Don’t feel bad if you don’t get them all right, the media has dropped the ball on informing the public on this, and the more right wing media outlets have outright lied.
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Republicans have said repeatedly that the landmark health care reform law, upheld as constitutional by the Supreme Court last week, must be repealed and replaced. But the GOP leader in the U.S. Senate gave a surprising answer on “Fox News Sunday” when asked how Republicans would provide health care coverage to 30 million uninsured Americans.
“That is not the issue,” Sen. Mitch McConnell said. “The question is how to go step by step to improve the American health care system. It is already the finest health care system in the world.”
“Fox News Sunday” host Chris Wallace interrupted, “You don’t think 30 million uninsured is an issue?”
“We’re not going to turn the American health care system into a western European system,” McConnell said. “That’s exactly what is at the heart of Obamacare. They want to … have the federal government take over all American health care. The federal government can’t handle Medicare or Medicaid.”
Wallace pressed McConnell, noting that the Affordable Care Act will prohibit insurance companies from not offering plans to individuals with pre-existing health conditions. “If you repeal Obamacare, how will you protect those people with pre-existing conditions?”
“Over the half of the states have high-risk pools that deal with that issue,” McConnell said, assuring Wallace that the state programs could cover the tens of millions of uninsured Americans who have pre-existing health conditions.
Thirty-five states now have high-risk pools, covering about 208,000 people. Those policies are open to individuals with pre-existing health issues but often come with high premiums, waiting periods and coverage exclusions for certain conditions.
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The Huffington Post, “Mitch McConnell on 30 Million Uninsured: ‘That Is Not the Issue.’”
Even Fox “News” guy Chris Wallace is stunned by what he hears.
But those with a conscience aren’t.
(via inothernews)
Republicans support Obama’s health reforms — as long as his name isn’t on them
The new Reuters-Ipsos poll finds that Obamacare remains deeply unpopular; 56 percent of Americans oppose the law, versus only 44 percent who favor it. The poll also finds that strong majorities of Americans favor the individual provisions in the law — the hated individual mandate excepted, of course.
What’s particularly interesting about this poll is that solid majorities of Republicans favor most of the law’s main provisions, too.
I asked Ipsos to send over a partisan breakdown of the data. Key points:
- Eighty percent of Republicans favor “creating an insurance pool where small businesses and uninsured have access to insurance exchanges to take advantage of large group pricing benefits.” That’s backed by 75 percent of independents.
- Fifty-seven percent of Republicans support “providing subsidies on a sliding scale to aid individuals and families who cannot afford health insurance.” That’s backed by 67 percent of independents.
- Fifty-four percent of Republicans favor “requiring companies with more than 50 employees to provide insurance for their employers.” That’s backed by 75 percent of independents.
- Fifty two percent of Republicans favor “allowing children to stay on parents insurance until age 26.” That’s backed by 69 percent of independents.
- Seventy eight percent of Republicans support “banning insurance companies from denying coverage for pre-existing conditions; 86 percent of Republicans favor “banning insurance companies from cancelling policies because a person becomes ill.” Those are backed by 82 percent of independents and 87 percent of independents.
One provision that isn’t backed by a majority of Republicans: The one “expanding Medicaid to families with incomes less than $30,000 per year.”
“Most Republicans want to have good health coverage,” Ipsos research director Chris Jackson tells me. “They just don’t necessarily like what it is Obama is doing.”
I’d add that Republicans and independents favor regulation of the health insurance system in big numbers. But the law has become so defined by the individual mandate — not to mention Obama himself — that public sentiment on the reforms themselves has been entirely drowned out. It’s another sign of the conservative messaging triumph in this fight and the failure of Dems to make the case for the law.
I’ll also add that this is a failure by the media to inform the public about the law, I have friends and family that are intelligent savvy people who hardly know anything about the affordable care act, the ONLY way I’ve been able to find details on it is though internet resources.
The media totally dropped the ball on this.
Mitt Romney calls for these things that are already part of Obamacare during his press conference calling for the repeal of Obamacare:
- “We have to make sure that people who want to keep their current insurance will be able to do so.”
- “We also have to assure that we do our very best to help each state in their effort to assure (sic) that every American has access to affordable healthcare.”
- “We’ve gotta make sure that those people who have pre-existing conditions know that they will be able to be insured.”
Ben Nelson: Activist Supreme Court Could Pave the Way for Single-Payer
Retiring Sen. Ben Nelson (D-NE) — the most conservative Democratic senator, and the member of the caucus who held out longest before voting for the Affordable Care Act — warns that if the Supreme Court throws out the law, it’ll put the country on the road toward single-payer health care.
“Many expect an activist Supreme Court will strike down part or all of health reform,” Nelson said in a prepared statement. “If they strike down the mandate, the Supreme Court will be paving the way to a single-payer system, or back to the old broken health care system — neither of which are good for Nebraskans.”
Nelson was skeptical of the approach Democrats took toward reforming the health care system, and his hesitance nearly tanked the party’s efforts multiple times in 2009. But since his retirement announcement, and particularly since the Supreme Court heard oral arguments about the ACA, Nelson’s become an unlikely champion of the law.
It’s worth mentioning that his analysis of the consequences of an adverse Court decision is the same as single-payer supporters’, which advances the idea that if the Court voids the ACA, conservatives like Nelson will over time reluctantly warm toward single payer as the only viable approach to the unsustainable status quo.
Most Americans oppose President Barack Obama’s healthcare reform even though they strongly support most of its provisions
A Reuters/Ipsos poll showed on Sunday, with the Supreme Court set to rule within days on whether the law should stand.
Fifty-six percent of people are against the healthcare overhaul and 44 percent favor it, according to the online poll conducted from Tuesday through Saturday.
The survey results suggest that Republicans are convincing voters to reject Obama’s reform even when they like much of what is in it, such as allowing children to stay on their parents’ insurance until age 26.
Strong majorities favor most of what is in the law.
A glaring exception to the popular provisions is the “individual mandate,” which forces all U.S. residents to own health insurance.
Sixty-one percent of Americans are against the mandate, the issue at the center of the Republicans’ contention that the law is unconstitutional, while 39 percent favor it.
“That’s really the thing that has come to define the (reform) and is the thing that could potentially allow the Supreme Court to dismantle it if they decide it’s not constitutional,” Ipsos pollster Chris Jackson said.
In good news for Republicans at November’s congressional elections, 45 percent said they were more likely to vote for a member of Congress who campaigned on a platform of repealing the law, versus 26 percent who said it would make them less likely, the survey showed.
This is a shining example of what’s wrong with the American voter. Here we have people against something they actually support because of a party platform, an ideology that says “this is what you support and don’t support if you are part of this party”.
It has also amazed me at just how little people actually know about the affordable care act and what it does.
When you go past the name “obamacare” and ask people if they actually like the polices it would put in place, the majority of people agree with them, yet they say they don’t support obamacare.
Why?
Because the right-wing media has told them to, says it’s this “big scary thing” that will destroy America as we know it, and the mainstream media hasn’t done much to dispel that myth or educate people about what obamacare is and how it would benefit them.
Americans are voting to cut of their nose to spite their face because the right wing media, their political leaders and this hive-mind conservative mentality has told them to do so.
