Mitch McConnell: It Doesn’t Matter If Millions Of Americans Lose Their Insurance As Long As We Repeal Obamacare
Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY)
Repeal, repeal, repeal. That’s all Republicans can think about the Affordable Care Act. It doesn’t matter if 30 million Americans are now covered or if insurance companies can’t discriminate against people with pre-existing conditions and it certainly doesn’t matter that kids can stay on their parents insurance until age 26. It just doesn’t matter to Republicans how good a piece of major legislation is, they want to repeal it anyway because they hate President Obama that much.
On Thursday, the Supreme Court upheld Obamacare as constitutional. It was a landmark decision that spun conservative heads across the nation. It was also a humane and compassionate decision that kept in place the various provisions that lower health care costs by making sure everyone is covered one way or another. And the law does all of this by using the free market as the delivery vehicle. But Republicans don’t care about any of that. So they intend to waste time, effort, and taxpayer dollars trying to repeal the popular program instead of working to create jobs. And worse, Republicans don’t even care about having a plan to replace it with. Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell said as much on Fox News on Sunday.
During this interview with Chris Wallace, McConnell couldn’t answer Wallace’s pressing questions of what Republicans will replace Obamacare with. Instead, McConnell said it doesn’t matter if people don’t have insurance because he wants America to continue being one of the worst nations in the developed world when it comes to health care.
Chris Wallace: “One of the keys to ObamaCare is that it will extend insurance access to 30 million people who are now uninsured. In your replacement, how would you provide universal coverage?”
Mitch McConnell: “Well first let me say the first single thing we can do for the American system is get rid of ObamaCare. The single biggest direction we can take in terms of improving health care is to get rid of this monstrosity.”
Of course, McConnell was unable to say why Obamacare is such a “monstrosity.” Apparently a free market based health care solution that benefits every American is a horrible idea to conservatives. But wait, there’s more:
Chris Wallace: “But you’re talking about repealing and replace, how would you provide universal coverage?”
Mitch McConnell: I’ll get to it in a minute…
Chris Wallace: ”I just want to ask, what specifically are you going to do to provide universal coverage to the 30 million people who are uninsured?”
Mitch McConnell: “That is not the issue. The question is, how can you go step by step to improve the American health care system. We’re not going to turn the American health care system into a Western European system.”
You can watch the video here:
(thanks to Think Progress for the clip)
So McConnell, despite the fact that Obamacare IS a free market based solution to health care and not a government takeover, still wants to repeal the law. The fact is, the Western European system of health care is totally government-run (albeit cheaper and of better quality), whereas in America, Obama is going to make sure all Americans are covered by mandating that we all take responsibility for our own health care and buy health insurance from a private company. Only those who can’t afford to buy their own coverage will be aided by the government either through Medicaid or a subsidy. It’s essentially the complete opposite of government controlled health care. So why do Republicans like McConnell have an issue with Obamacare? Well, it all goes back a couple of years ago when a Kentucky senator stated for the record that the number one goal of the Republican Party is to do everything they can to make President Obama fail. That Kentucky senator is Mitch McConnell and killing a critical and popular landmark piece of health care legislation that actually helps Americans is just another way Republicans can sabotage America to hurt President Obama. It really is that simple.
5:15 am
I did find that part of the bill. It says “Members of Congress and their staff will only be offered healthcare plans through the exchange or plans otherwise established by the bill (instead of the Federal Employee Health Benefit Program they currently use). This was found on Wikipedia under “Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act”. Now let me add this. The FEHB which they refer to is not that great of a program. They have a limited selection of insurers to choose from and you still pay through the nose. I am on that program, being a federal employee, and I still pay over $400 per month fl insurance for my wife and myself each month. And I know that it’s a drop in the bucket to what they make. I’m not standing up for them by any means but in reality there insurance is no better than mine with all the high deductables and everything. Of course, I still think they all sick.
4:48 am
I have read part of the bill and I found the real reasno the Republicans want to get rid of this bill. If you read the parts of the bill that go into effect on 1/1/14 you will see that starting then Congress and their staffs will be required to obtain and pay for their own insurance just like other American citizens. That is not word for word but that’s what it said in a nutshell. It means no more special coverage or taxpayer funded insurance. I’m going yo read it again just to make sure I read it right. Gotta find it though cause I forgot to save the page into my favorites.
5:14 pm
Yo Mitch … my tax dollars pay for your healthcare … how about we stop paying for your healthcare, you pay for your own (since you can well afford it) and my tax dollars can pay for my own healthcare … this sounds fair to me …