Well, I don’t like the “Obamacare” label, anywhere near as much as the “Affordable Care Act”, but the Obama campaign is up and running with it. Go order your shirt/bumper sticker/pin here:
Obama for America | 2012 | Store | Obamacare Pack
This comes at a time when the health care law is polling fair-to-badly; the right is apoplectic and support on the left is soft. (Thanks Greenwald and Hamsher for that.) What people know about the law has been reduced to the personal mandate — as if that’s all it did.
So why do I like it? Why did I buy the T-shirt?
- Some 32 million Americans will gain insurance (depending on costs). Does that matter to you? Does that sound like a BFD?
- 2.5 million young folks (<27) have been already covered under their parents’ insurance
- An insurer can no longer deny coverage based on a pre-existing condition.
- Exchanges will be set up state-by-state, similar to the Massachusetts Connector, which will make it much, much easier to compare and purchase health care plans.
- A number of cost-control efforts are now being implemented, like paying for quality-not-quantity of care — which show great promise in slowing the growth of health care costs.
- Relatedly, Obamacare seems to helping to stabilize Medicare spending.
So yeah, I like Obamacare. It’s a good law, it should be a political winner, and it needs support.
And I’d like to know which of these aspects Scott Brown opposed. I’d like to know what he would replace it with. I’d like to know what part he thinks is “bad for Massachusetts”, as he wildly and vaguely claimed in his previous campaign. (Talk about unvetted!) I want to know why he voted for “Romneycare” but campaigned and voted against the “same f-ing bill” when it was called “Obamacare”. I’d like to know if he supports Candidate Romney’s pledge to repeal said “same f-ing bill,” and precisely why.
I want a full and detailed explanation from our junior Senator. Is that too much to ask?
afertig says
Not to mention that national reform is good for MA in particular. Sure, the Affordable Care Act is modeled on MA reform law, and 98% of folks here have health insurance (not to mention 99.8% of all children.)
But national health reform is good for MA in particular. Over 780,000 Medicare beneficiaries have received free preventative services. About 71,000 seniors in MA get help with their prescription drugs. Our community health centers have received $73 million in grants that help real people every day. National health reform is good for Massachusetts. And anybody who represents Massachusetts should fight for the things that are good for us.
merrimackguy says
Is that Romneycare siphoned money from the Feds. All people at the state level want to claim as big a piece of the federal pie as they can. Note John Kerry’s support for the backup engine for the F-35 JSF.
I bet just about any State Senator would support anything that brought Federal funds.
When it’s not the the Fed -> state, then the calculus is different.
Oh course increased Health Care spending in general is great for MA. We have a lot of people employed in it and an huge infrastructure delivering a vast array of services. Doesn’t automatically imply that increased HC spending is good for the country though.
merrimackguy says
I only brought up the Kerry link as an example because most people in MA probably support lower defense spending, Kerry is a assumed to be a smart guy (and might think that logically this wasn’t necessary) and the Pentagon didn’t want it either. Yet Kerry still pushed for it.
I use this example a lot because it shows pork barrel spending so clearly.