As Paul Krugman mentions obliquely in his opinion piece, Republican healthcare is so awful they have to lie about it regularly and with feverish zealotry. That’s odd since the Affordable Care Act was patterned after the moderate Republican plan. In response, Republicans told breathless lies about it. The GOP voted to overturn the ACA four dozen times in Congress, and maybe a dozen court cases challenging every protection? We already know the truth; why is the argument still going?
We all know Republicans are lying. Trump insists that people with pre-existing conditions are safe. But when you search for “Republican court case against ACA,” you’ll get four million hits. Their lie isn’t even plausible. A study posted by the Bureau of Economic Research estimates that the Republican Medicaid denial has already killed roughly 15,000 poor people. Republicans turned down free money for their states. And yet they keep promising a nebulous Republican healthcare plan with the moon and all the stars, all for no money down.
Here are six Republican promises that Politico listed. It’s not exhaustive, but it’s a start. Under the (unwritten) Republican healthcare plan:
- Everyone can get Insurance,
- Republicans won’t cut to Social Security, Medicare, or Medicaid,
- Nobody will lose coverage,
- Nobody will be worse off financially,
- They will get rid of artificial lines (eh?),
- Everyone’s going to be taken care of.
How will Republicans do this? Well, let’s look at the details in the Republican healthcare proposal. It’s… um…..
Yeah, there is no Republican healthcare proposal. The GOP promised to issue their Republican plan back during the ACA debates. They didn’t cough up anything then, and it’s been ‘any day now’ ever since. Yup, coming really soon, almost done, working hard, really, it’ll come out… ahh… after the next election. Yeah, that’s the ticket! After the next election. They started that dance in 2010 and they’re still going strong. Recently, Republicans suggested they might publish their healthcare plan… (wait for it)…. just after the 2020 elections. That’s a lot of stamina.
I wouldn’t hold your breath. (Unless you believe that, in which case, please do.)
For a secret plan that nobody’s seen, Republicans are quick to quote all the great benefits. You’ll get healthcare that’s easy, simple, covers everything, and costs nothing. Just give them more political power.
It’s bizarre that Republicans are still promising a plan. Nine years now, and they have nothing: not a draft; not so much as a subsection. There no evidence anyone is even working on a plan. But Republicans still swear they’ll nail that research paper if we’ll just give them another a year and a half, and, presumably, another election.
Since there is no Republican policy, look at Republican actions. So far, the GOP attacked healthcare guarantees and protections in the ACA, as well as other protections in federal and state law. Republicans argue in court that any provider should be able to deny any coverage they choose, based on their ideology, religion, or probably anything else they feel deeply about. That seems like a curiously one-sided vision of freedom to me. (And you have to wonder why the Republican gods are so uniformly affronted by women’s choices, women’s sexuality, and women’s fertility?)
How about other types of healthcare? Are Republicans pushing for expanded mental healthcare, for example? The GOP platform on gun deaths is that (1), it’s too soon to talk about it, and (2), that all those murders are by crazy people, so what can you do? My guess is that “expanded mental healthcare” options are off the GOP plate.
Addiction treatment? Too troublesome for the people not being treated. It’s a priority in their words. They talk it up. It’s a shame about the Republican cuts to treatment and research.
Since most people get health insurance through their jobs, Republicans fight against employer mandates and guarantees. Republicans insist that nobody should be forced to help anyone else. Why, they lament, should a rich white Republican guy pay for any woman’s mammogram? Or [women’s] birth control? It’s Republican Unfair™. The Republican party argues this in Congress, they plead it in the courts, and the orange guy bellows it over prop wash on the White House lawn. Nobody should have the right to healthcare if it costs the rich too much.
Even forcing people to get insurance is too horrible for Republicans to witness. The GOP are forced by their weird ideology to block it from happening. Even though their arguments are economically based, counterarguments about the overall cost savings fall on deaf ears. Too reality-based. And increasing any public good would be… some kind of unfreedom? Terrible, anyway.
How about medical issues for LGBTQ? Heavens, no! It’s almost worth asking, just for the reaction. The official Republican position, as far as I can tell, is a simple request that any of that kind would please stop existing. Any protections for continued healthcare is a hard ‘no.’ Other than conversion therapy, I suppose.
Medical care for non-citizens? Republicans are already attacking Democrats for suggesting such a thing. America, they shriek, must not treat people here as… well, people. (Assuming we’re talking about dying brown person. It’d be different if they were white.) Note that if I get hurt in, say, England, they’d fix me up without so much as a bill. They’re proud of that.
As an aside, I’ve wondered most of my life about the persistent Republican attacks on medical research. (Yes, they’ve been against research for that long.) I’ve assumed Republicans hated it all because it was science (Republican kryptonite) or because discoveries sometimes undercut drug company profits. (“We had a tidy two billion dollar business treating that disease, and you go and cure it! What the hell?”) Those guesses are plausible, but I’m wondering if Republicans attack anything in the public good. The Republican political strategy depends on Americans hating their government. That’s why elected Republicans throw sand in the gears every chance they get.
If you’re working in reality, our healthcare politics seem simple. Democrats have documented plans for increasing the coverage and depth of American healthcare. Their proposals differ, and you can quibble with dollar totals or political plausibility, but all of them have written positions that are specific and workable. If you want the same or more, vote Democratic.
‘Republican healthcare’ seems closer to an oxymoron. Their position is mostly unfounded attacks and bad-faith claims. In action, Republicans work to tear apart the existing US healthcare system at every step. They say it’s so they can replace it, except they have nothing to replace it with. The GOP has no alternate ACA, no plans, no policies, no guarantees, and no protections. Given the Republican history of hostility to individual and civil rights – attacks that accelerated under Trump – people should be concerned. If you want less healthcare or less help, then vote Republican.
Factually, this issue should be easy. Polls tell us that people consistently put ‘healthcare’ in their list of top concerns. That’s reasonable; everyone will get sick or hurt at some point. Democrats are consistently pro-healthcare, and Republicans are just as consistently anti-healthcare. (Pro-illness? Hyper-individual? I don’t know.) So, if you don’t want to be financially ruined when you get sick or hurt, then you should either pick ‘Democratic’ or insist your favorite Republicans cough up better answers. That’s how reality works.
And since we’re still arguing, this isn’t about reality. The problem is with us if we can’t see what’s right in front of us.
Does that turn the disagreement back into a healthcare issue?
