Republicans Suddenly Care About Canceled Health Policies

[SHRED]

Why Republicans Suddenly Care About Canceled Health Policies

Posted on Nov 15, 2013
By Joe Conason

Amid the current national uproar over the troubles of the Affordable Care Act, it is almost uplifting to hear the deep concern expressed by politicians, pundits, lobbyists and corporate leaders over cancellation of existing health insurance policies. They empathize loudly with the millions of potential victims, whose plight infuriates these worthy observers with fury. They fill hours of television and pages of print with expressions of outrage. Suddenly, everyone in Washington is intensely concerned about Americans losing their health coverage.

The outpouring of noble sentiment would be laudable—indeed, long overdue—if only there were reason to believe these protestations are sincere. Sadly, the evidence points in the opposite direction, for a single obvious reason: Millions of people in this country have been losing health insurance for years, resulting in many thousands of serious illnesses, bankruptcies and early deaths. But until insurance cancellations became a political embarrassment for President Barack Obama, the usual right-wing reaction was silence. (Except for that awkward and revealing outburst during the 2012 Republican debates when a live audience howled its approval for the “let him die” plan.)

For anyone who has ever honestly cared about people losing their health coverage—for instance, Obama or his Democratic predecessor, former President Bill Clinton—the depressing statistical reality has long been plain. Every day, thousands of Americans leave the rolls of the private insurance industry, almost never voluntarily.

People often forfeit insurance after losing a job, which happened to millions during the Great Recession. At its height, when tea party Republicans were fighting to kill Obamacare in the cradle, more than 44,000 people were losing their health coverage every week. In May 2009, the policy journal Health Affairs published a projection that nearly 7 million Americans would lose coverage by the end of 2010.


CONTINUED:

http://www.truthdig.com/report/item/why_republicans_suddenly_care_about_canceled_health_policies_20131115



--



Now they care...sure they do.

wink wink

[CurtEastPoint]

1. check your link

http://www.truthdig.com/report/item/why_republicans_suddenly_care_about_canceled_health_policies_20131115

[SHRED]

2. thanks

[BlueStreak]

3. If they cared about insurance calcellations, we never would have needed the ACA

Well, OK, the ACA does a lot more than deal with cancellations and threat of cancellation, but that really is a primary motivator. And without such abusive practices in the industry, we never could have gotten ACA passed.

[marble falls]

4. I bet cancellations and threat of cancellations, COBRA at job loss or benifit change, pre-existing..

conditions make up the biggest part of all needs and concerns that required at the least the ACA. It'll be single payer in ten years. You have it right.

[BlueStreak]

5. I really think that depends on

1) Us continuing to elect progressive leaders. We will probably have to hold our noses and vote for Hillary as the last of the DLC generation, but make it very clear to her that this country is headed in a progressive direction and she cannot be an obstacle to that.

2) The insurance companies continuing to pull every stunt in the book. If the insurance companies simply did their jobs, which is not really a hard, complicated job, didn't pay their exec an exorbitant compensation, and forced their shareholders to accept something like a 5% net profit (which is very good considering how reliable this business actually is), then they could hold off single payer indefinitely. But they are greedy bastards that will never do that. So our fight continues.