Senate Republicans are about to propose an alternative to Obamacare that involves taking health insurance coverage away from nearly 10 million people, and replacing it with a tax credit.
Video:
On Face The Nation Bill Kristol broke the news,
Senior Republicans senators tomorrow are going to lay out the outlines of legislation, which I think will become real legislation, that would be a conservative alternative to Obamacare. It would deal with the preexisting condition problem. It would have tax credits for the poor. It would get rid of the ridiculous bureaucracy regulation limitations of Obamacare, and I think this will be Senators Coburn, Senator Coburn who’s retiring very well respected, Senator Hatch whose the ranking Republican of the Finance Committee, will become chairman of Senate Finance next year if Republicans win the Senate, and Senator Burr who’s senior on the Health Committee, so this is a serious piece of legislation. It could get pretty across the board support from Republicans. There’s some tweaks in it. There will be some debate among Republicans and conservatives about how generous to be with the subsidies, with the tax credits and so forth, but I really think it will make it harder for the president and Democrats to say that Republicans have no alternative.
Bob Schieffer ask Kristol if this could pass, and Kristol’s response revealed the depths of Republican delusions about Obamacare, “If Republicans win the Senate in November, I think in 2015 you could imagine a Republican Senate and a Republican House passing this. Republican House might even pass it this year, then it’s up to the president whether he wants to abandon Obamacare and sign on to a sensible healthcare reform.”
The plan that Kristol hinted at sounds a lot like John McCain’s healthcare reform plan when he ran for office in 2008. Basically, the Republican plan is gut the ACA’s regulations and requirements that insurance companies have to sell a good product at an affordable price, kill the ACA and replace it with a tax credit.
The practical effect of what Republicans are proposing is to take away access to healthcare from the 3 million plus who have signed up through the exchanges and the 6.3 million people who are eligible for coverage under the Medicaid expansion.
So the Republican plan is to take healthcare away from nearly 10 million Americans, and replace their health insurance with a tax credit. The GOP plan would take away access to healthcare for 20 million Americans, and it will do nothing to cover the uninsured and expand coverage.
Republicans aren’t interested in proposing real healthcare reform. They are trying to score cheap political points by reviving and tweaking the same garbage healthcare proposal they have been pushing for nearly a decade. By proposing a healthcare reform that would take away coverage from millions of people, Republicans are setting themselves up for a major political fall.
In short, the Republican plan to reform healthcare is to make sure that fewer people have health insurance. I can’t wait for them to try and sell this to voters ahead of 2014 election. This is an example of how the Republican Party excels at finding new and different ways to self destruct. Please proceed, Republicans. Please proceed.
Awards and Professional Memberships
Member of the Society of Professional Journalists and The American Political Science Association
- Bernie Sanders To Stay In Top Senate Post To Protect Social Security And Medicare - Fri, Nov 22nd, 2024
- Trump Finds Out The Hard Way That He Won’t Be A Dictator As Matt Gaetz Nomination Implodes - Thu, Nov 21st, 2024
- Trump Is Personally Threatening Republican Senators Who Oppose Matt Gaetz - Thu, Nov 21st, 2024
