How Obama and the Democrats failed to defend the universal right to healthcare

[ProSense]

12. "That principle now is here to stay."

But Democrats have not only failed to confront Republicans. They have also reinforced conservative mantras that undermine their professed agenda by mimicking the anti-government evangelism and uncritical exaltation of markets, most memorably in Bill Clinton’s famous 1996 declaration that “the era of big government is over.” Democrats also ceded political space to GOP fanatics during the Affordable Care Act’s conception in 2009. Instead of contesting Tea Party fearmongering around Obamacare, Democrats offered concessions—first by excluding single-payer healthcare from consideration, then jettisoning the public option. The president’s (and the ACA’s) declining popularity underscores growing public doubts about Democrats’ willingness to stand and fight.

The above is from the OP.

Republicans have been fighting the notion of Obamacare since 2009, and trying to kill it since it was signed into law. The above proves that anyone can say anything, regardless of the facts and reality. That reality is that every step of the way, including the SCOTUS decision, Obamacare reinforced the right of everyone to health care. I find it interesting that just recently the claim was that the glitchy website furor created an opening for single payer. Why? The premise was that everyone now would see that single payer is the way to go after the failed promise of Obamacare. What promise? Health care as a right. The reality is that because of Obamacare, "that principle now is here to stay."

2010:

Why Republicans are So Intent on Killing Health Care Reform

by Richard Kirsch

It’s not just about expanded care. It’s about proving our government can be a force for the common good.

Why are John Boehner, Eric Cantor and Mitch McConnell so intent on stopping health care reform from ever taking hold? For the same reason that Republicans and the corporate Right spent more than $200 million in the last year to demonize health care in swing Congressional districts. It wasn’t just about trying to stop the bill from becoming law or taking over Congress. It is because health reform, if it takes hold, will create a bond between the American people and government, just as Social Security and Medicare have done. Democrats, and all those who believe that government has a positive place in our lives, should remember how much is at stake as Republicans and corporate elites try to use their electoral victory to dismantle the new health care law.

My enjoyment of the MLB playoffs last month was interrupted by ads run by Karl Rove’s Crossroads front group against upstate New York Rep. Scott Murphy, who was defeated last Tuesday. Rove’s ads rained accusations on Murphy, including the charge of a “government takeover of health care.” Some might have thought that once the public option was removed from the health care legislation, Republicans couldn’t make that charge. But it was never tied to the public option or any other specific reform. Republicans and their allies, following the advice of message guru Frank Luntz, were going to call whatever Democrats proposed a government takeover.

There’s nothing new here. Throughout American history, health care reform has been attacked as socialist. An editorial published in the Journal of the American Medical Association in December 1932, just after FDR’s election, claimed that proposals for compulsory insurance “were socialism and communism — inciting to revolution.” The PR firm that the American Medical Association hired to fight Truman’s push for national health insurance succeeded in popularizing a completely concocted quote that it attributed to Vladimir Lenin: “Socialized medicine is the keystone to the arch of the Socialist State.”

<...>

President Obama and Democrats in Congress understood the historical importance and profound moral underpinnings of the new health care law when they enacted it earlier this year. And they knew that the right-wing attack had soured the public in swing Congressional districts and states on reform. They stood up then. They will have to stand up again, understanding that if they give way to Republicans, they lose more than the expansion of health coverage. They lose the best opportunity in half a century to prove to Americans that government can be a force for the common good.

http://www.newdeal20.org/2010/11/08/why-republicans-are-so-intent-on-killing-health-care-reform-26298/

2013:

"US health reform's Gettysburg moment"

by ybruti

In January 1 2014: US health reform's Gettysburg moment, a veteran of decades-long battles over health care policy sees a parallel between the Union Army's victory at Gettysburg in 1863 and today, which he calls

the most transformational day in the history of United States health care policy, ever....the first day of fundamental reform of the business and regulation of health insurance in all 50 states.

In his article, John E. McDonough, a professor at the Harvard School of Public Health and the author of Inside National Health Reform, lists these accomplishments of The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA), which was signed into law by Barack Obama on March 23, 2010:

Banning the practice of "medical underwriting" by which insurance companies rate enrollees based on their health status and medical history,
Banning pre-existing condition exclusions from US health insurance everywhere,
Establishing "guaranteed issue" as the new operating paradigm for individual health insurance,
Completely eliminating lifetime limits on all health insurance, and
Establishing "minimum essential benefits" that must be included in nearly all licensed health insurance policies everywhere.

In addition, McDonough highlights Medicaid coverage beginning today for five million previously uninsured low-income people, "with many more millions to follow"; private health insurance coverage obtained through federal and state exchanges and starting today; and the principle of personal responsibility to obtain health insurance - the individual mandate. Although the July 1, 1966 beginning of Medicare was another historic date in health care policy, McDonough says "the scope and breadth of changes" beginning today are "far more consequential by comparison."

Regarding the Battle of Gettysburg analogy, McDonough compares the Republican 17-day shutdown of the federal government on October 1 to Picketts Charge on July 3, 1863, "the final and failed Confederate assault at Gettysburg." And just as the Civil War did not end for almost two years after Gettysburg, so the Republican war against the ACA will continue but "the ultimate outcome is no longer in doubt."

McDonough concludes:

The overriding importance of 1/1/2014 is the actualization of a new principle of health justice for all Americans, however flawed that principle is in form and in practice under the ACA. That principle now is here to stay.

- more -

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2014/01/01/1266424/--US-health-reform-s-Gettysburg-moment

2014:

From 'I don't want any part of Obamacare' to 'It's a godsend'
http://www.democraticunderground.com/10024349685

ACA Signups: KA-POW!! Medicaid Overhaul Posted, CA Updated, Grand Total approaches 12M!
http://www.democraticunderground.com/10024368026


Obamacare isn't going anywhere, and its success is going to continue to shine a light on the path forward to single payer.

Single Payer movement in the era of Obamacare
http://www.democraticunderground.com/10024090281