Disclaimer: the right thing is Medicaire for All. We should do that under President Bernie. But he didn’t win and it’s not an option now. This is about what can be done.
The simple approach is to simply oppose everything, oppose any change. And maybe that’s the right approach. But I’d like to suggest another to consider.
Republicans have a majority to pass anything, but causing great harm might keep them from having all Republicans support it and prevent passage. We already see adjustments because of this.
But their entire party has committed itself, painted itself into a corner, that they have to ‘repeal’ Obamacare. They’ve left themselves no way to back out.
So, they’re trying to sort through all kinds of bad idea of how to do that.
The idea I’m suggesting is to recognize that all they need to do is to change enough to have political cover that they ‘repealed’ the bad and ‘fixed it’.
So, why not have Democrats look for the least damaging changes that meet that political need — quietly get them in front of Republicans — and maybe even say how they hate them if it helps?
Fact is, every provision in Obamacare is very popular and useful except the ‘mandate’, the core of Republican opposition, which is only useful.
So anything Republicans cut is going to cause harm. Pre-existing conditions? Requirements to spend a minimum amount on benefits? Insuring adult children?
So, can Democrats come up with any way to change the funding mechanism — the mandate — that Republicans might be able to accept, while keeping the other provisions?
I don’t have the answer. The mandate was a crude workaround to the inability to raise taxes to pay for it by putting the cost onto healthier people. Republicans are allergic to those tax increases.
But can we find some alternative funding mechanism Republicans could accept that would let them claim victory, and reduce the harm? I understand this is not adopting the “let Republicans destroy healthcare and hurt themselves politically” approach.
Republicans have done that in their states — and they’ve done little but grow their power, now with something like 34 states totally controlled. Not seeming that works great. And the morality of it.
There should be some creative way to find funding — maybe tax breaks for the insurers. Republicans can’t get enough of those.