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The GOP is on the cusp of destroying Obamacare - Commentary by Heather Digby Parton
FOR MAGA, CRUELTY IS THE POINT:
The GOP is on the cusp of destroying Obamacare - Salon This time Republicans are taking a death-by-increments approach to the ACA — and it just might work
One of the most dramatic moments in modern American political history came in the wee hours of July 28, 2017, when the country watched to see if the Senate would vote to repeal the Affordable Care Act — and send the country back to the days when premature death and bankruptcy were common due to lack of access to health insurance. Republicans had voted dozens of times to repeal the law they had hated, even calling it “Obamacare” as a kind of epithet, not realizing the program would become popular and forever be associated with the popular Democratic president who signed it.
McCain (who) was suffering from brain cancer and had dealt with a lifetime of health challenges due to his injuries as a POW in the Vietnam War... understood the stakes, and he had a gift for drama. When he walked on to the floor that night, he knew his vote would be one of the defining moments of his career. When his name was called, McCain didn’t say anything. He simply walked up to the desk and gave a thumbs down, effectively ending the GOP’s relentless, years-long attempts to repeal Obamacare.
Eight years later, the GOP — the party that has spent decades trying to privatize Social Security and Medicare — is trying a different approach: Destroying the program by increments, one painful piece at a time. They ended the individual mandate, which would have made everyone participate — and kept premiums lower while covering people who don’t realize that bad things can happen to them too. They hobbled the Medicaid expansion from the beginning, and more recently they cut that program drastically under the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, which is conveniently set to take place after the 2026 midterms, revealing that they know just how unpopular and cruel those cuts will be. They made it more difficult to enroll, forcing people to manually sign up every year instead of being automatically enrolled. And now they are allowing the ACA subsidies to expire, hiking premiums to unaffordable levels for millions of people.
The GOP’s philosophy was perhaps best captured by Medicare and Medicaid head Dr. Mehmet Oz, who said Sunday on Fox News, “If you really want to drop the cost of health care in America, get healthier.”
McCain (who) was suffering from brain cancer and had dealt with a lifetime of health challenges due to his injuries as a POW in the Vietnam War... understood the stakes, and he had a gift for drama. When he walked on to the floor that night, he knew his vote would be one of the defining moments of his career. When his name was called, McCain didn’t say anything. He simply walked up to the desk and gave a thumbs down, effectively ending the GOP’s relentless, years-long attempts to repeal Obamacare.
Eight years later, the GOP — the party that has spent decades trying to privatize Social Security and Medicare — is trying a different approach: Destroying the program by increments, one painful piece at a time. They ended the individual mandate, which would have made everyone participate — and kept premiums lower while covering people who don’t realize that bad things can happen to them too. They hobbled the Medicaid expansion from the beginning, and more recently they cut that program drastically under the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, which is conveniently set to take place after the 2026 midterms, revealing that they know just how unpopular and cruel those cuts will be. They made it more difficult to enroll, forcing people to manually sign up every year instead of being automatically enrolled. And now they are allowing the ACA subsidies to expire, hiking premiums to unaffordable levels for millions of people.
The GOP’s philosophy was perhaps best captured by Medicare and Medicaid head Dr. Mehmet Oz, who said Sunday on Fox News, “If you really want to drop the cost of health care in America, get healthier.”