Posted on by Californiacontrarian

No CPR on ACA

“We’ve been doing CPR for 45 minutes and there is still no response”, said the intern. “Perhaps a pacemaker would help. Call the cardiologist!” The cardiologist, who had just entered the hospital room, evaluated the patient and responded, “This patient has been chronically ill for years, and now he’s dead. You can’t pace a steak.”

Obamacare has been chronically ill for years and is now in critical condition. Death is near! Democrats still want to try to resuscitate it, even as the costs of the ACA are accelerating in almost logarithmic fashion. A new survey of health insurers found that 43% were planning to propose rate increases greater than 20%, while another 36% were looking at rate increases of 10-20%. The average increase was around 20% even with the assumption that cost-sharing payments would continue. If cost-sharing payments cease (one court has already found them to be not legal), insurance premiums will rise even more. By 2018 Obamacare will be near death, or even dead.

Do not resuscitate!

During the campaign Donald Trump promised to repeal and replace Obamacare, while the Republicans had been vowing to do the same if given the chance. However, I do not recall ever hearing that ‘the repeal’ and ‘the replace’ were promised to be done at the same time. The Democrats pushed through a badly designed health-care law in 2010 without any bipartisan support. They subsequently paid a big price and were slaughtered in the 2012 elections.

Should the Republicans follow the same potential path to slaughter?

 

Republicans, keep your word – Repeal Obamacare . . . effective in 2019, and between now and 2019 work to finalize a ‘replace’ plan. Once Obamacare is dead and buried, encourage cooperation from the other side of the aisle, so that in the end a bipartisan law can be crafted.  If the Democrats don’t want to cooperate, let them pay the price for their recalcitrance in the 2018 election.

Meanwhile a bipartisan group of governors is criticizing the House GOP health bill’s proposed cuts to Medicaid, and is urging bipartisan action to stabilize the insurance market.

Ahh . . . “bipartisan support”!

So here is my proposed solution:

First, as I have already said, Repeal Obamacare now, effective as of January, 2019.

The Republicans should continue discussing the Replacement Plan, and after ACA has been repealed and buried, again invite the Democrats to participate. If the Democrats continue to refuse to contribute to a solution or if a bipartisan group cannot agree on a Replacement during 2017-18, then they will have to explain their positions to the electorate in 2018.

There are those who will argue that with the present far-left (Pelosi and Schumer) and the present far-right (Rand Paul and also the Freedom Caucus), there will never be a bipartisan agreement. My solution to this is to exclude ten Senators and twenty House members from each party from this bipartisan health-care bill discussion. Those Congressmen who represent the extremes in their party as judged by past voting records would be excluded (and told to “shut up!”).

If I could be spared the pain of having to see Pelosi and Schumer regularly on T.V., any compromise would be well worth it!

 

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