Is Obamacare A ‘Once-In-A-Generation Opportunity’ For Democrats In Red States?

[pampango]

What happens when voters in Alabama discover that they won’t get the same subsidized insurance as their cousins in Kentucky because elected Republicans have decided it wasn’t a good idea? What happens when voters in Georgia recognize that they’re still paying for Medicaid expansion but will get none of the savings that could come from covering the uninsured? What happens when South Carolinians hear their Tea Party has singlehandedly stopped tens of millions of health care dollars from being flushed into their economy?

Despite polls showing Obamacare still about as unpopular as it was when it was passed, this unprecedented moment is fueling optimism in Democratic activists who see “a once-in-a-generation opportunity” in the at least 24 states where Medicaid will not be expanded. Hopes are up because of new polling that shows expansion is very popular, even in the reddest states in the Union:



This new wave of optimism about the Affordable Care Act is buoyed by good news from California about rates and the feeling that Republicans’ constant predictions of disaster have lowered voters’ expectations to the point that anything short of “Armageddon” will be a relief.

The New York Times‘ Paul Krugman summarized that positive outlook from the left on Obamacare like this:

Still, here’s what it seems is about to happen: millions of Americans will suddenly gain health coverage, and millions more will feel much more secure knowing that such coverage is available if they lose their jobs or suffer other misfortunes. Only a relative handful of people will be hurt at all. And as contrasts emerge between the experience of states like California that are making the most of the new policy and that of states like Texas whose politicians are doing their best to undermine it, the sheer meanspiritedness of the Obamacare opponents will become ever more obvious.

http://www.nationalmemo.com/is-obamacare-a-once-in-a-generation-opportunity-for-democrats-in-red-states/

[railsback]

1. That's always been the underlying conclusion

that when Obamacare kicks in and millions start experiencing the benefits, the GOP will be toast, especially after having tried to repeal it like a million times.

[geek tragedy]

3. Those people enjoying its benefits will wind up supporting it.

But, people in the old slave states won't get to, since there's exactly 0.0% chance of a Democrat getting elected governor in Texas or Alabama or South Carolina.

[geek tragedy]

2. That presumes rational voter behavior predicated upon policy preferences

instead of partisan and ethnic/racial identity politics.

White people in those five states tend to vote Republican because the Republican party is a white nationalist party. Policy is not a consideration as much as "vote for the opposite of whoever black people are voting for."

[Nay]

4. IMHO, Democrats overestimate the impact of facts on Republicans. Pubs who benefit from

ACA will not turn into Dems; by any and all rationalizations they will:

1) refuse to acknowledge that the ACA has helped them at all, even if it has, or

2) trumpet that their Republican representatives have brought them the benefit.


Remember all the idiots who held up signs saying "Keep Govt hands off my Medicare"? They're still out there and they are legion.

[Dawson Leery]

5. We do know that the Rethug base will continue to villify

Obamacare (ACA) while enjoying the benefits of the program.

[madville]

6. Pre-existing conditions people will benefit

Insurance that pays and 60%, 70%, 80%, caps annual out of pocket expenses at several thousand dollars, and has reasonable premiums around a few hundred bucks a month will be awesome for them. Healthy people, not so much.