I'm no big fan of Obamacare, but I cannot fathom why Paul Ryan and the Republicans have not spent the past few years crafting a real policy alternative to to roll out when the opportunity arose. What a waste of a golden opportunity. Seems like political malpractice to me.
To do that there would have to be some sort of consensus on what kind of a policy they favor. Until now the Republicans have been unified in being against Obamacare, because it's easy to be against something. But there are at least three competing factions in the GOP at the moment: the traditional GOP, the Tea Partiers, and now, the Trumpies. I have little hope that those diverse groups can come up with anything that will gain enough votes to pass. And, if they should stumble upon some sort of a bill, I suspect it will be so awful that it will do unto the GOP what Obamacare did unto the Democrats.
It's hilarious that the shit bill they rolled out isn't quite cruel enough to poor people, so the tea baggers don't like it. Hilarious...
You can't fathom it? It's simple. Obamacare has been the Republican plan since Nixon. It was Bob Dole's response to Hillarycare and Mitt Romney passed it on a state level in MA. They have no alternative because THEIR PLAN is already in place... You gotta laugh to keep from crying about this shit....
When did the opportunity arise? Trump was not expected to win the presidency and a President Clinton would have probably 86'd anything they tried to do.
BTW, the widespread insurance policy increases due to Obamacare the month prior to the election probably swung the final momentum to Trump.
Is healthcare a right or a privilege? Is it in our national interest to have a healthy populous? How do we provide the greatest level of healthcare to the average citizen? If we as a country are considered the greatest country on earth, are we providing the greatest healthcare to our citizens? These are only some of the questions that need to be discussed as a nation concerning healthcare. Instead politicians are arguing over insurance. Neither political party is approaching healthcare correctly.
Another thing you have to remember is that the Republicans had absolutely no expectation that Trump would actually win the presidency. They figured they had at least four more years of being against Obamacare under Hillary, watching it crumble due to the original crappy planning the Dems did in writing the bill and the obstructionism of the GOP to avoid fixing it. I imagine that the second thought on election night, after getting excited that Trump was winning was, oh shit, now we're going to have to do something.
IMO, there should be a subsidized government funded healthcare plan paid for by a GST (basically a national sales tax). So everyone pays for it. This will only cover very basic things like life or death shit, basic routine checkups tests, then have additional policies that one can buy that can cover stuff like transexual surgery or whatever the fuck you wanna do.
This^! Geez! if they could only step back see the forest of how government has messed up healthcare over the years. Fix that, and leave the business of insurance to people that know how to provide a service to the public. It's the fees for healthcare that have been distorted all to hell by about 60 years of government interference. They can't fix that by also interfering with insurance. Especially since the insurance market is a minor portion of the population.
Women on Medicaid are more likely to be low income and have harder time finding employment, childcare, etc. So instead of taking care of the infant, as soon as they are delivered they have to start job hunting. Pro life. Family values.
Breitbart are calling it Ryancare now. It's like a competition to see who can throw each other under the bus
im starting to think we need to end up like denmark. just pay 60% income tax and let the government give us everything. fuck it. they are happy right? i gave it about a 1% chance trump would actually change the government for the better and 99% chance it would remain status quo fuck the people. but that 1% was still better than hitlery's 0. i fucking hate this country so much
We don't even have close to the best healthcare there are 37 countries ahead of us at least. Greed is destroying this country
For 6 of the past 7 years, Republicans had no idea that Trump was going to be their nominee in 2016. They surely believed they had a chance to win back the White House in 2012 and, certainly, in 2016. The reason they haven't crafted a policy alternative is because what they want (reductions in subsidies for the poor, removal of regulations like requiring coverage for people with pre-existing conditions and large tax cuts for the rich) are fundamentally unpopular...even with Republican voters. While they were the minority party, they could pretend that it was possible to deliver the things people liked with lower/no costs. Since that's not actually possible, they either have to cut the things people like (politically suicidal) or else pay for them somehow (good way to get primaried, if you're a Republican).
Very interesting article about the drug Aduhelm's controversial FDA approval for treating Alzheimer's. There are a lot of things broken with our healthcare system, why not another! The Drug That Could Break American Health Care
Obama care came out of a Republican Think Tank, the Heritage Foundation. If a Republican had rolled it out they would have been ecstatic about it, but since it was a Democrat, and worse yet a Black Democrat, they hate it. Pin heads, virtually the entire Republican party, pin heads.
