Greg Sargent has a piece that recommends that the GOP work to reform ObamaCare as it isn't going anywhere.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/plum-line/wp/2013/05/27/obamacare-isnt-going-away-so-republicans-should-work-toward-reform/
Of course, the reason why they can't bring themselves to do this is not because it will be a debacle but because it won't. Sargent provides the answer himself why they won't do this:
"But, at this point, repeal is unlikely. With President Obama’s reelection, we crossed a point of no return. States have already begun to implement major provisions of the Affordable Care Act, and governors of all stripes — including conservatives like Arizona’s Jan Brewer — are pressuring their legislatures to sign on to the program. Within a year, large numbers of Americans will begin to see concrete benefits from the law, giving them reason to support the system as a whole."
"Even if a Republican wins the White House in 2016, the Affordable Care Act is likely to survive, for the simple reason that people don’t like to lose benefits. Republicans will have to accept Obamacare as part of the political landscape and move on."
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/plum-line/wp/2013/05/27/obamacare-isnt-going-away-so-republicans-should-work-toward-reform/
Of course, the reason why they can't bring themselves to do this is not because it will be a debacle but because it won't. Sargent provides the answer himself why they won't do this:
"But, at this point, repeal is unlikely. With President Obama’s reelection, we crossed a point of no return. States have already begun to implement major provisions of the Affordable Care Act, and governors of all stripes — including conservatives like Arizona’s Jan Brewer — are pressuring their legislatures to sign on to the program. Within a year, large numbers of Americans will begin to see concrete benefits from the law, giving them reason to support the system as a whole."
"Even if a Republican wins the White House in 2016, the Affordable Care Act is likely to survive, for the simple reason that people don’t like to lose benefits. Republicans will have to accept Obamacare as part of the political landscape and move on."
At some point in the future, GOPers will no longer ever publicly say anything with the words repeal and ObamaCare in the same sentence. Then they will be trying gamely to fix ObamaCare.
Much was made by the Republicans' when Max Baucus warned that if implemented wrong ACA would be a "train wreck."
Preliminary news from blue states which have already implemented big parts of ACA are a train wreck, all right, for the GOP.
"We won’t really know how Obamacare works until it has been in operation for a while; but we do know that essentially the same system has been running in Massachusetts since 2006, and is doing pretty well. The question, then, is whether other states that don’t have MA’s initial advantages — especially an already low uninsurance rate and an already operating system of community rating — can make this thing work. The big fear has been of sharply rising premiums as insurers are required to cover people with preexisting conditions. And the biggest test case was always going to be California."
"Well, the preliminary numbers for CA are in — and they’re looking very good, with costs coming in below expectations. At this point, it looks as if this thing is indeed going to work."
"And think about the political dynamics. Because the Supreme Court decided to let states opt out of the Medicaid expansion, some states — notably Texas — will have a pretty dysfunctional version of Obamacare in 2014, although even those systems will provide significant benefits to many people. Still, the whole political calculus was supposed to be that Republicans in red states could point to the horrors of Obamacare and ride them to political victory. Instead, it looks as if we’re going to see blue-state residents reaping the benefits of a functional health care system, while red-state residents are denied many of those benefits, for what looks like no better reason than mean-spirited spite — because what’s going on is, indeed, mean-spirited spite."
These red states which refuse to expand Medicaid are going to end up being the control group on what economics gets so little of-a genuine natural experiment.
Jan Brewer, is one red state governor in no rush to be part of the control group. Her party controls the state's legislature but she has put them on notice that they need to do the Medicaid expansion or she'll veto everything they send her-she's already backed that up.
Arizona's Republican Gov. Jan Brewer is stepping up her pressure on the GOP-led legislature to expand Medicaid by declaring a moratorium on legislating until they give in.
Brewer vetoed five unrelated bills on Thursday, according to the Arizona Republic, and threatened to keep blocking legislation until Republicans expand Medicaid to cover thousands of Arizonans, which Obamacare permits at minimal cost to the state.
"I warned that I would not sign additional measures into law until we see resolution of the two most pressing issues facing us: adoption of a fiscal 2014 state budget and plan for Medicaid," Brewer wrote in a statement explaining her decision. "It is disappointing I must demonstrate the moratorium was not an idle threat."
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