Jonathan Cohn finds the Republian criticism this week about the 3% of health insurance policies being cancelled (so that the insured could be enrolled in better policies that comply with the law) very disingenuous, and hypocritical.
With Obamacare, a small number of people lose their current insurance but they end up with alternative, typically stronger coverage. Under the plans Republicans have endorsed, a larger number of people would lose their current insurance, as people migrated to a more volatile and less secure marketplace. Under Obamacare, the number of Americans without health insurance at all will come down, eventually by 30 or 40 million. Under most of the Republican plans, the number of Americans without insurance would rise.
Honest Republicans would justify their policies by arguing that Medicaid is a wasteful, inefficient program not worth keeping—and their changes, overall, would reduce health care spending while maximizing liberty. In other words, forcing people to give up their coverage is worth it. I don’t agree with those arguments, but they are honest. But they should stop pretending that it’s possible to address the problems of American health care without disrupting at least some people’s insurance arrangements—because, after all, they want to do the very same thing.
Jonathan Chait agrees, and thinks this is why there never was any “Replace” bill in the Republicans’ “Repeal and Replace” strategy over the last three years.
Every iteration of an alternative conservative health-care proposal would impose far more disruption on the status quo than would Obamacare. Most conservative plans involve drastically curtailing the tax deduction for employer-based insurance. That would create cancellation notices for many times the number of people currently seeing them. Even the more modest plans to scale back Obama’s regulation of the individual market would run the GOP into a political minefield. Which regulations do they want to strip away? Discrimination against people with preexisting conditions? Discrimination against potentially pregnant women? Mental-health parity? Every single one of those changes creates millions of angry potential victims.
This is exactly why the actual Republican Party health-care plan is not repeal and replace, but repeal and cackle. Republicans are on strong ground exploiting fear of change. They have understood perfectly well that they must avoid having to defend a different set of changes to the status quo. They have kept their various replace ideas safely to the side for exactly that reason.
And if you had any doubt that Republicans, at all levels, are just plain miserable assholes, there is this: Tennessee state Sen. Brian Kelsey (R) presented HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius a copy of Building a Website for Dummies during a state visit, the Memphis Daily News reports.
First Read: “Your party was blamed by most Americans for shutting down the federal government for 16 days, causing economic damage to the country. The last two NBC/WSJ polls taken during and after the shutdown show the same party at all-time lows, and with the American public angrier at Washington than it has ever been. Given this environment, it’s a bit surprising that Senate Republicans decided to go down the filibuster path again on presidential nominees. But they did.”
Time to go nuclear.
POLLING GOODNESS:
VIRGINIA–GOVERNOR–Zogby/Newsmax: Terry McAuliffe (D) 43, Ken Cuccinelli (R) 36, Robert Sarvis (L) 9
VIRGINIA–GOVERNOR–Christopher Newport University Poll: McAuliffe (D) 45, Cuccinelli (R) 38, Sarvis (L) 10
VIRGINIA–GOVERNOR–Emerson College: McAuliffe (D) 42, Cuccinelli (R) 40, Sarvis (L) 13
VIRGINIA–GOVERNOR–Hampton University: McAuliffe (D) 42, Cuccinelli (R) 36, Sarvis (L) 12
VIRGINIA–GOVERNOR–Quinnipiac : McAuliffe (D) 45, Cuccinelli (R) 41, Sarvis (L) 9
VIRGINIA–GOVERNOR–Rasmussen: McAuliffe (D) 43, Cuccinelli (R) 36, Sarvis (L) 12
VIRGINIA–GOVERNOR–Roanoke College: McAuliffe (D) 46, Cuccinelli 31, Sarvis (L) 9
MINNESOTA–US SENATE–Public Policy Polling: Sen. Al Franken (D) 49, Chris Dahlberg (R) 39, Franken (D) 49, Mike McFadden (R) 38, Franken (D) 50, Jim Abeler (R) 39, Franken (D) 49, Monti Moreno (R) 36.
SOUTH CAROLINA–US SENATE–Winthrop: Sen. Lindsey Graham (R)’s approval rating has collapsed among Republicans, going from 72% in February to just 45% today among Republicans and those independents who lean toward the GOP. Among all registered voters, his approval rating is just 37%. Doom. So who is the Dem running to take advantage of this one Graham gets O’Donnell-ed.
SOUTH CAROLINA–US SENATE–Harper Polling: Not so fast. While this poll confirms Graham’s 37% overall approval rating, it finds he still holds a commanding lead in a GOP primary, with 51% of the vote, just above the threshold he’d need to avoid a runoff against the second-place finisher. His closest competition is Lee Bright (R), who pulls in just 15%.
WISCONSIN–GOVERNOR–Marquette Law School: Gov. Scott Walker (R) 47, Mary Burke (D) 45, Walker (R) 47, Kathleen Vinehout (D) 44, Walker (R) 48, Peter Barca (D) 42
SOUTH CAROLINA–GOVERNOR–Harper Polling: Gov. Nikki Haley (R) 48, Vincent Sheheen (D) 39.