Call me naïve, but I fully expected that after seven years of threatening to repeal and replace Obamacare, the Republicans would have a plan all polished, fully supported, and ready to launch as soon as a Republican became president. Seven years of talk without ever offering an alternative. Well, now the ball’s in their court.
I heard some pundit say the other day that he thought Obamacare was safe, that the GOP wouldn’t succeed in replacing it. And the president himself said, “(I)t’s an unbelievably complex subject. Nobody knew that health care could be so complicated.” (Frankly I think he’s the only one who didn’t know.)
Meanwhile, moderate Republicans, the AARP, the American Medical Association, and the American Hospital Association have expressed opposition to the GOP bill.
And so it begins … again.
Does he, potus ( I will start using capitals when the present incumbent gets thrown out of office) know anything?
Anyway it’s typical of right wing parties the world over, they all want to get rid of decent, proper,real legislation, but have no idea how to go about it.
It’s all about keeping money in their pockets and their friends pockets and bugger the rest!
Our present mob, would dearly love to go the American route, but they’re wise enough to know, that they would lose power, at the next election, and never get back again.
There are some services that must be provided by the government. Health; Education; Light & Power are all best run by the government for the good of the people.
They are there to serve and protect just as your various police departments proclaim. “To Serve & Protect”
I won’t even try to describe the healthcare circus we have in this country.
We get to read/hear about it, we do have some media that is not rupert murdock; and his fox propaganda machine, controlled which does give us the real full story of whats going on. Trouble is getting the dimwitted right wing people to read and understand it without yelling looney left/commo/ and anything else they can think of that has no bearing and makes no sense whatever but makes thm feel good and more importantly; superior.
johnthecook…Unless it is spelled out in the Constitution the “Government” does not have to provide health care.If this were not so;at least here in America the Government would have been providing health care waaaaaaaaay back in 1776 as per the Constitution. If the present Administration truly wanted to repeal Obama Care they would REMOVE any semblance of a fine,tax, or penalty for not having your own health care plan or policy. The Honorable Chief Justice Roberts got it wrong!
I don’t want government health care. But I sure wouldn’t (and don’t) mind single-payer (government) health insurance. My experience so far with Medicare has been outstanding.
Removing the fine/tax/penalty — isn’t that part of the current GOP proposal? I never quite understood how penalizing people who couldn’t afford health insurance in the first place was fair. On the other hand, I do understand how insurance pools work. Just glad it’s not my job to figure it out.
I think it would be a good idea to rewrite your constitution, it may well have served your country in the past, but it was written in the 18th century. Things have changed a bit since then.
I confess I have not always held socialist ideas but I’m now a committed socialist. It’s not so much for my benefit but for the benefit of those not a fortunate as I.
No, for all our differences, I don’t think anyone would advocate rewriting the basic document. Amend it, yes. But rewrite the whole thing … I doubt anyone today could do as good a job. We’ve become too divided, too short-sighted, too selfish.
Well I’d certainly like to think there are still those around who could re-write it, perhaps if the US was to search amongst the English academics at Oxford, after all Thomas Jefferson et al were English in a sense; just that they happened to be born in the colonies and wanted to stand alone; which is perfectly reasonable. But going back to the grass roots might just be the thing, not that there’s a hope in Hades of it ever happening. False pride perhaps.
There’s centuries of tradition in English law, but it changes to meet the times. Which is as it should be, I’m sure you’ll agree. 🙂
Months (or centuries) ago, when Dump first said “we’re gonna get rid of Obamacare,” my first thought was “and replace it with what?” I asked that of every candidate when they talked about it on that stage (to the t.v., of course). I am not the least bit surprised that none of them had a ready-to-go plan. Yup, ball’s in their court…and they’ve only themselves to blame.
That’s the one good thing I’ve considered with some other people I know regarding the Republican domination of the congress and white house–it means after all those years of Obama, if it falls apart while they’re the majority, they don’t have anyone to blame but themselves for once.
If Obamacare falls apart and the GOP has done nothing, they’ll just sit back and say, “We told you so.” But they have definitely put themselves in a “put up or shut up” position. Personally I’d advocate repair, not repeal and replace.
Ditto–I think the ACA had some good ideas, but it depended too much on the insurance companies to keep up their end without making things difficult for Americans who already have health insurance. And it didn’t specify that the recipients had to go to a primary care physician instead of the emergency room every darn time (and now these private emergency rooms are all over the flippin’ place down here–sheesh, why?) I’d love more accountability in pricing practices in the healthcare industry. I understand sterilizing operating rooms and equipment and whatnot is going to cost, but there’s no reason a dose of tylenol should be $10 and an ace bandage $40. It’s like the pentagon and NASA spending breakdown in the 80s all over again (was it the 80s, maybe the 90s–I just remember too much money on simple crap)
I’ve been stunned by the prolifereation of those free-standing emergency rooms. There are four (that I’ve noticed) within two miles of my house (and three of those are within a mile). I’ve wondered how they could all afford to stay open, but with charges like you cited, I suppose it’s no problem.
You’re absolutely right. Trump is the only one who didn’t know how complex health care was, which is why the Republican party didn’t have a plan in place. All they cared about is complaining on how bad Obamacare is, even though it isn’t. Anything to try and cripple Obama’s legacy. I haven’t delved too far into the GOP plan, but what I did hear can be summed up as people having to pay more, not as good of coverage, but more profits to the insurance corporations. And probably pharmaceuticals, too. I love my Obamacare. I hope they don’t take it away. Pence just announced that if you want to keep your Obamacare plan, you can.
Obamacare definitely has a lot of shortcomings that need to be fixed, but I don’t advocate throwing the baby out with the bathwater. And snarky comments from the GOP leadership won’t help anyone.
I submit that neither the ACA nor the new GOP healthcare plan fixes the fundamental problem. American healthcare is designed with money, not patient welfare, as the goal. Yes, I know that many hospitals are “nonprofit”, but that’s just another way of specifying where the money goes. Nonprofits put the money into high salaries and fancy facilities. A single-payer system based on patient outcomes and long-term health would cost about half as much. Canada, Australia and Europe have proved it.
I think you’re referring to socialized medicine, where the government provides both the insurance and the care. To date I’d support only a single-payer plan, like Medicare, where the government provides the insurance but the health care comes from private providers, not government employees.
I agree that our system is being wrecked by the profit motive — insurance and pharmaceutical companies being the worst offenders.
After seven years of trying, the Republicans probably DID have a replacement plan polished and ready to fire out of their blunderbuss. Problem is, they was a different set of Republicans than the ones who came to the fore on January 20th. While it’s satisfying in a way to watch them eat their own at the moment, there’s still the underlying horror at the realization that a plan will eventually be hammered out. And we both know that whatever they come up with, no one’s getting out alive. Probably literally for many.
It hasn’t been all that long since we watched the Dems struggle to get their healthcare bill passed. What finally got passed with parliamentary tricks in the middle of the night was a badly mutilated remnant of the original. It’s no wonder it’s had so many problems. Now the shoe’s on the other foot and I don’t expect any better results. I just hope it’s not a whole lot worse.
Amen to that.
…I love the editorial cartoon. You’re not naïve, they should have had a plan, and in a better world it would have been created with input from both parties. Or at least some consultation with the public and hospitals. It took Canada thirty years to get the healthcare system we have now, it would appear as though the GOP program, and even the ACA, were put together in weeks. The ACA needed time to evolve, and eight-years just wasn’t enough. Especially considering one side had no interest in making it better.
This might give you an idea as to what it took to develop the Canadian healthcare system (the links are at the bottom of the page):
http://www.historymuseum.ca/cmc/exhibitions/hist/medicare/medic01e.shtml
“Understanding the origin and evolution of the concept, the views and values of its champions and critics, and the historical events that influenced its implementation will demonstrate that medicare is ever-changing — a delicate balance between public expectations, medical knowledge, technological change, economic and human resources, and political will.”
That confirms what I’ve always thought … that you start with one bill or program, say ACA, and then go forward, fixing and adjusting those features that need adjusting, tweaking, amending, expanding, etc. (Eg, our Social Security, Medicare, and tax laws) Either that, or do it stepwise, enacting what everyone can agree on, and then building on that.
And I’ve said many times, Medicare has worked well for me; I don’t see why it couldn’t/shouldn’t be expanded gradually to include everyone. Well, actually I do see. We have insurance and pharmaceutical companies that don’t want to see any decrease in their profits, and two highly partisan political parties that currently would rather die than cooperate with each other.
I don’t mind saying, we’ve got a helluva mess here, and an administration that I don’t think is competent to fix it.
Hope things are going well for you. I enjoyed the pic of you, your dad, and you son. Three generations. Nice kind of pic to have.
Seriously – all that noise and rumbling, you’d think they would have had it proofed, edited and ready to publish.
If anyone ever needed proof that politicians and both parties are practically identical – look and the actions and all the words…sounds like repeated mirror images and phrases….
Deafening noise. Very little action. Yep, same old same old. Or as we said in Okla., “same-o, same-o.”
Blustering and they are saying the exact words and phrases the other side said last time around Driving me crazy (so spending ore time outside which is why I’m behind reading blogs)….that old song: “Here’s the new boss, same as the old boss….”