Obamacare: My two cents

By Jon Ray @ Dissecting Leftism

 GOP congressmen are presently divided into two: One lot who want Obamacare completely repealed because of its huge costs and  reduction in access to health care for many.  The other lot fear that if they change too much they might lose the votes of those who currently benefit from Obamacare.  So the abolitionists won't vote for the wishy-washy Ryancare and the nervous nellies won't vote for abolition.  It looks like a stalemate.

But I think there may be a way out:  Vote for Obamacare to cease as of the end of this year and in the meanwhile work on one of the many replacements that have been proposed -- so that a new system begins when Obamacare finally expires.

Hope that a brand-new system might not sacrifice GOP votes lies in both the huge costs of Obamacare and the fact that  most people who have enrolled in health insurance for the first time have done so via the expanded access to Medicare and Medicaid that Obamacare enabled.  So follow up on that by taking the savings from an abolished Obamacare and putting them into expanded Medicare and Medicaid programs.

Long before Obama, America had extensive provisions to get healthcare to the poor and the old so Obamacare was to some extent a solution in search of a problem.  Where there was a problem was that many middle income families could not easily afford health insurance and got no government help with that.  But expanded eligibility for Medicaid should fix most of that problem -- leaving only those who are really well-off to pay their own way.

I can't see many lost votes under those circumstances. There must of course be a limit to another expansion of Medicaid so my proposal for that would be to limit it to what was saved by abolishing the Obamacare octopus.  Whole Obamacare agencies could go.

My proposal is of course nowhere near ideal but something like it may at the moment be the only way of lifting the many Obamacare burdens.  Obamacare gave healthcare to some while taking it away from others.  My proposal should genuinely expand access to healthcare.