Do you know why the people who hate Obamacare hate Obamacare?
Have you ever thought about the reasons why the bill inspired so much vitriol on hate radio? So much anger in the tpotty rallies?
The objections to Obamacare boil down to three areas: selfish, greedy, racist.
The racist one is the easiest one. People freaking out over the black president did not want him to have any legislative victories that might win him a second term. Republicons who have been upset for 50 years about LBJ passing Medicare and Medicaid did not want the uppity young Harvard man with the terrorist sounding name to go down in history for accomplishing something that six Democratic presidents before him could not manage to do.
If Romney had run in 2008 and been elected President, they would have passed Romneycare and bragged about getting healthcare done ahead of the Democrats. But the black president had to be stopped. It was just too upsetting for their base to get their minds around changing times and their looming future minority status, and the only thing that would assuage their AWM fears would be to make Obama look incompetent (it infuriated them that he wasn’t) and make him and his legislative agenda go down to defeat.
But it didn’t work out that way. Somehow, with a lot of wheeling and dealing, during the very tiny window while we had 60 people in the Senate caucus, the BFD got passed.
So Rcons decided to do what they could to throw a wrench into the works. All their efforts went into the state level, pushing Rcon governors to opt out of the exchanges and throw a wrench into the works, and reverse lobbying by powerful forces who also wanted Ocare to fail.
THAT is why people who wanted to keep their plan couldn’t keep it! THAT is why people who wanted to keep their doctor couldn’t do that either. Not because of anything contained in Obamacare itself, but because of sabotage efforts by individual doctors and behemoth insurance companies, who then in true Rcon fashion blamed Democrats for what they themselves had done.
But why did the insurance companies object to Obamacare?
Shouldn’t they have been thrilled at a law that made health insurance mandatory?
This is where the greedy part comes in.
If you saw the movie SiCKO, you discovered how terrible health insurance coverage was for millions of people in 2007.
Insurance companies had a sweet deal going. They took your money as long as you were healthy and didn’t need any services, but as soon as you needed anything more than a routine doctor’s appointment they found ways to deny care and refuse coverage, and after it was over they could drop you altogether for having a pre-existing condition.
If you have not seen SiCKO, please do. Here is one of many places where the entire documentary is available on line for free.
That movie was the first time a lot of people (including a lot of health care professionals) realized the extent to which the health care system wasn’t working and heard the stories of folks who were falling through the cracks.
We all got to see how the insurance companies automatically refused care on a routine mass denial basis just to see who would jump through enough hoops to get coverage.
We got to hear from workers for those companies whose conscience couldn’t bear what they were doing any more.
And we got to see how it works in Canada and France and Great Britain and even in Cuba and we started to wonder why we couldn’t have nice things.
So insurance companies hate Obamacare because they want to go back to the days when they could sell junk policies that didn’t cover anything and spend as little on patient care as possible.
Sadly, the Republican party successfully managed to sell that same idea to the deplorables.
Got them to blame Barack Obama for the fact that the insurance companies threw a temper tantrum about having to spend 80% of the money they took in in premiums on patient care. Before they could take in as much as they wanted and pay out as little as they could get away with. Having to spend 80% of the money on actually providing the service people thought they were selling was too onerous a burden for them!
And the Rcons got the average Joe to blame Barack Obama for the fact that insurance companies couldn’t sell you a Grade Z policy for “pennies a day” anymore, and had to offer plans that actually covered most of the ordinary medical needs of life. But ah have to pay more now! Yes, and you GET more. But millions of folks said I’d rather pay less and get less, or I’d rather pay less and get nothing, because that’s what hateradio and Fakes News told them t repeat at the water cooler.
Millions said they didn’t want a subsidy because Reagan told them socialized medicine was worse than welfare.
And millions more decided I’d rather pay a penalty and go without health insurance altogether because I’m young and invincible and I haven’t been sick yet and free dumb!
The selfish part is that for some of these folks, right up to inauguration day, they imagined that repealing Obamacare was going to hurt someone else. Those lazy folks who just want a handout from the government. Those “urban” folks who live off hardworkin’ taxpayers money. Why should I have to pay for their healthcare? Why should I have to pay for Sandra Fluke to have birth control? We are hearing it the last few days with various middle aged AWM asking why they should have to have a plan that covers maternity benefits.
Me me me me me has been their watchword and everything that doesn’t directly benefit ME is BAD and I want it REPEALED because FREE DUMB!!!11!one!
But then dawn broke over Marblehead and somehow people were exposed to just enough truth to realize they had been had.
The very same people who voted for DJT because they wanted to get rid of Obamacare suddenly purchased a clue as it finally, finally, sunk in that they themselves were going to lose benefits because of the repeal. Not the “scary brown people”, not the “lazy black people”, but “real ‘Murricans”.
They found out that the disabled vet down the street is on Medicaid.
They found out that almost half the people on Medicaid are children.
They found out that some elderly in nursing homes were using Medicaid after their Medicare benefits run out.
They discovered that Medicare benefits for nursing home care can run out!
They found out that the health plans with different names like FamilyCare and SoonerCare and BadgerCare were actually part of Medicaid.
They found out that insurance plans with different names like Kynect and NSure and BeWell were actually part of Obamacare.
We have seen an amazing Big Yellow Taxi moment happen in the heartland over the last two months.
Some of the very people who complained the loudest and voted for DJT as recently as November are now screaming at town halls, writing letters to the editor, breaking the Capitol switchboard, mailing postcards and getting involved because suddenly something they have and need might be taken away from them.
After 60 repeal votes when nothing was at stake, Rcons tomorrow will have a vote that counts.
It will be the first test of whether DJT has more power than the angry constituents do.
And even if it passes the House, there is a tougher row to hoe in the Senate.
The NYT is even reporting that DJT is upset that he didn’t try to do something easier like tax reform ahead of Ocare repeal.
Sorry, bud, YOU were the one who thought it was going to be easy! YOU were the guy who promised it on Day One! You were the one salivating over how easy you thought it would be with an R House and an R Senate.
It’s Rcons fighting with each other that is causing problems with this bill. Dems are following the Sun Tzu adage of not interfering with the enemy when he is in the process of destroying himself. So if they don’t reach a peace that’s all right. It’s a win win for the Blue Team regardless.
Either they repeal Obamacare tomorrow and have to go back to the district on Easter break and listen to weeping constituents afraid that they or their loved ones will die for lack of coverage, and conservatives on the other hand up in arms claiming the AHCA doesn’t go far enough.
Or they don’t repeal it, and DJT’s first legislative action gets a big fat L pasted on his forehead, and the conservatives (!!!) are still up in arms saying “You ran on this for seven years and voted for it 60 times when it didn’t count but couldn’t do it when it did count?”
I hope they slap DJT in the face with a wet noodle tomorrow.
The best thing about it would be that he would immediately start putting all the blame on the zombie eyed granny starver.
Because if the point were to help people, they would work on a bipartisan plan to fix what is wrong with Ocare. They would just plug up the holes and end their sabotage and encourage the reluctant R governors to get their states into the exchanges and stop letting insurance company temper tantrums affect whether coverage is offered or not. Aetna pulled out of coverage areas because they were upset that their merger was denied, not because they were losing money. Congress could fix that if the idea was to fix Ocare instead of destroy it.
But that would be a step toward Medicare for All, and Ronald Reagan told them they couldn’t have that.
And it would be a win in the history books for the first Black President, and they definitely can’t have that either.
Previous TRUE BLUE REPORT diaries
Mar 22: Neil Gorsuch’s attempt to seem wide-eyed and innocent makes him look even worse
Mar 21: Using Trump as a bad example—no Trump Sleep, Trump Food or other Trump habits
Mar 20: Is DJT a compulsive liar, or out of touch with reality? Five scenarios...
Mar 19: A budget is a moral document—a statement of public compassion
Mar 18: Ribbons: CBO scorers, Senate Intelligence Committee, Judge Derrick Watson
Mar 17: They know DJT is lying. Here’s one sad reason they follow him anyway.
Mar 16: Mick Mulvaney's ignorant, callous, evil, Republicon definition of compassion
Mar 15: Message Discipline 101—Pushback against Rcon talking points re DJT 2005 tax return
Mar 14: Message Discipline 101—Pushback against Rcon talking points about Obamacare repeal
Mar 13: Culture, Civilization, Rural America, Working Families—the missing word is a “tell”
Mar 12: The Rcon definition of Christians is as wrong as the Rcon definition of Democrats.
Mar 11: Ribbons: A Day Without a Woman, Native Nations Rise, Voting Rights Act still lives
Mar 10: How to talk to people who have trouble understanding actions have consequences
Mar 9: Where’s the fire? The real reason Rs are trying to rush TrumpCare through Congress
Mar 8: Message Discipline 101: TrumpCare, RyanCare, GOPCare, DonTCare—what’s in a name?
Mar 7: How very hard it is for a woman to go a day without paid (or unpaid) work
Mar 6: Can DJT really be stumbling into the exact investigation we want?
Mar 5: How is it even possible that deplorables see a man of faith when they look at DJT?
Mar 4: Blue Ribbon Winners—Chris Hayes, Malcolm Nance, Cierra Fields
Mar 3: I’m glad Bannon, Conway, Carson, Sessions, Miller, et al. are in the DJT Administration
Mar 2: “In every major fire it always starts with smoke. And smoke is what kills you.”
Mar 1: Am I the only one whose skin crawled at the Carryn Owens BIRGing moment?
FEBRUARY
Feb 28: Spinspotting 101: Special Prosecutor for what? It’s so easy to answer that question
Feb 27: Spinspotting 101: I’ve seen no evidence because I haven’t looked for any evidence!
Feb 26: If Neil Gorsuch were a man of integrity, he would decline the S.Ct. appointment
Feb 25: True Blue Ribbons: Russia Flag trolling, Dixie Swastika grabbing, District Days demonstrating
Feb 24: There is no such thing as a compassionate conservative
Feb 23: Chief of Staff, Nat’l Security Advisor, GOP Head, President Bannon—too many hats!
Feb 22: DJT has a few questions for you—SMURF THIS POLL!
Feb 21: The end of “access journalism” means it’s time to #sendtheinterns
Feb 20: KAC lying low for now… can we banish her (and all her ilk) from the airwaves completely?
Feb 19: DeVos cartoon, Ruby Bridges, unearned unhappiness and childlike faith
Feb 18: Blue Ribbon Winners—Vice Adm. Harward, Melissa McCarthy, and intel whistleblowers
Feb 17: And Ain’t I an American?
Feb 16: Please tell your family and friends—If you regret your DJT vote, speak up NOW
Feb 15: R-supported forced childbirth laws deny the autonomy of women
Feb 14: What did the president know? Everything. When did he know it? From the beginning.
Feb 13: Coping with The Madness of King Donald by hoping political comedy will save us
Feb 12: The Poverty and Justice Bible
Feb 11: Blue Ribbon Winners—Swastika removers, Ninth Circuit Panel, and the Persisterhood!
Feb 10: The first three words of the Constitution are “We, the People” not “I, the President”
Feb 9: Who first inspired your political activism? Who inspires you now?
Feb 8: We cannot and will not be silenced—Here’s what to do if they try to silence you
Feb 7: Plain Talk Tuesday: Tell people the Affordable Care Act is the same as OBAMACARE
Feb 6: Interview Skills 101—Internalized oppression and what Ryan Lizza did right. BRAVO!
Feb 5: These protest signs with Bible cites will confuse and befuddle RWNJs
Feb 4: Blue Ribbon Winners—Temple B’Nai Israel, Judge Robart, CNN, Senate Phone Callers
Feb 3: Not rich, not smart, not a good businessman, not a winner—DJT is NOTHING he claims to be
Feb 2: Thursday action—Encouragement, thanks, and apologies (pick one or more)
Feb 1: July 7, 2009 to August 25, 2009 and September 25, 2009 to February 4, 2010
JANUARY
Jan 31: If you’re on overload that’s part of their plan—there’s more than one way to #resist
Jan 30: Interview Skills 101 for reporters attempting to interview KAC and other Rcons
Jan 29: Blessed are they who hunger and thirst after righteousness
Jan 28: Blue Ribbon Winners—Women's March participants and #NoMuslimBan demonstrators and...
Jan 27: I wish Steve Bannon would tell me to keep my mouth shut
Jan 26: Thursday Action—Have you ever written a letter to the editor? Here’s how to start
Jan 25: The Asch Conformity Study, inauguration crowds, and the importance of speaking out
Jan 24: #ResistTrumpTuesday—good news day or another paying dues day?
Jan 23: Spy the Lie 101: How to enjoy watching Rcon spokesbot interviews, even KAC!
Jan 22: Why I prayed for the President* today
Jan 21: The only silver lining in the midst of these clouds
Inaugural (!) diary: Stop expecting Republicons to make sense
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