The left is winning the health care debate
The GOP supposedly unveiled its Obamacare “replacement” yesterday. I think the term “replacement” is something of a misnomer. For many, if not most, Obamacare beneficiaries, the “replacement” for their current care will simply be no care at all.
For starters, the plan proposing scrapping the expansion of Medicaid that has extended coverage to more than 10 million. In an attempt to give political cover to senators in states that have benefited greatly from this provision (looking at you West Virginia), the bill will gradually phase out the funding for the expansion beginning in 2019. That way members of Congress running for re-election next year won’t be put in the awkward position of dealing with constituents who have lost coverage. Such sad stories will emerge eventually, but Republicans hope that by that time the American public will have shifted its attention to other things, notably Trump’s 2020 reelection carnival.
The age-based tax credits are also a joke that will do very little for those who can’t afford insurance currently. Health savings accounts are great –– for those who have money to save. Most Americans don’t.
Back in 2010, the most honest conservatives described their fear of the ACA thus: It will create a new entitlement that, just like Medicare and Social Security, will become politically untouchable.
They were right. And the backlash the GOP now faces on repealing Obamacare is evidence that the American left has made an important step in reshaping the debate over health care. Most Americans now believe that health care is a right and that the government plays a role in providing it. Not only do polls show the ACA’s popularity rising as the GOP plots to destroy it, but they suggest most Americans are open to an even more thorough rationalization of health care through single-payer (thanks Bernie!).
The fight to save health care is a opportunity to present left-wing politics at its best and right-wing politics at its worst. It’s also an opportunity to engage those who should form the left’s natural base: the poor and working class.
Trump has already surrendered on Medicare and Social Security, recognizing that no cultural division or Twitter rant is great enough to distract millions of Americans from that type of mass taking. He is aware that Obamacare repeal is a great risk, but it’s one that he and other Republicans believe they need to take and may get away with, depending on the Democrats’ response.
If the progressive movement knows what it’s doing, then there should not be one GOP member of Congress whose phone line does not crash in the coming weeks. Also, grassroots groups should be organizing ACA beneficiaries, particularly in areas that went strong for Trump, to not only put pressure on Republicans before they take votes, but to organize a voter backlash to punish them next year at the polls.
