It would have been smart to forget ‘repeal and replace’; Guest Column
The single number that
With a majority of voters in many polls now also approving of the Affordable Care Act, the politically prudent move for
Instead, McConnell has taken on the role of drum major leading the Republican march of folly. All the legislative tinkering in the world will not save the
Why are the
No Republican on the ballot in 2018 - with the possible exception of
The cynical rationale had been that the Republican health-care push was, in truth, a camouflaged tax cut for the affluent. All prior versions of the legislation included
But McConnell, belatedly bowing to political atmospherics, eliminated these backdoor tax cuts from the latest version of the legislation that was unveiled Thursday. As a result, anti-tax crusaders such as
Another theory is that Obamacare has been the unlucky bystander in legislation that is really designed to strangle Medicaid. According to the CBO's analysis last month of the initial
The updated
But the public assault on Medicaid would all but guarantee that health care would be a major issue in the 2020 presidential and congressional campaigns. And it is impossible to see how the
So why are McConnell and company so determined to fight it out on this line?
By placating Cruz with a tweak that would allow insurers to sell health plans that cover little more than burns from volcanic eruptions, the new
The more that these fig-leaf coverage plans attract healthy Americans, the shakier the financing will be for standard policies that cover those with pre-existing conditions and higher medical costs. It is easy to imagine that a Democratic refrain in 2018 and 2020 will be, "Where are the lower premiums and the lower deductibles?"
Every time a heart-rending story about a family unable to cope with their medical bills would appear on cable TV, the president would be tempted to bat out a tweet attacking the
So what if Trump signed the legislation himself? Such glaring inconsistencies have not stopped the president from venting his rage in the past.
In truth, the
Aside from
If
All they need is to pass a single-sentence piece of legislation that reads in its entirety: "Obamacare is rescinded for now and all eternity."
Of course, under this scheme, the actual Affordable Care Act would remain in force, offering health care coverage to millions of Americans who otherwise would live in fear of the slightest cough. And with "Obamacare" (a word that never appears in the law) out of the way,
Roll Call columnist
Credit:
Make health care bill bipartisan
At rural Pa. hospitals, a tense wait as Congress weighs funding changes
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