Repeal and Replace

Republicans are in trouble.  Repeal and Replace is a great campaign slogan but it is fraught with land mines that are armed and dangerous.

Repeal drops off countless millions of Americans from health care insurance and it drops us all into uncharted territory.  Would we be back to the wonderful world before Obamacare?  If that world were so wonderful, why would the Democrats have spent so much political capital creating such a controversial system as Obamacare, the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act?

No, the real problem is Replace.  But not because designing a good health care system is so difficult.  No, the real reason why replace is so hard is because if Republicans were working with a clean slate starting from scratch, the health care system they would design would be -- Obamacare.  Obamacare is pure Republican thinking!  Think about it!  Every tweak they apply to it now would be an adjustment away from Republican thinking.

The only Democratic parts of Obamacare are its regulations.  Insurers must cover those with pre-existing conditions.  No lifetime limits.  Young Americans can stay on their parents' policy.  And the only way to insure millions of uninsured Americans is by some form of coercion (the "individual mandate") or make the program a real government program, like Medicare, like Single-Payer, like socialized medicine.  So, as you can see, Republicans are really boxed in, as any changes they make are either very bad politics or they make the program even more Democratic.

Sorry, guys, you blew it!  You could have put your name on a health care paradigm that really belongs to you.  For a while, it was good politics.  Now you're paying for that mistaken judgment.

Ben's Care to the rescue!