Repeal and Replace

It seems every time the veil has been lifted, there is another underneath.

Ever since the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act became law in March 2010, essentially every debate and action by lawmakers at both the Federal and State levels relating to that law has had nothing to do with health care in America. Whether it was attacking the law or defending it, it has only been a turf war, a pissing contest, Texas Hold‘em, or mud wrestling…nothing more. The goal quickly transcended from Health Care to political ascendancy.

The Law did, in fact, address the untenable state of health care in America, which was (and is) quite simply comprised of two issues; lack of access to health care (Patient Protection) and extreme cost (Affordable Care).  It successfully addressed only the former (lack of access) and was therefore seriously flawed. There is some irony that in short cutting the title of the act we were left with the Affordable Care Act (ACA), highlighting the part that was a failure. Who thought of that? What if all this time we had been calling it the Patient Protection Act?

Within eleven days of Republicans obtaining a majority in the House in 2011 they began passing legislation to eliminate in whole or in part the ACA. It would repeat itself dozens of times. This started even before the law began its implementation, which was scheduled to take years.  

They (Republicans) also changed the popular name of the bill to Obamacare, a successful renaming that was readily adopted by the Media and eventually by the Democrats as well. This was important and without precedent.  There is no Rooseveltcare (Social Security), Johnsoncare (Medicare), or even Romneycare prior to the 2012 election cycle. This new name for the ACA became its rallying cry for Republicans, Tea Party activists, and Conservatives in general, and it was entirely political. Health care played no role. The vast majority of individuals opposed to "Obamacare" have virtually no idea how it works.

Here it is important to point out (as I have pointed out several times before in Pennyfound) the nature of the health care law which Republican/Conservatives have been so opposed to.

The origin of Obamacare, without regard to its funding sources, was adopted almost word for word from a Republican Conservative proposal outlined in publications of the Heritage Foundation in the mid-1990s. With minor criticism from some Republicans it was generally well received by Conservatives as the proper answer to single payer proposals coming out of the Clinton Administration.  However, neither without the Presidency or the Senate, nor with any willingness on the part of a Gingrich led House to find funding, it withered on the vine.

It wasn’t until 2006 that Conservative governor Mitt Romney, with a bipartisan state legislature enacted the same law for Massachusetts.  It proved successful, at least on the “Patient Protection” side of the ledger. It was that test case that Obama and the Democrats decided to use, adding one important amendment: the inclusion of a Public Option. This would have given patients the ability to buy into a government insurance program if they didn’t find a better private insurance option available. But wait, Conservatives ask, does the Federal Government have such an insurance program? Ahh…yes, they are called Medicare, Medicaid, and Tricare, the biggest health insurance providers in the Nation.

Obama and the Democrats dropped that critical ball allowing the Public Option to be scratched and leaving the Republicans their ideal health care law: a law that (by necessity) forced all citizens to participate but still administered entirely by private (political donating) insurers, pharmaceutical companies, and medical providers. 

So why in heavens name have Republican Conservatives so vehemently opposed this law? It can be summed up in one word: Obamacare.

Republicans have used this law as a political football for 8 years. It was the reason for the name Obamacare. Smarted by the multiple failures of the Bush Administration and virtually despising Obama for his rapid ascendancy as a Liberally chosen black man, their only goal (as actually stated by Mitch McConnell) was to make Obama a one-term President. Making the ACA the boogieman and labeling it Obamacare fit the bill perfectly.  

As a result, Democrats and Obama himself dug themselves into a defensive position unable to admit their errors in the Law’s enactment and address the ACA’s serious flaws. Health care be damned.

If the media would ever lift up all the veils that have covered this issue they would see why the Republicans can find no way to successfully replace this law. It is actually a Republican law and what the Republicans are trying so desperately to do is to simply eliminate the name…they created. They do not want the name Obama lingering into the future and their reasoning is political.

Again I ask; if the name of this law was only the Patient Protection Act, would any of the circus we’re seeing be taking place?  I think not.

If the Republicans want to repeal and replace, they only need to repeal and replace the name. They’d have their law, the Democrats would have their foundation to push toward making it affordable, and no one would be calling it Trumpcare.