...of GOP lawmakers' stance on health care. A fair number of them are on the record as wanting the market to determine health care access.
Remember too that Republicans, with help from some Democrats, tightened rules for declaring bankruptcy, and this when medical costs are the most common reason for the aforementioned.
Finally, do not forget that Mitch McConnell's office went after a family that made use of the SCHIP program (health coverage for children whose families make too much for qualify for Medicaid).
[url]http://www.nytimes.com/2007/10/12/opinion/12krugman.html?_r=0[/url]
Two weeks ago, the Democratic response to President Bush’s weekly radio address was delivered by a 12-year-old, Graeme Frost. Graeme, who along with his sister received severe brain injuries in a 2004 car crash and continues to need physical therapy, is a beneficiary of the State Children’s Health Insurance Program. Mr. Bush has vetoed a bipartisan bill that would have expanded that program to cover millions of children who would otherwise have been uninsured.
(SNIP)
Graeme Frost, then, is exactly the kind of child the program is intended to help. But that didn’t stop the right from mounting an all-out smear campaign against him and his family.
Soon after the radio address, right-wing bloggers began insisting that the Frosts must be affluent because Graeme and his sister attend private schools (they’re on scholarship), because they have a house in a neighborhood where some houses are now expensive (the Frosts bought their house for $55,000 in 1990 when the neighborhood was rundown and considered dangerous) and because Mr. Frost owns a business (it was dissolved in 1999).
(SNIP)
And G.O.P. politicians were eager to join in the smear. The New York Times reported that Republicans in Congress “were gearing up to use Graeme as evidence that Democrats have overexpanded the health program to include families wealthy enough to afford private insurance” but had “backed off” as the case fell apart.
The specifics about McConnell's office are at the link.
In short, we already know what today's GOP thinks and indeed does when it comes to expanding affordable coverage, or showing mercy to those who are crushed by the system. Remember what Paul Ryan proposed regarding Medicare. Remember that many GOP-controlled states aren't expanding Medicaid under the Affordable Care Act.
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