A Joke to Some, Deadly Serious to Others: Healthcare in America

A Joke to Some, Deadly Serious to Others: Healthcare in America

Ever since Social Security was passed in 1935, Medicaid in 1965 and Medicare in 1968, a large contingent of elected Republicans, completely distorting the meaning of the actual definition of “socialism,” have tried to reduce or eliminate these social programs by simply calling all this “creeping socialism.” While these concepts share the root epithet “social,” they are social programs (not remotely “socialism”) which notions are alive in every advanced nation on Earth, albeit, medical care in these other nations comes in the form of universal healthcare, a concept that freaks out most Republicans.

When the Affordable Care Act (aka “Obamacare” or “ACA”) was narrowly passed in March of 2010, the GOP reached unparalleled levels of distress. After letting the Supreme Court gut mandatory buy-in provision, the Republican Party was grinning with anticipatory delight as it seemed to have the Senate Majority necessary to repeal the ACA in the summer of 2017. But a courageous Republican, a former presidential candidate made a huge decision. “Early [on a July] morning, Sen. John McCain walked into the Senate chamber and, to a burst of applause from Senate Democrats, cast the decisive vote to defeat Majority Leader Mitch McConnell's Health Care Freedom Act. It was a historic moment. [Pictured above] And I have never been happier to have been dead wrong.

“Earlier [that] week, McCain — who was recently diagnosed with brain cancer — flew to Washington, D.C., to vote on the motion to proceed with health-care legislation. He gave an intense speech harshly (and accurately) condemning the incredibly opaque and undemocratic process that McConnell was trying to use to ram an extremely unpopular bill through the Senate. The only problem was that he had just cast a crucial vote to allow the process he was attacking to go forward.” Scott Lemieux writing for The Week, July 28, 2017. The ACA was saved.

In the years that followed, as the cost of private insurance (with tons of exclusions and limits) soared, millions of Americans found a path to health insurance under the ACA. For those unable to afford even the bargain price of ACA coverage, the statute provided government subsidies, which produced a majority of those who accessed ACA subsidies residing in red states. Even as US life expectancy was creeping downwards compared to the rest of the developed world, the GOP battled to undo as much of the medical coverage under Medicaid and the ACA as possible, recently as part of an effort to support the “billionaire tax cut” in Trump’s “Big Beautiful Bill.” Trump mandated his rubber stamp GOP congressional contingent to tow the line, once again embracing the overwhelmingly disproven “incent the job creators” mantra that had NEVER worked.

The shutdown, over the budgetary extension bill (passed by the GOP house majority, but unable to overcome the 60-vote margin to bring a floor vote in the Senate) was a brief moment where a minority Democratic contingent in the Senate had some leverage to demand revisions in that bill, presented to them with zero involvement in its drafting, as a take-it-or-leave-it ultimatum from the Trump administration. Mis-messaging from Republicans prayed on the anti-immigrant sentiment that was rising in the United States: the false claim that Medicaid was being drained to provide medical care for undocumented aliens… even though the relevant law expressly excluded that class from getting coverage.

But the GOP understood that unless they could break that Dems on healthcare issues, at least as to the soon-to-expire ACA subsidies, the renewal of which was a precondition for the Senate Dems to break that 60-vote deadlock. Insurance experts, including the Congressional Budget Office, projected that without those subsidies, ACA premium costs would increase (some by more than double), creating a ripple effect across the entire healthcare insurance system. Even congressional members of the GOP were beginning to realize that their unwillingness to address these astounding consequences for their own constituents could produce a toxic result for them in the upcoming midterm elections… if there actually will be midterm elections.

Doctrinaire rightwing congressional Republicans see this as another moment to tear down those “creeping socialist” medical programs. Mary Clare Jalonick, writing for the Associated Press on October 8th, writes: “Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-S.D.) has repeatedly indicated that Republicans are open to extending the subsidies, with reforms, if Democrats would reopen the government. But he has refused to negotiate until that happens — and has suggested Trump will be key to the eventual outcome.

“Thune told reporters Monday [10/6] ‘there may be a path forward’ on ACA subsidies but stressed, ‘I think a lot of it would come down to where the White House lands on that.’… Many GOP senators argue the only path forward is to overhaul the law. ‘The whole problem with all of this is Obamacare,’ said Florida Sen. Rick Scott…. Most House Republicans agree, and House Speaker Mike Johnson has been noncommittal on discussions… ‘Obamacare is not working,’ Johnson said Sunday [10/5] on NBC’s ‘Meet the Press.’ ‘We’re trying to fix it.’

“Democrats believe that public sentiment is on their side and argue that Trump and Republicans will have to come to the negotiating table as people who are enrolled in the program, many of whom live in Republican districts and states, are notified that their rates will increase… ‘All I can tell you is the American people feel very deeply about solving this healthcare crisis,’ Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) said after the Senate rejected a House-passed bill to reopen the government for the fifth time Monday evening. ‘Every poll we have seen shows they want us to do it, and they feel that the Republicans are far more responsible for the shutdown than we are.’

“With leaders at odds, some rank-and-file senators in both parties have been in private talks to try to find a way out of the shutdown. Republican Sen. Mike Rounds of South Dakota has suggested extending the subsidies for a year and then phasing them out. Senate Appropriations Committee Chair Susan Collins (R-Maine) has suggested pushing ahead with bipartisan spending bills that are pending and a commitment to discuss the healthcare issue… But many Democrats say a commitment isn’t good enough, and Republicans say they need deeper reforms — leaving the talks, and the U.S. government, at a standstill.” Particularly since there are a whole lot of Republicans in Congress for whom “fixing the ACA” literally means gutting it out of existence.

I’m Peter Dekom, and there is something deeply disturbing about a Trump-controlled Congress risking the lives of their own constituents to pump unneeded cash into the vaults of the richest in the land with that massive multitrillion dollar, deficit busting tax cut.