Thoughts on Health Care

I’ve been giving some thought to the defeat of the GOP plan to overturn the Affordable Care Act.   And it is interesting – I am most definitely happy that that effort failed in the House this week.   But I don’t really feel a sense of joy, rather relief for now.  Because the defeat really happened for an odd reason – some portions of the bill were so malicious – pulling the requirements for coverage of pre-natal care, emergency care, penalizing customers a 30% premium for switching insurance companies - among others – that certain congressional Republicans could not stomach voting for the bill.  But as widely noted, the Republican “Freedom Caucus” thought it didn’t pull enough benefits.  Think about that for a moment.   A sizable chunk of these guys didn’t think it went far enough.  Had they thought “we’ll take this and fight for more repeals on the next major bill that needs to pass” then the country would be on the path to deconstructing the ACA, which helps tens of millions of people.    So that’s still a little scary.

Oddly enough I would guess – it’s hard to know – but I would venture to agree with the speculation that Trump doesn’t want to deal with health care anymore and wants to move on.  My hope anyway is that Trump is of the mindset of “I gave you your chance and you blew it, so I’m moving onto stuff that I care about.”  In that sense to me that there’s a good shot Obamacare lasts through the midterm elections.  As it should.

Keep speaking out on what's important.  Sometimes it makes a difference.