A Word about Obamacare

           "Save our Healthcare" Rally in Warren, MI, on January 15, 2017 (Photo: J.J. Uicker)

Republicans coined the term “Obamacare” feeling they were pinning an unpopular law—at least in their eyes—to President Obama. It was a pejorative term. Amusingly, President Obama eventually adopted it. There may be some unexpected negative aspects to that adoption today since some opponents of Obamacare may not know it is the same as the Affordable Care Act (ACA). They may hate Obamacare but not ACA or many of the benefits of it.

Repealing Obamacare (a.k.a. ACA) seems to be in the Republican DNA and they may blunder ahead and kill it. They really, really want to kill it. There are three members of my extended family that would be badly hurt by repeal. Preexisting conditions prevent future insurability in the pre-2010 health insurance world.

The reasons for such a visceral hatred of the ACA probably stems from the need desire to give tax cuts to the 1 percenters who do not need it. Also the individual mandate is unpopular.

The talk of replacement is silly. It is not possible to save the pieces you like and jettison everything else. The elements are like the guy wires on a radio tower. Break one and it all falls down. They should know this since an ACA look-alike was promoted by the conservative American Enterprise Institute and, famously, by Mitt Romney in Massachusetts.

Here is a prediction: If the tax provisions of the ACA (the tax on high income individuals) are rescinded, no replacement for the ACA will ever happen.