Credit is due to the Republicans holding town halls around the country. But that's about all we the people can offer, because, while they had the fortitude to hold the town halls, they had no grit in answering their constituents' questions.
Take, for example, this week's Ron Johnson call. It was pretty pathetic. When asked explicitly what the Republicans will do to lower the costs of health insurance premiums, all listeners heard was deflection. "Obamacare has failed to lower the costs, and we have to fix it by letting it go away by allowing the free market to operate. Americans should be able to shop for insurance and if they want catastrophic insurance, that should be available."
When the Senator was pushed for the actual plan to carry this out, it became increasingly more apparent that there actually is none. Republicans want us to return to the time before the ACA.
Now, if you're one that can't quite remember what health insurance was like 15 years ago, here's a quick recap: some 40 million Americans had no health insurance. Millions of others only had insurance that kicked in under life threatening circumstances and millions of others had coverage with exorbitant copays and massive deductibles. Tens of millions of people relied solely on ER visits for healthcare.
Way back in 1980, this was such a problem in the country that Ronald Reagan, a fiscal conservative, signed the EMTALA act that paid hospitals with federal dollars for taking care of anyone who showed up ill. The struggle with medical bills and insurance got so bad that in a presidential debate in 2011, while the Republican candidates were arguing about what to do with uninsured sick people in the hospital, Ron Paul suggested that no one should take care of that person, the audience cheered; when asked whether that meant Mr. Paul would let the uninsured patient die, the audience yelled, "Yeah!"
That's the country we were living in.
The Affordable Care Act (ACA), the act derogatorily referred to by Republicans as Obamacare, was supposed to function as a marketplace for insurance! While this seems unbeknownst to MCs like Ron Johnson, the ACA's structure was based on the Massachusetts health care act signed into law by Mitt Romney. That's true! That's the same Republican Mitt Romney who ran for president against B. Obama. The ACA was actually a fiscally conservative plan.
The reasons that health insurance premiums are rising get complicated quickly, but it's not because of the ACA marketplace. The Kaiser Foundation indicates that premium costs are rising at lower rates than prior to the ACA.
Check it out:
The graph shows that prior to the ACA's introduction in 2014, premiums were rising by double digits. Premiums were growing faster prior to the ACA. Strangely to the chagrin of Republicans, Obamacare has been slowing the growth of premiums.
Surprise, surprise, surprise!
So, back to the town halls. This was the common theme around the country: Obamacare has failed, trust Republicans to fix this, and, oh yeah, by the way, they have no plan. Republicans have done nothing over the last 15 years. Not even Concepts of a plan.
To make it even worse, President Trump's One Big Beautiful Bill defunds EMTALA taking the USA back to pre-1980 conditions.
Don't be deceived. Donald J. Trump and his minions, the Republicans, on this issue do not care about the American people.
Democrats are right to hold out for the extension of the subsidies. Let's hope we get it. And let's hope Republicans wake up and stop kowtowing to the megalomaniacs in the White House.
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