THERE HAS NEVER been a shortage of gop substitutes for Obamacare, from think tank white papers to congressional committee frameworks to fully drafted bills. But in the seven years that congressional Republicans spent promising to repeal and replace President Obama’s health care law, none ever moved beyond the development phase, because what Republicans lacked wasn’t a plan. It was a theory.
After the Affordable Care Act (aca) passed, when Republican legislators were asked what sort of health system they preferred, most would say something about lowering costs, increasing affordability, and improving access. Some might criticize Obamacare for covering too few people, as Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell did in January. “What you need to understand is that there are 25 million Americans who aren’t covered now,” he said on cbs News. “If the idea behind Obamacare was to get everyone covered, that’s one of the many failures.”
But improved affordability and accessibility is an outcome, not a system. Republicans almost never took the time to describe the basic mechanics of how their preferred health care system might work. As a result, when the gop took control of both Congress and the White House this year and the time came to draw up an actual plan to repeal and replace the aca, it struggled to get out of the gate. Proposals were repeatedly altered and delayed.
After the House repeal bill was released in March, it was met with an immediate chorus of criticism—with the loudest voices coming from the right.
IN HIS 2015 book Overcoming Obamacare, journalist Philip Klein wrote that conservatives and libertarians have generally split into three schools of thought on what should take the place of the aca. The first group, which Klein dubbed the reform school, believed that those who opposed Obamacare should nonetheless take its existence as a given. The reform school is not so much a theory of health care policy as one of health care politics: Because Obamacare is already the law of the land, and industry players and state governments have organized themselves around it, opponents have to accept it as, at the very least, a starting point. The idea is not really to repeal Obamacare, but to improve it by pushing things in a more marketfriendly direction.
Bu hikaye Reason magazine dergisinin June 2017 sayısından alınmıştır.
Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 9,000+ magazines and newspapers.
Already a subscriber ? Giriş Yap
Bu hikaye Reason magazine dergisinin June 2017 sayısından alınmıştır.
Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 9,000+ magazines and newspapers.
Already a subscriber? Giriş Yap
Gimme Shelter - The U.S. confronts a growing homelessness problem. Does Miami have the answer?
The U.S. confronts a growing homelessness problem. Does Miami have the answer?
AI Is Coming for Hollywood's Jobs
But so is everyone else.
AI Can Do Paperwork Doctors Hate
With help from AI, doctors can focus on patients.
Antitrust May Smother the Power of AI
Left alone, AI could actually help small firms compete with tech giants.
A Brief, Biased History of the Culture Wars
THE FIRST PAR AGR APH of the book jacket lays it out: “There is a common belief that we live in unprecedented times, that people are too sensitive today, that nobody objected to the actions of actors, comedians, and filmmakers in the past.
FAMILIES NEED A VIBE SHIFT
THE AUTHORS OF FOUR NEW BOOKSWITH 24 KIDS BETWEEN THEM-SAY THE AMERICAN FAMILY NEEDS A COURSE CORRECTION.
"The Past Is There To Teach Us What Can Happen'
Hardcore History's Dan Carlin on hero worship and moral assumptions in the study of the past
Cutting Off Israel
ENDING U.S. AID WOULD GIVE WASHINGTON LESS LEVERAGE IN THE MIDDLE EAST. THAT’S WHY IT’S WORTH DOING.
WHAT CAUSED THE D.C.CRIME WAVE?
GOVERNMENT MISMANAGEMENT, NOT SENTENCING REFORM OR SPARSE SOCIAL SPENDING, DESERVES THE BLAME.
States Turn Their Backs on Criminal Justice Reform
IT WAS IMPOSSIBLE to avoid the “strange bedfellows” cliché when reading about the criminal justice reform movement in the 2010s.