GOP ‘confronting a new reality’ on healthcare

By Steve Benen

The Obama administration won’t have an official announcement on December’s health care enrollment numbers for a few more weeks, but chances are good that we’ll see a spike in the number of newly enrollment Americans. At the end of November, the Affordable Care Act had helped bring coverage to about 1.2 million people; by the end of this month, that total will include millions more.

And with each new enrollment, it slowly dawns on congressional Republicans that the larger calculus has changed in fundamental ways. Jonathan Weisman reported overnight that GOP policymakers are “confronting a new reality.”

The enrollment figures may be well short of what the Obama administration had hoped for. But the fact that a significant number of Americans are now benefiting from the program is resulting in a subtle shift among Republicans.

“It’s no longer just a piece of paper that you can repeal and it goes away,” said Senator Ron Johnson, Republican of Wisconsin and a Tea Party favorite. “There’s something there. We have to recognize that reality. We have to deal with the people that are currently covered under Obamacare.”

And that underscores a central fact of American politics since Franklin D. Roosevelt signed the Social Security Act during the Depression: Once a benefit has been bestowed, it is nearly impossible to take it away.

Quite right. The Republican repeal crusade, whether the party wants to admit it or not, is over. Sure, Boehner & Co. can schedule a few dozen more repeal votes to help Tea Partiers feel warm and fuzzy, but even that’s less likely in light of the millions of consumers who’ve signed up for coverage – in an election year, candidates don’t generally thrive running on a platform that says, “Vote for me so I can take health care benefits away from your family.”

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So, as of this minute, what’s the Republican position on health care? No one, including GOP policymakers themselves, has any idea. For years, it was a straightforward push to repeal the entirety of the law, regardless of the consequences or human suffering. Now, some still want to pretend repeal is possible, others want to tinker around the edges with “reforms.” Some believe it’s time for Republicans to craft a policy alternative of their own to present to voters, others believe incessant complaining should be enough to give the GOP a boost on Election Day.

“The hardest problem for us is what to do next,” Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) told Weisman.

Ya don’t say.

http://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow-show/gop-confronting-new-reality-healthcare

Wendell Potter on Obamacare

by teacherken

in an interesting piece at Reader Supported News dated yesterday and titled Obamacare: What's in It for You? Plenty, So Take Time to Find Out.

He notes a number of things that most Americans do not seem to know, in large part because of how the media has covered the roll-out, starting with this: the average increased in premiums of 4% much lower than the average of the past decade.

Here's a few more things people don't seem to know:

- 3.1 million young adults have been added to the insurance rolls because they cabn stay on their parent's policy until age 26

- $1.2 billion in rebates in 2011 and $2.1 billion in 2012 from insurers who did not spnd the requisite 80% of premiums upon benefits

- $7 billion saved on prescription drugs by Medicare beneficiaires as a result of closing of the "Doughnut Hole" in Part D

- > 25.4 million people on original Medicare program receiving at least one preventive service at no cost to them during just the first eleven months of 2013

We know the numbers of those enrolling are surging.

It is unfortunate there have been glitches in the rollout, in the sign-up procedures.

But the Affordable Care Act is working, and providing real benefits.

Now, if only the media would do its job and tell the WHOLE story.

Peace?

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2013/12/25/1265241/-Wendell-Potter-on-Obamacare#