Clearly the Democrats do
not know how to explain to the masses that the economic numbers they are seeing
from Trump reflect averages that are bolstered primarily by the massive income
and wealth gains at the top of the food chain, numbers which bring average
performance statistics way, way up but do not reflect that, even including tax
cuts, 70% of Americans are in the same or worse economic position, in terms of
inflation-adjusted buying power, as they were 40 years ago. Stuff costs more,
especially the basics: food, clothing, housing, fuel and healthcare. These
higher costs have more than sucked up any economic earnings increases enjoyed
by most of us. Likewise, those unemployment numbers are heavily populated by
part-timers, gig economy players and a mass of underemployed and underpaid
workers. Lying with statistics continues.
One of the worst such
arenas is the exploding cost of healthcare as the Trump administration has
openly campaigned and redesigned the federal program, and more than a few red
states have worked to curtail their Affordable Car Act costs looking for
exemptions freely granted by Trump, to reduce coverage, increase premiums,
co-pays and deductibles, limit coverage for pre-existing conditions and apply
lifetime maximum aggregate benefits paid out. Many Republicans are also rather
obviously targeting reductions in Social Security and Medicare coverage for the
elderly.
But as popular opposition
to that 2010 Affordable Care Act (“Obamacare” or the ACA) has pretty much
reversed – the program began working beyond expectations until Trump began to
disassemble the ACA piece by piece by policy shifts and executive orders (often
reversed by the courts) – Republicans are stuck with the fact that only
hardcore GOP supporters (no longer including so many GOP moderates or most
independent voters who voted Republican) want to repeal the ACA. That Trump’s
promise of a better, more affordable replacement for the ACA never materialized
is almost never discussed anymore.
While a few Republicans
are beginning to realize that their only real recourse with their voters is to
fix the ACA not repeal it, the party as a whole is torn apart about what to do
about American healthcare. To the delight of Democrats, it is the one huge
negative in the GOP platform, an Achilles Heel that they need to exploit. Even
lyin’ statistics cannot hide this failure.
“After
failing to deliver on their years-long promise to repeal the Affordable Care
Act and faced with the sudden popularity of Obamacare’s consumer protections,
GOP candidates across the country are struggling for the first time in a decade
to put together a cohesive message on healthcare.
“Die-hards
still want to repeal the 2010 law, the issue that propelled them to majorities
in the House and Senate, but a growing number of Republicans — particularly
those facing tough elections — want to quietly admit defeat and move on.
“‘Even
to bring it up is picking at the scab,’ said Joe Antos, a health policy expert
at the American Enterprise Institute, a conservative think tank. ‘It’s
reminding people that they [failed]. The base isn’t that stupid.’
“Other
GOP candidates find themselves trying to thread an awkward needle of opposing
Obamacare — a law that is still unpopular with core Republican voters — while
supporting some of its key provisions. A few Republicans who once called for
the repeal of Obamacare are now even embracing it, albeit cautiously… All that
makes for a starkly different climate than just two years ago, when GOP
candidates could count on opposition to Obamacare as a guaranteed applause line
on the stump.
“Once
repeal became an actual possibility, the Affordable Care Act — particularly a
few individual pieces — became more popular with the public. Forty-eight
percent of adults have favorable opinions of the law while 40% have unfavorable
views, according to a recent poll by the nonpartisan Kaiser Family Foundation.
In April 2016, those were flipped: 49% of adults with unfavorable opinions and
38% favorable…
“Republican
candidates for the U.S. Senate have also shifted ground in some cases. State
Attys. Gen. Patrick Morrisey of West Virginia and Josh Hawley of Missouri
joined a multistate, GOP-backed lawsuit that seeks to end a requirement in the
2010 law that all Americans have insurance. It was a move that helped buoy
their conservative bona fides.
“But
now as they run for the Senate, they have had to distance themselves somewhat
from the effort, particularly after the Trump administration adopted the legal
position that not only should the individual mandate go but preexisting
conditions protections should too.
“The
preexisting conditions provision is by far the most popular part of Obamacare.
Both GOP candidates now say they support requiring insurance companies to cover
people with preexisting conditions, even as they remain part of the repeal
lawsuit.
“Some
Republicans are still eager to keep trying to repeal or dismantle the law… Sen.
Ted Cruz (R-Texas), who is facing a surprisingly strong challenge from Rep.
Beto O’Rouke (D-Texas), wants the GOP to try Obamacare repeal again. Earlier
this month, he went to the Senate floor to try to block the District of
Columbia from requiring people to have health insurance — a requirement similar
to the Obamacare rule the GOP repealed across the country earlier this year.
“The
GOP candidate for governor in Maine has pledged to continue incumbent Gov. Paul
LePage’s opposition to expanding Medicaid under Obamacare — an expansion that
59% of Maine voters approved in a ballot measure last year. Minnesota’s GOP
gubernatorial candidate won his primary by promising to move the state away
from its Obamacare insurance exchange but offered few specifics on his
alternative.
“And
GOP Senate challengers Leah Vukmir in Wisconsin and Marsha Blackburn in
Tennessee won their primaries in part by pledging to do more to repeal the law…
The result is that even if Republicans do maintain control of both chambers of
Congress — seemingly a long shot — any legislative effort to stabilize the
health law’s insurance markets is likely to be met with opposition from the
conservative end of the Republican party.” Los Angeles Times, August 25th.
Trump’s
efforts have placed American healthcare on life support. Maybe it’s time to
apply that strategy to GOP candidates, remembering that the mid-terms are more
about local issues than most folks figure. After all, we have the most
expensive healthcare system on earth, we are the only developed nation where
people can be completely excluded from accessible healthcare, and the only
country in the developed world where medical bankruptcy is possible (it is the
most common form of bankruptcy in the U.S.).
I’m Peter Dekom, and healthcare is
one of the greatest problems that the U.S. government has yet to address appropriately.
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