Americans are divided over repealing Obamacare

Also buoying UnitedHealth and other health care stocks was news of President-elect Donald Trump’s nominee for secretary of Health and Human Services, Rep. Tom Price (R., Ga.), an arch conservative and fierce opponent of ACA.

“Chairman Price, a renowned physician, has earned a reputation for being a tireless problem solver and the go-to expert on healthcare policy, making him the ideal choice to serve in this capacity”, said President-elect Trump.

The sign-ups on HealthCare.gov, which began on November 1 and close at the end of January, were 167,000 more than in the year-ago period, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services said in a statement.

In case you haven’t noticed it’s been nearly seven years since the passage of the Affordable Care Act (Obamacare), and in all that time the GOP has not proffered an alternative that most Republicans have been willing to support.

The number of people who have trouble paying their medical bills has plummeted in the last five years as more people have gained health insurance through the Affordable Care Act and gotten jobs as the economy has improved.

What remains unclear is what would replace Obamacare. One of the sticking points is the idea of a tax credit – basically a dollar-for-dollar reduction in taxes owed for the first so many dollars spent on health insurance.

Throughout his tenure in the United States House of Representatives, which began in 2005, Dr. Price has a 100% pro-life voting record. This was the district that sent former Republican Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich to the House for 20 years, from 1979 to 1999.

Price’s nomination was met with praise from his colleagues in Washington, including members of the Georgia delegation.

Price has consistently taken right-wing positions, including voting to deny funding to National Public Radio, regularly voting to extend the USA Patriot Act and government spying programs, and co-sponsoring a bill to build additional border fencing between the U.S. and Mexico. As Dvorsky stated, “Price has opposed federal funding for abortion and Planned Parenthood at every opportunity, and it’s not likely he’ll stop now”. Unless eight of them defect, they have enough votes to filibuster Republican bills to undo it. Republicans probably do not have the votes to abolish the filibuster. That might not be the case after Republicans enact the first part of their repeal-and-delay strategy.

Price also backs, as does Trump, a plan by House Republicans to sharply cut the Medicaid health program for the poor and disabled and turn it over to the states to run.

‘For decades, the bishops have consistently insisted that access to decent health care is a basic safeguard of human life’.

As an orthopedic surgeon, Tom Price is used to calling the shots in the operating room. The same Obamacare benefit has helped lower-income white people in OH, cutting the state’s uninsured rate to six percent.

Allowing people to be uninsured again isn’t going to solve our health care crisis unless we’re willing to close the doors of hospital emergency rooms and watch people die in the street.

Some 31% want the law repealed and not replaced. The law is meant to reward quality over volume, but as a congressman Price expressed concern that some of the implementing regulations might interfere with the doctor-patient relationship.

The Democrats will mount no serious opposition.

The problem is that many parts of the law – such as the provision that insurers can’t deny coverage based on a preexisting condition – are popular with Americans, and almost 20 million people have accessed healthcare plans through the ACA. If Senate Democrats, especially those up in 2018, are clever, they might start introducing market-oriented reforms to the existing ACA, and in effect dare Republicans to vote those down and try to reinvent the wheel – or worse, go ahead and take health care away from millions of people with no concrete substitute in sight.