GOP may unwittingly usher in single-payer system

[Yo_Mama_Been_Loggin]

By Eugene Robinson

Sooner or later, we will have universal, single-payer health care in this country — sooner if Republicans succeed in destroying the Affordable Care Act, later if they fail.

The repeal-and-replace bill passed by the House last week is nothing short of an abomination. It is so bad that Republicans can only defend it by blowing smoke and telling lies. “You cannot be denied coverage if you have a pre-existing condition,” House Speaker Paul Ryan said — true in the narrowest, most technical sense but totally false in the real world, since insurance companies could charge those people astronomically high premiums, pricing them out of the market. “There are no cuts to the Medicaid program,” Health and Human Services Secretary Tom Price said — a bald-faced lie, given that Republicans want to cut $880 billion from Medicaid in order to offset a big tax cut for the rich.

The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office predicted that an earlier version of the American Health Care Act, as Trumpcare is officially called, would result in 24 million Americans losing health insurance over the next decade, with 14 million of those unfortunates losing coverage within the first year. Republicans rushed to vote Thursday on the final bill before the CBO had a chance to score it, doubtless fearing the projected decimation could be worse.

I can’t think of a more effective way to drive the nation toward a single-payer system. In their foolish haste to get rid of Obamacare, Republican ideologues are paving the way for something they will like much less.

http://www.heraldnet.com/opinion/robinson-gop-may-unwittingly-usher-in-single-payer-system/?utm_source=DAILY+HERALD&utm_campaign=f07ba53bf8-RSS_EMAIL_CAMPAIGN&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_d81d073bb4-f07ba53bf8-228635337

[putitinD]

1. everything the GOP has ever done has been unwittingly, but single payer is the ONLY solution!

[volstork]

2. Here's hoping!

n/t

[unblock]

3. eventually, i certainly hope. in the short term i think it's a re-branding exercise

the only real objection republicans ever had to obamacare was the taxes on the rich.

the mandate b.s. was pure distraction. had it been their plan from the start, they wouldn't have raised a peep about it.

actually, it *was* their plan from the start (the heritage foundation first proposed it as a market-based alternative to medicare-for-all or hillarycare), but obamacare took it as what he determined was the only practical solution that could fly at the time.

so then their objection was purely political. they were fine with everything about the plan except the taxes.


so their plan should be a scaled-back obamacare, paid for with more nuisance and use fees, and smaller taxes spread out more so the rich aren't hit as hard. gotta protect those poor rich people.

which really would be a "modification" to the existing plan, except for political reasons they have to kill obamacare and dance on its grave before they propose "trumpcare", which will look remarkably similar, except as described above, but they'll insist it's completely different and of course it's already working and it's a brilliant success and blah blah blah....

[zipplewrath]

4. It's been in the cards for years

This may accelerate it, but it has been in the cards for years. Sooner or later the multinationals are going to get tired of carrying this as a direct cost, and want to see it as a shared costs across the market. About then, they'll push the GOP towards a single payer type system and get them out from underneath the cost of employee health insurance. The cost will be pushed out into the market in terms of consumption taxes, which will be very regressive, but the democrats will vote for it because how can you be against single payer. Heck, we voted for mandates didn't we?

[Hassin Bin Sober]

5. I've been thinking the same thing.