For the first time in history, the percentage of Americans lacking health insurance dropped below 9% thanks to Obamacare. Twenty million more people have insurance than did before the Affordable Care Act. The program is more popular than ever and far more popular than Donald Trump.
So what’s Trump do? He cuts $90 million from the budget used to promote the program to increase the number of people using it. Democrats call it sabotage. I call it cutting health care by $90 million at a time when it’s among the top concerns of most voters.
Trump and a number of Republicans are still plugging their story that the Affordable Care Act is collapsing. It’s not true. Every county in the nation will have at least one Obamacare insurer next year.
While there are still problems, leaders of both parties are looking for ways to fix them and stabilize the system, not scrap it or sabotage it. In the Senate, Lamar Alexander, Republican Chair of the Senate Health Committee, has been holding hearings on ways to stabilize the independent insurance market. A bipartisan group in the House that calls itself the Problem Solvers Caucus is also working on fixes. And last week, Ohio Republican Governor John Kasich and Colorado’s Democratic Governor John Hickenlooper laid out a plan to fix Obamacare.
Similarly, Trump is about to end Obama’s DACA (Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals) program, putting kids at risk who have grown up here and who consider themselves more Americans than immigrants. The public broadly supports letting people brought to this country as children stay. That support is not lost on Republicans. After repeatedly sinking similar legislation called the DREAM Act, Republicans in Congress are quickly moving to pass a “conservative Dream Act” that would offset any actions taken by the president.
Elected officials in both parties seem to have realized that the public is fed up with the hyper-partisanship that’s driven our politics. But while they’re starting to look for joint solutions, Donald Trump is doubling down the rhetoric that animates his base. He’s trying to shore up support among the 40% of Americans who still support him while ignoring the 60% or so who don’t.
Trump, who has never been wildly popular outside of his base, has seen his popularity plummet as much for his demeanor as his policies. Now, he’s trying to gut programs that have relatively broad support with middle America. He is essentially driving a wedge between his base and the people who determine elections. For Republicans heading into a midterm, that’s a scary strategy coming from the leader of their party.
Thomas Mills is the founder and publisher of PoliticsNC.com. Before beginning PoliticsNC, Thomas spent twenty years as a political and public affairs consultant. Learn more >
I understand why Trump panders to the so-called Republican base. But a president of the United States is elected to serve, or at least try to serve all the people. It is more than a little galling that that is not happening in this administration.
Rick, We do not understand Trump because we do not think like he does, nor do we have a common value system with him. He did not acquire the wealth he has obtained by thinking about the consequences of his actions on the lives of other people. Neither did he get elected President by appealing to the common decency of most Americans. He instead appealed to the festering anger of mostly rural Americans who feel betrayed by our political system. Add to them the hardcore Republicans in urban areas and Trump sits in the White House. He will continue to do what he believes will please this base, except in instances where his nature takes over, such as lying about the size of his crowds and living the high life at the taxpayers’ expense. Bottom line: Trump will not attempt to serve the nation by the standards we expect of our Presidents. He will instead act to please his base and to advance his own interests. Anything else will be just show.
Thomas,
You are so right. Realzing that Trump does not think like most of us has been a hard lesson to learn, but I think I am there. I underestimated him in the GOP primaries. I did not underestimate him in last year’s general election, however. I feared that he somehow would win. Sadly, I was right for once.
Thanks for your comment. It is spot on.
The criticisms of the ACA are valid, as are the facts regarding obstructionism by the Republicans. We Democrats lost the battle for universal care and affordability when Obama wimped out on the Public Option just after he was elected. Happily, Bernie Sanders will introduce his Medicare For All within the next two weeks. Those who are serious about universal care will get behind him. There is also some hope in the Kasich-Hickenlooper proposal. The thing we must not do is sit on our butts and just complain.
Under Obama care, premiums and deductibles have skyrocketed, millions of people have lost their insurance and been forced to purchase a new plan (and sometimes get new health care providers as a result), and the policy’s greatest achievement is getting tens of millions of people dependent on government subsidized care via Medicaid.
But the biggest failure has been the collapse of the individual health insurance marketplace. In 2009, President Obama lamented the lack of choice and competition. Today, 40 percent of U.S. counties have only one health insurance provider. HHS projects that will rise to 47 percent in 2018. How does this increase “choice and competition”?
And Democrats bemoan the fact that the Trump Administration is cutting the government’s advertising budget for this failed program? Why should government continue to spend millions to promote a failing program? It would be unconscionable to continue to perpetrate such a fraudulent scheme on the American public.
Indeed, Obamacare, which is just Romneycare (passed by Republicans in Massachusetts) repackaged, was designed to fail – because it is not health care reform, it is health insurance reform. Specifically designed to insure the survival of the parasitic and useless health care insurance “providers”. One sixth of all Wall Street profits derive from this horrific scam of a health care system, and THAT is what Congress was protecting when they chose the Republican plan over the Democrats desire for universal single payer coverage (like they have in the civilized world).
Romneycare / Obamacare was the Republican alternative to Hillarycare in the ’90’s. It was promoted by Bob Dole and Newt Gingrich. It was insisted upon by Republicans, when what Democrats wanted was single payer health care.
The Evil Bastards wouldn’t let us have reasonable health care coverage, and now they say they want to take away what they used to support.
And look at the fools who have no political memory whatsoever – who buy the bullshit and slurp it down with gusto – like Mr. Ebrun.
Excellent comments, Christopher.
Do you mean that the percentage ___without___ healthcare dropped below 9%?
Thanks, I fixed it.
So who is paying for theses 20 million people? My spouse is a state employee. We paid out of pocket last year, $750.00 a month for health care.
Our total out of pocket expense was over $20,000. Plus the state paid her premium of $450,00 to $500.00 a month. I do not think the average family of 4 had medical cost of $25,000 per year. It sounds great that 20 million people were covered, at who’s expense?
The D’s have had 7 years to make correction to Obama care, what have they done to fix it? NOTHING!!!
And this year the R’s have done nothing to fix the issues.
I wonder what groups made money off the 90 millions?
The Dems were in control for about a year, not 8 years, but good try.