The Republicans are wrong again about the Affordable Care Act
By Roger Caldwell
As President Obama takes his victory lap for enrolling 7.1 million Americans with the Affordable Care Act (ACA), the Republicans are demoralized and angry. With the horrendous roll out, and the initial problems with the operating systems with the computer networks, the Republicans had written off the system as a complete failure. They expected the citizens to believe their fabricated tall tales, even though there were millions of Americans who needed health insurance.
The Republicans spent all their time trying to repeal a federal law, that was found constitutional by the Supreme Court, and would benefit and transform the health care system in the country. By allowing young people to sign up on their parents’ health insurance, there were millions of young folks who would have insurance while they were in college and others with a part-time job. With this new law the insurance companies would be forced to give Americans with pre-existing conditions a policy, and not refuse them coverage.
Instead of the Republicans acknowledging that there were certain components of the law beneficial to all Americans, their position was to scrap and repeal the entire law. Their position never made any sense, because it was better to improve a tangible law, than have nothing to work with. As the Republicans continued to berate and try to destroy the ACA, millions of Americans begin to sign up, and register for the programs.
In states where the governors tried to curtail and limit access to insurance policies, there were still hundreds of thousands of residents who still signed up for the ACA on the federal marketplace. Even when governors promoted negative talking points about Obamacare, the residents still signed up.
Most pundits and probably many in the president’s administration did not expect the ACA to hit its targeted projection of seven million by the closing sign up date. At the end of February there were only 4.2 million citizens enrolled in the ACA. By March the 27th there were six million signed up and the last day was the 31st. Through sheer resolve, and special blessings, the president was able to enroll 7.1 million to make the ACA a success.
The president surprised everyone and now the Republicans will have to eat distasteful crow, or humble pie. The Republicans are speechless and whatever they say will sound dumb and stupid. This will be very difficult for the Republicans to swallow, and Obama is ecstatic.
The first statement we can expect from the Republicans is that the numbers are wrong, and they cannot trust the president’s calculations. The next excuse they can use is that 20 percent of the residents’ signing up has not paid their monthly premiums; therefore they are not official members of the ACA. The Republicans will spend weeks finding all the reasons Obama is wrong, instead of saying congratulations and great job.
As the Republicans struggle with being wrong again, it is time for Democrats to cash in on the success of the ACA. The Democrats must embrace the credibility and transformational vision of the president. The ACA is just the beginning of fixing a broken healthcare system, which is too expensive, dysfunctional, and does not work in the best interest of its customers.
In the wealthiest country on the planet, every citizen should have access to the best health care system in the world. If other countries can give their citizens free healthcare, there is no reason the United States cannot figure out how to care for all the people in the country. It makes no sense for the two parties to sit around and sabotage each other, instead of working together to improve the quality of healthcare for all Americans.
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