Don't get me wrong, I was very happy to see the
Trump/Ryan attempt at a solution for medical care/coverage collapse under its
own weight, mostly because I don't think that taken as a whole, it was any better than Obamacare. However, I would be lying if I didn’t say
I also wanted it to fail because it was an important lesson for the party of "No"
to learn, that governing is much harder than campaigning, and that getting to a
workable agreement is much harder than just opposing an idea. Paul Ryan said as much in his post-mortem
assessment.
So, while it would now be a very fair question to ask the
Speaker of the House, "and you're just figuring this out now?", that would just be piling on.
What I really want to know, what I really want to hear is
exactly what would Democrats do, if they owned the Presidency, the House and
had 60 votes in the Senate, to fix Obamacare?
Because the last time I checked, it still needed fixing
As reported in Bloomberg News this morning, Anthem Inc.,
which insures 1.3 million Americans under Obamacare, is considering pulling out
of the system in 2018, partially as a result of their $374 million loss in
2016. (Bloomberg does state that Anthem is targeting a modest profit in
2017). If that happens, individuals in
Colorado, Kentucky, Missouri and Ohio, will be without coverage. In case the Democrats haven't figured it out,
this is not a good thing for Obamacare, for them or for the country.
So let's hear what changes they would make, how would
they make it more sustainable, what solutions do they have to provide insurance
and care for millions of Americans who need it? Maybe I missed it, but I don't think we have
heard "boo" from them in the form of any substantive commentary on
this issue since November and they are now, clearly at a crossroads. Before the elections whenever the topic came
up, they said they were willing to work to fix Obamacare, since then we haven’t
heard zilch.
Now, they can choose to sit back and watch the Republican
flail away at each other or they can offer up some intelligent solutions and
try, at least try, to reach out to moderate Republican's, establish a dialogue,
discuss different ideas, and maybe, just
maybe, get something done.
If they don't, they too will become the party of
"No", and that doesn't bode well for anyone.
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