What Road Is Paved With Bad Intentions?

At some point we have to ask, “Where the Hell are we going?” Seriously, we have a couple hundred Congressmen and 50-60 Senators gambling with 20% of our economy and people’s lives in an effort to negate the 2008 and 2012 elections. And leading the charge is a guy so obsessed with his predecessor that he would sign a bill mandating daily doses of arsenic if he was told that it would reverse an Obama achievement.

The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (Obamacare) was passed in 2010 after months of Congressional hearings, public meetings, and debate. The final law borrowed heavily from Republican plans pushed by The Heritage Foundation, Newt Gingrich, and Mitt Romney. It was not the traditional Democratic plan focused on either a Single Payer or Public Option. Like all compromises, there was plenty to love and lots to hate in the PPACA. But the legislation’s intention was to give every American access to affordable healthcare.

Obamacare fell short of its goal.

What is the goal of the American Health Care Act (AHCA)? What is the goal of the Better Care Reconciliation Act (BCRA)?

Both the House and the Senate bills are focused on tax cuts, Medicaid reduction, and defunding Planned Parenthood. Neither has a single provision to lower the cost of healthcare. Neither provides access for a single American. Both bill would eliminate health insurance coverage for over 20 million Americans over the next ten years.

The AHCA and the BCRA are both championed and denigrated by President Trump. It just depends on the hour. The reason is simply. He doesn’t care. He just wants a win.

On Friday Senator Ben Sasse (R-NE) revisited a different Republican option, Repeal Now – Replace Later. His website features his newly found relevance since President Trump has reversed himself and is now embracing this idea. This simplistic concept features a triumphant Republican controlled Congress repealing OBAMAcare and then, now with a clean slate, the Republicans invite the Democrats to join them to create a similar system. Yes, this is exactly like an arsonist burning down his own home and then demanding that you help him rebuild it.

There are, of course, other options. Steven Brill, author of America’s Bitter Pill, published an article last week in the Washington Post. Nine ways to really fix Obamacare is a short list of common sense solutions that advance the goals of access and affordability. There are Republican and Democratic ideas incorporated into these nine changes. It is a short article. Click here to read it.

I don’t know that there is a road to an insurance nirvana. But if there is, it certainly isn’t paved with bad intentions.

DAVE

www.cunixinsurance.com