the Repugs in a shot.

All the Repugs have between them and further erosion of their base is Obamacare. That's why they've made so many attempts to sink Obamacare.

Just my theory now - but I think based on my conversation with this neighbor that a mass exodus from the Repug Party is a distinct possibility if Obamacare does what it is intended to.

[Kingofalldems]

1. Of course. They are afraid it will work.

[Maximumnegro]

2. Isn't Obamacare part of a NSA/Surveillance

plot by the authoritarian Obama regime to control every aspect of human life by pretending to improve it via healthcare? Just like Obama to want us to be healthier so we can be spied on longer!

[geek tragedy]

5. No, its plans to expand coverage for the poor and regulate the insurance industry

is a giveaway to the insurance industry.

[brewens]

3. 1% of your income or $95 per year, whichever is more and you can go to the

doctor when you need to. Sounds pretty bad alright. Okay, so I'm not clear on just how deductables and all that will work out for everyone, but that has to be way better than what was going on.

My girlfriend is kind of a libertarian type. We'll see how this goes over with her. She will run about $200 bucks I think. I'll pay that for her if she wants. I know she won't go sign up. They will have to bust her with the fine!

I think it's going to be pretty bad for Republicans. A lot of them are going to have to choke down some shit. Some of them know it, some not.

[TransitJohn]

4. Sure, the Democrats could use more right wing voters

Why not?

[geek tragedy]

6. You're right--we've been winning far too many Congressional seats lately.

Better to remain pure and in the minority.

[Cali_Democrat]

7. I'm not sure I understand your point...

[geek tragedy]

13. a smaller, purer party that has no power and thus can't be blamed

is the ideal for many

[Progressive dog]

8. I'm cynical but my guess is

your neighbor will be at the t-party rallies holding a sign saying "keep your government hands off my Obamacare" except they'll have another name for Obamacare.
But I hope you're right

Just my theory now - but I think based on my conversation with this neighbor that a mass exodus from the Repug Party is a distinct possibility if Obamacare does what it is intended to.

[lumberjack_jeff]

9. This shouldn't be a revelation.

Their functional religion is that "government doesn't work" so it's very important that they get elected to assure that it doesn't.

I think it's a common liberal delusion that there must be some honest, good-faith explanation for their 37 attempts to repeal Obamacare. There isn't. It's all about vandalism.

[truebluegreen]

27. as of today, 40 votes to repeal.

They sure are desperate, aren't they?

[dreamnightwind]

10. No, I don't think that's it at all

I don't understand the reason myself, have been wondering about it.

The Republicans, for the most part, do exactly what their funding sources want them to do. In this case, that means the health insurance conglomerates.

Many on the left, myself included, believe Obama/Romney/Heritage/WellpointCare to be a giveaway of a guaranteed market to the large health insurance companies. So why did they put up such a public fight against this legislation, and why do they continue to advocate for the repeal of it?

I tend to believe Wendell Potter's view that, while true that the health insurance companies actually wrote most of ObamaCare, and the mandate gives them a huge expansion of their customer base, they fight it just because they are working to get an even better deal. The Republicans get to crank up the faux outrage about it, useful propaganda to feed their base. The insurance companies resent the very weak cost controls and other actual reforms, meager as they are, in the legislation, and are working towards removing those aspects, using the over-the-top fear-mongering that the Republicans do so well as a tool to leverage a better deal.

I'm still trying to understand all of this, it doesn't completely make sense to me, much more so though than your theory, which largely ignores the money trail and the role of the health insurance industry in all of this.

[jmowreader]

15. The new customers are, by and large, ones they don't want

Obamacare is a dual mandate system. It mandates that we buy insurance and that they sell it to us...and to people with preexisting conditions.

They don't want the customers who will immediately start making claims.

[dreamnightwind]

18. Yes, that s definitely one of the things

they don't like about it. I wonder if they have a way to dump those people to the exchanges.

[jmowreader]

30. The exchanges are still health insurance companies

They don't want sick people buying any insurance from them, and they're fucking pissed Obama is trying to force them to.

[Zoeisright]

25. No.

We need healthy people in the insurance system to help bring down costs and spread out the cost of illness among everyone. You know, like a society is supposed to function. In addition, repukes have yet to propose ONE fucking idea about improving our disgusting system, which is already rationed. By cost.

[dreamnightwind]

32. Not sure what your "no" was about

I agree that we need everyone to have health care.

Getting healthy people into the system to spread the costs among everyone is only relevant to the health insurance model.

With medicare for all, for example, there would be no cost benefit to the system by adding healthy people (it's just one big pot of money, taken presumably from the general tax revenue), though the benefit of course is to get them preventative care to have better health outcomes down the road.

With the current, insurance industry model, you indeed can bring down per person cost of coverage by requiring even healthy people to buy insurance. That's what you're talking about, I think, and I agree.

I personally have a problem with requiring people to buy into a private system with inadequate cost controls, many people will have a hard time making their payments, they're having a hard time as it is paying for their lives without adding another expense they have to pay. But they should have health care, so other than the private component, and the lack of substantial price controls, I am onboard with having everyone in the plan.

Not sure where your "no" comes from, maybe because I blame the health insurance companies instead of the Republicans? I don't think health insurance companies should exist, at all, and I think the Republicans are in bed with them, as are the Democrats, unfortunately. The two parties have different roles to play in the insurance companies' strategic maneuvering, the dynamics of which I still struggle to fully understand, but it's not a simple partisan thing of bad Republicans obstructing good Democratic reform, no way, both parties are working for the same people, they just have different parts in this charade, the insurance companies are in the background calling the tune.

[Atman]

11. It's it MUCH simpler than that...

Obamacare has absolutely no provisions for Congressional staffers or even most members of Congress to be escape the mandate. It's true. Look it up. They all go into the pool. They buy their own insurance, or go into the exchange. Remember, the ACA mandates that ALL Americans get into the system. Congress critters and their staffers are Americans (or so they claim). The ACA doesn't exclude them from the mandate.

[Bernardo de La Paz]

12. Congress gets gold-plated health care as a job perk. Taxpayer funded.

That's why they say "America has the world's best health care", as if all 99% got the same healthcare as the 1%.

A country's civility is judged not by how well the 1% are cared for, but how well the bottom 10% are cared for.

[Freddie]

14. You're on the right track

Repugs are violently opposed to ANY form of universal coverage, no matter how it would be achieved. Because once people have it, they will like it and never give it up. They will blame the GOP for all the years wasted fighting over it, and they will thank the Democratic Party at the polls. It's simple really.
I despise the Repug Party with a white-hot passion for this alone.

[CTyankee]

17. You are SO RIGHT! Repukes are sick in their hearts that LBJ got Medicare passed and now

the people love it and won't give it up. They are scared shitless that Obamacare will go the same way. And that is a wise fear on their part! They SHOULD be afraid!

We ARE on a road to socialized medicine and NOT A MOMENT TOO SOON!

Hooray!

[Swede Atlanta]

16. Of course they are terrified the ACA will be successful....

The ACA was, at its roots, a Republican idea....keep healthcare in the private sector and use public policy to improve outcomes.

If the ACA succeeds their base will abandon them in droves as they see their lives improving. The GOP is terrified of the ACA and the possibility it will actually help people. They hate people (unless they are in the womb and can be used for political purposes) and love to see them get sick, lose everything and die prematurely. It is what the party of life loves.

[freshwest]

19. Nailed it! Thanks.

[Coyotl]

20. This is like saying people who get social security turn into Democrats.

Yes it was an FDR program, but that doesn't stop some SS recipients from being Republicans.

[truebluegreen]

28. It worked at the time.

But many have forgotten or never knew how we got Social Security and Medicare.

[RobertEarl]

21. Good theory OP. Also, Job ops

The maze of paperwork and new registrations will require a work force to get it done.

Thousands of face-to-face people will be needed. If you think you can do it, start learning the code.

And if it's just $95 bucks a year, where do I sign?

Let's see, $95 x 300 million people, that's a lot of health care being able to be provided.

This may actually work.

[JoeyT]

22. I wouldn't hold my breath waiting for him to switch.

If reality had any bearing on his politics, he wouldn't be a Republican in the first place.

[Jeff In Milwaukee]

23. Their problem...

The stated goal of the GOP leadership in January of 2009 was that Obama would be a one-term president, and that simply meant denying him any type of legislative victory. In a bit of political ju-jitsu, Obama then offered up what had been the Republican-endorsed plan for health care reform, possibly thinking that the Republicans would never be so foolish as to turn down the opportunity to get their Heritage Foundation proposal enshrined into law -- the Republicans could (and should) be taking a victory lap right now.

But the desire to deny Obama anything that even looked like a victory won out, at the expense of allowing Republicans to share in the spoils. Republicans turned on their own plan, which as it turns out, isn't a horrible plan after all. Sure, it's not single payer, but it light years better than what we have now. As imperfect as it is, I think that people are going to really warm up to the Affordable Care Act, which the Republicans stupidly named "Obamacare" so that Obama and the Democrats can take credit for it for decades to come.

I think what we have here will go into civics textbooks as a classic case of "cutting off your nose to spite your face."

[TheKentuckian]

24. They want to repeal and replace with essentially the same thing minus the medicaid expansion

and in an odd about face from their usual state's rights prime directive, destroy the ability of a state to impose regulations on the cartel operating out of another state so they can hole up in in a low to no reg state and sell junk policies across the nation sort of like how the credit card industry operates.

I also tend to think they just were true to their word and didn't want to give the President a notch in his belt.

They have also grown even more anti-government since they hatched the scheme and just don't want to take any chances it might work to some degree or another particularly since it is built on their principles, which they wrongly believe are functional.

What I believe is it will appear to work somewhat at first, long enough to become part of the fabric and then once the mold sets then the extraction and minimizing of coverage will set in fully. Reformers will then have to fight both parties on the deal. TeaPubliKlans defending market approaches and Democrats defending their achievement.

[jmowreader]

31. "Selling across state lines" is definitely one of their big goals

You talk to Republicans and they're all "if they let me buy insurance across state lines, I can go to the cheapest state for it!"

They neglect to realize that if you can BUY insurance across state lines you can also SELL it that way, and there's a whole shitload of empty land in coal mining states, where insurance rates are highest.

IIRC Hawaii has the least expensive healthcare rates and West Virginia and Pennsylvania have the highest. My bet is the health insurance companies already have plans for office buildings drawn and land in any town in WV or PA that's alongside an Interstate.

[Berlum]

26. All the Repubbies have is Fear & Lies. So they are indeed shaking in their diapers

They are so desperate to make America FAIL so they can sneer at Americans.

[DrewFlorida]

29. That sounds logical to me! From what I've seen of the healthcare rates which have been published....

it looks as though there will be substantial savings for the average person and millions more will be able to afford healthcare which they previously could not afford. Once the general public sees and experiences the benefits of Obamacare they will understand how badly the extreme right has been lying to them, it stands to reason they will reject the republicans in large numbers, or at the very least, they will reject the extremists on the right and cause the republican party to move toward the center.