Obamacare v. Vouchers

Two programs illustrate the goals of the two parties.

Let’s start with a reminder that Florida Republican Congressman Cory Mills still has a restraining order against him for threatening violence against his former girlfriend. Mills is also married and had/has a girlfriend in Washington, DC, too. Nobody has called for his resignation or any other sort of accountability. Mike Johnson calls him a “faithful colleague.” He’s just not a faithful husband or boyfriend. Ironically, protecting Mills is about protecting the Epstein Files since one vote could force the House to release them.

Yesterday, the Republican Senator from Alabama, Katie Britt, tweeted, “Democrats created Obamacare, established ACA subsidies, extended them for everyone no matter their income level, and then set the deadline for their expiration.”

That reminds me that Republicans in North Carolina created Opportunity Scholarships, established private school subsidies, extended them for everyone no matter their income level, and then made them permanent. Today, the majority of those subsidies go to families who were already sending their children to private schools. The Opportunity Scholarships are a transfer of wealth from the poor and middle class to some of the wealthiest families in the state.

In contrast, the Affordable Care Act addressed a health care crisis in America where more than 15% of citizens did not have health insurance, the cost of health care was skyrocketing, and millions of people, including me, could be effectively denied health insurance due to pre-existing conditions. The Affordable Care Act cut the number of people without health insurance in half. It eliminated the pre-existing conditions exclusion because denying health care to the people who clearly need it is cruel and greedy. Since passage of the law, health care costs have grown more slowly than before it was passed and out of pocket costs costs decreased substantially.

Republicans either gutted or sued to prevent many of the cost saving measures like expanding the risk pool by requiring everyone to purchase insurance, but the program has been a success nonetheless. Despite GOP attempts to sabotage the program, fewer people are uninsured than at any time in U.S. history. More needs to be done to bring down the cost of health care, but stripping health insurance from millions of people is not the way to do it.

Both programs were sold to the public with dubious claims. Obama famously said, “If you like your doctor, you can keep your doctor,” when, in fact, many doctors and practices did not accept ACA plans. Republicans in North Carolina assured us that Opportunity Scholarships would be reserved for low-income families to help them escape failing public schools, but today most of the money goes to families who were already wealthy enough to send their children to private schools.

The Affordable Care Act and Opportunity Scholarships provide a great contrast between the objectives of Democrats and Republicans. When Democrats implement a large, far-reaching government program, the goal is to improve the lives of struggling Americans by easing a burden. When Republicans pass a big program, the goal is to provide a back-door tax break for rich people.