Last week, amidst the increasingly heated political debate over Obamacare, President Trump offered an important message to those obstructing health care reform. In his remarks to CPAC, Trump stated:
From a purely political standpoint, the single best thing we can do is nothing. Let it implode completely. It’s already imploding. You see the carriers are all leaving. It’s a disaster. But two years, don’t do anything. The Democrats will come to us and beg for help. They’ll beg. And it’s their problem. But it’s not the right thing to do for the American people.
He has a point. Republicans, as the governing party, have a responsibility to do the “right thing” and solve our national health care crisis, but they are facing opposition from the same Democrats who caused this disaster and yet, tellingly, have offered no alternative health care plan of their own.
While Republicans have put forward a blueprint of their ideas on how to replace Obamacare, Democrats are attempting to flee the scene of an accident they caused. Not only that, but they are using scare tactics to incite public outrage against the first responders!
Consider that:
- Obamacare was supposed to decrease costs — yet the average premium for benchmark Obamacare insurance plans rose by 25 percent this year. In some states, premiums shot up by more than 50 percent.
- Obamacare was supposed to increase competition — but 33 percent of U.S. counties will have only one insurer offering Obamacare plans in 2017.
- Seventeen out of 21 state-run Obamacare co-ops have collapsed, at a cost to the taxpayer of $1.8 billion.
- Despite its intended purpose of providing health insurance for all, 29 million Americans remain uninsured. Why? Because health insurance is still too costly.
- As insurance companies face mounting losses due to Obamacare, billions of dollars have been wasted on direct corporate bailouts to keep the law afloat.
It’s very easy to see, as Aetna’s CEO put it, that Obamacare is in a “death spiral” and “getting worse.” Obamacare’s issues are so apparent that even Bernie Sanders was forced to admit it has “problems,” and Bill Clinton called it “the craziest thing in the world.”
So if Democrats agree that their health care legislation is flawed (remember, it was passed without a single Republican vote), what is their plan to fix it? Aside from those on the hard-left (i.e. Sanders) advocating single-payer, government-run health care, mainstream Democrats have not put forth a plan to replace Obamacare. Did the Russians hack their health care plan?
If Senator Schumer and Congresswoman Pelosi want to appear credible in their opposition to the Republican’s health care blueprint, it’s time they put forward a plan of their own. We all know the Obamacare status quo is simply unsustainable; it will collapse on its own.
Republicans have put their ideas before the public — it’s time for Democrats to do the same. Will Democrats work to solve our national health care crisis, or will they continue their freeze on new health care plans until they can “figure out what’s going on”?
Photo credit: Senate Democrats via Flickr, CC BY 2.0
