Ted Cruz predictably vowed to repeal Obamacare Thursday night despite the fact that millions of Americans have been relying on it for three years now.
Question: Senator Cruz, if you repeal Obamacare, as you say you will, will you be fine if millions of those people don’t have health insurance? And what is your specific plan for covering the uninsured?
Cruz: Sure.
We could stop there ‘cuz that pretty much says it all, but let's do a deep dive, shall we?
Cruz: First of all, we have seen now in six years of Obamacare that it has been a disaster. It is the biggest job-killer in this country. Millions of Americans have lost their jobs, have been forced into part-time work, have lost their health insurance, have lost their doctors, have seen their premiums skyrocket.
Well that's an exercise in magical thinking.
National Journal: Obamacare is Creating Jobs — Yes, Really.
Bloomberg: Obamacare is Spurring Startups and Creating Jobs.
On premiums, yes, some have risen and some have fallen. That doesn't take into account the ability of many people to shop around for lower rates nor does it account for the tax credits for which a majority of Obamacare buyers are eligible. Here's a good explainer.
Cruz: If I’m elected president, we will repeal every word of Obamacare.
Shocker. But remember, he'd still have to get repeal through Congress—where practically everybody, including his GOP colleagues, hates him.
Then comes his big plan for a replacement, which, once again, he'd have to get through a Congress that hate-hate-hates him.
First, he wants to expand competition. Thanks for the fresh thinking, Cruz. Republicans have been saying that for decades.
Problem: "The barriers to entry are not truly regulatory, they are financial." In other words, health insurers aren't doing it because it's not profitable.
In 2012, Ms. [Sabrina] Corlette and co-authors completed a study of a number of states that passed laws to allow out-of-state insurance sales. Not a single out-of-state insurer had taken them up on the offer. As Ms. Corlette’s paper highlighted, there is no federal impediment to across-state-lines arrangements. The main difficulty is that most states want to regulate local products themselves. The Affordable Care Act actually has a few provisions to encourage more regional and national sales of insurance, but they have not proved popular.
Insurers have been muted in their enthusiasm for G.O.P. across-state-lines plans. Neither America’s Health Insurance Plans, the lobbying group for most private insurers, nor the Blue Cross Blue Shield Association have endorsed such a plan when it has come before Congress.
Cruz also wants to keep "government from getting in between us and our doctors."**
(**Except when it involves women's bodies. Then he wants a government free-for-all.)
And finally ...
Cruz: We should work to de-link health insurance from employment so if you lose your job, your health insurance goes with you and it is personal, portable and affordable.
Oh, you mean scrap Obamacare for something more akin to what they have in CANADA. Hmm.