The Republican Obamacare repeal plan comes into terrifying focus

[Judi Lynn]

The Republican Obamacare repeal plan comes into terrifying focus

By Paul Waldman

December 12 at 12:59 PM





( Somodevilla/Getty Images)

There has been a lot of uncertainty about how Republicans are going to follow through on their long-held goal of repealing the Affordable Care Act, and in a press conference today, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell offered a little more clarity — with some frightening implications for Americans’ health care.

The press conference was a little bit confusing because McConnell kept using the term “replacement” when it was pretty plain that what he actually meant was “repeal”; for instance, he said, “We’ll move first with the Obamacare replacement resolution and then we will come with what the replacement actually will be.” But after saying that a few times, the message got across: Repealing and replacing are going to be separate, and repeal will happen immediately in January. In other words, the Republican Congress is going to toss millions of Americans off a cliff, then shout down to them, “Don’t worry, we’ll get you some kind of parachute before you hit the ground! Probably!”

Why are they doing it this way? The best explanation is that after voting to repeal the law 60 times, the pressure from their base to immediately thrust a dagger into Obamacare’s heart is just too great. As Rep. Mark Walker said: “Literally every Republican member has made this part of their platform in running for Congress.” They know well the wrath of the conservative base, and they don’t want to incur it. Nothing would show their spinelessness more than failing to repeal the hated Obamacare when they have both houses of Congress and the White House in their possession.

Yet almost seven years after the law was passed, they still can’t agree on a replacement, and there’s also a growing realization that repeal is going to cause an absolute hurricane of disruption across the American health care system. I want to focus on three big groups of Americans, to demonstrate the fire Republicans are playing with when they talk about repealing the ACA:

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[kimbutgar]

1. There will be no replacement and millions of people will die needless deaths

And the rethug party will have blood on their hands.

[global1]

2. In My Opinion What They Are Trying To Achieve Is To Take Obama's Name Off This Act.....

they don't want the ACA to be part of his legacy.

Once they repeal ACA (aka Obamacare) my thinking is that their replacement will be very close to the ACA with maybe some minor tweaks (most suggested by the Dems since ACA passed) and that it will have a new name - much more to their liking.

We'll probably wind up with Trumpcare; Ryancare or McConnellcare or some reasonable facsimile.

Any thoughts on this?

[zipplewrath]

4. Very similar

They'll probably find a way to claim they got rid of the mandate. And they're going to allow some things like multi-state plans. I strongly suspect they'll do something with Medicaid to make it appear that they "improved" it so that the GOP governors can implement it. But it will be hard to for them to do much without either pissing a lot of people off, or massively impacting the cost to the federal government. The biggest achievement by almost any measure was that the ACA save the federal government ALOT of money. They are the biggest purchaser of healthcare by far and they were able to vastly improve their costs through the ACA. It will be hard for the GOP to change very much and still achieve that.

[zipplewrath]

3. Repeal when?

I suspect that they'll do some sort of repeal that gives them time to implement the replacement. Either they'll make the termination contingent on the passage of something else, or they'll give themselves a couple of years, and they can always extend it if they need to.