The GOP hates Obamacare because it works......

[UCmeNdc]

At its core, the Republicans' scorched-earth opposition to Obamacare has never been so much about "freedom" or "limited government" or any other right-wing ideological buzzword as it has been about political power, pure and simple. Now as for the past 20 years, Republicans have feared not that health care reform would fail the American people, but that it would succeed. Along with Social Security and Medicare, successful health care reform would provide the third and final pillar of Americans' social safety net, all brought you by the Democratic Party. To put it another way, the GOP was never really concerned about a "government takeover of health care", "rationing", "the doctor-patient relationship" or mythical "death panels," but that an American public grateful for access to health care could provide Democrats with an enduring majority for years to come

But what Utah Senator Orrin Hatch called a "holy war" to block health care reform didn't start when Barack Obama took the oath of office in January 2009, but instead when Bill Clinton was inaugurated in 1993. It was then that former Quayle chief of staff and Republican strategist William Kristol warned his GOP allies that a Clinton victory on health care could guarantee Democratic majorities for the foreseeable future. "The Clinton proposal is also a serious political threat to the Republican Party," Kristol wrote in his infamous December 3, 1993 memo titled "Defeating President Clinton's Health Care Proposal," adding:

"Its passage in the short run will do nothing to hurt (and everything to help) Democratic electoral prospects in 1996. But the long-term political effects of a successful Clinton health care bill will be even worse--much worse. It will relegitimize middle-class dependence for 'security' on government spending and regulation. It will revive the reputation of the party that spends and regulates, the Democrats, as the generous protector of middle-class interests. And it will at the same time strike a punishing blow against Republican claims to defend the middle class by restraining government."
And that, for Kristol, meant it had to be stopped at all costs:
"The first step in that process must be the unqualified political defeat of the Clinton health care proposal. Its rejection by Congress and the public would be a monumental setback for the president; and an incontestable piece of evidence that Democratic welfare-state liberalism remains firmly in retreat."

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2013/08/11/1230529/-The-real-reason-for-the-GOP-s-all-out-war-on-Obamacare?detail=emailclassic

[JTFrog]

2. Enjoy your stay.

[4lbs]

3. Funny. After I signed up for Covered California, my monthly premium went from $400 to $175

and I had about 30 plans to choose from.

The extra $200+ I have each month? I put it back into the economy by ummm... buying stuff.

Also, my new plan has no lifetime max, and my maximum annual responsibility is $12000.


However, do go ahead and spread those falsehoods of yours.

[JoePhilly]

4. When you buy insurance, they take your money and use it to pay for someone else's ...

... healthcare costs.

That'ts how insurance works.

Oh ... and they've been taking your tax dollars to pay for people with NO insurance for a few decades now.

And you can still chose your own health care, the choices are simply better now.

[LastLiberal in PalmSprings]

8. When they buy insurance, ins. companies take their money and use it to pay for your ...

... health care costs.

That's how insurance works.

People seem to forget that part of the equation. Everyone assumes they will never get seriously ill (e.g., cancer, kidney failure, heart trouble) and that everyone else will and they'll end up paying for it.

Agreed that because we don't have universal health care those who pay taxes subsidize those who don't have medical insurance and depend on emergency rooms for treatment. Medicare for all -- without the 80% limitation -- is the only solution that makes sense.

[JoePhilly]

9. Agree ...

No one buys healthcare the same way they buy apples, a house, or a car.

When you are sick, you don't really have much of a choice.

The RW would push the sick out to die on ice flows, if they were not also trying to heat up the earth so there are no ice flows.

[bvar22]

5. Yes...it is working just as it was designed.

If you have trouble reading these charts:
Since the ACA was passed, Humana has gone from 48 to 178.
United Health Group went from 24 to 120.

So, Yes.


Instead of putting those carrion eaters out of business while we had the chance,
the American Taxpayer is now subsidizing ANOTHER Rich Industry
to the tune of many billions/year.

THOSE "Billions" are taxpayer dollars that do NOT go to Health Care for Americans,
but into the pockets of the most greedy, worthless, predatory, soulless, "Industry" in the World,.... while many Americans are still dying from lack of Health Care.

[JoePhilly]

10. The ACA has also saved my sister and her family over 200,000.

And saved my niece's life.

My niece had cancer at two.

And could not get coverage after that for anything past basic kid illness and sports injuries.

She's had kidney stones, a side effect of the cancer, since she was nine. And my sister was out of pocket for it.

She is now 20.

Fully covered.

Kidney stones covered.

Everything else, covered.

The ACA did not fix every problem ... and we need to do more ... but it has saved millions .... and I wish some of you would figure this out.

But based on what I see on DU, I do not expect it.

[UCmeNdc]

11. Sure, Single Payer is the best way to go But The ACA is better than nothing

It provides some sort of start to the health care debate.