Hating Obama, loving Obamacare [View all]

[cpwm17]

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/plum-line/wp/2014/09/17/morning-plum-hating-obama-loving-obamacare/

When the political history of the Affordable Care Act is written, Kentucky will occupy a special place in the tale. The implementation of the ACA there has helped produce the second steepest drop in the uninsured rate of any state. Yet even though that’s occurring in one of the most unhealthy regions in the country, the general idea of “Obamacare” remains deeply unpopular.

The New York Times has a great piece this morning looking at this disconnect. Reporter Abby Goodnough talks to Robin Evans, a Republican warehouse packer who signed up for Medicaid under the ACA. She loves her new coverage, but really dislikes the guy who signed the law creating it:

“I’m tickled to death with it,” Ms. Evans, 49, said of her new coverage as she walked around the Kentucky State Fair recently with her daughter, who also qualified for Medicaid under the law. “It’s helped me out a bunch.”

But Ms. Evans scowled at the mention of President Obama — “Nobody don’t care for nobody no more, and I think he’s got a lot to do with that,” she explained — and said she would vote for Senator Mitch McConnell…who is fond of saying the health care law should be “pulled out root and branch.”

Different people have their own reasons for voting Republican despite their benefiting from the ACA, such as: they've always voted Republican, there's not much difference between the parties, they have a fetish for rich people, etc. But it still doesn't look like the ACA is ever going away, (unless it's improved or it is replaced by a better system) because people generally prefer Democratic policies put into practice.