GOP created Obamacare problems

It’s more than a little shocking to witness the levels of lying and deception that Republicans continually resort to when attacking the Affordable Care Act, particularly their claims about it’s “failing” and “so expensive.”

The Republicans have caused Obamacare’s problems. Just like Sarah Palin lied about the “death panels” but the gullible Republican base “bought” the lie, so Republicans in Congress refused to fund the ACA provisions that reimbursed insurance companies for the expected high losses (called “risk corridors”) they would initially suffer as millions people who had pre-existing conditions could get insurance for the first time, and would then finally get treatment.

Then in 2015, Marco Rubio and other Republicans set out to gut the risk corridor payments, and instead of the insurance companies getting the expected $2.9 billion for their losses, they got only $400 million. This forced insurance companies to do the only things they could: Pull out of (mostly red) states with low incomes and thus poorer health, and jack up prices in other states to make up their losses. Rubio’s “hack” was repeated in 2016, leading to the large rate increases just before the 2016 election.

Search for "Marco Rubio Quietly Undermines Affordable Care Act.”

William H. Clarke,

Missoula