Democrats blame Trump for Obamacare's failure
Obama and the Democrats passed Obamacare on a straight party vote without any Republican input or votes using a parliamentary trick by Harry Reid. Among other lies, Obama promised that premiums would be reduced and everyone would keep his doctor. The basis of Obamacare was to force young healthy Americans to purchase expensive health insurance for coverage they did not need and to have taxpayers pay insurance companies to subsidize premiums for low-income Americans.
The health insurance issues could have been, and still can be, resolved by specific laws dealing with specific issues. For example, allow insurance to be sold across state lines, allow consumers to choose coverage, increase the amounts in health savings accounts (HSAs), allow for payment of premiums using HSAs, allow deductibility of all health costs and premiums from gross income, enact tort reform to limit punitive damage awards and non-economic losses, use VA hospitals to treat uninsured and those with pre-existing conditions, and others.
Instead of honestly dealing with the specific problems, Obama revamped the entire health insurance system and brought it under federal control to supposedly provide health insurance to about 12 million uninsured, when the vast majority of Americans, probably over 300 million, had health insurance. The real purpose was to extend federal control over a large portion of the economy and create more voters dependent on the Democratic Party.
Whether by design or incompetence, Obamacare has failed. Premiums have soared; consumers have no choice in coverage, nor sometimes in selection of doctors; we still have uninsured; employers have reduced the hours of employees to avoid providing health insurance; and health insurance companies have withdrawn from Obamacare.
During the past six months, Republicans have tried to fashion a bill to repeal and replace Obamacare. The House finally passed a bill. The Senate has failed to pass a bill. The problem is that the Republicans use Obamacare as a starting point to improve it and make it efficient. As a result, there are differences among the Republicans about how to fix this mess. The Democrats and their cheerleaders in the Destroy Trump Media have sat back to mock and criticize the Republicans without offering any help to fix the problem the Democrats created with Obamacare.
Trump finally said repeal Obamacare or do nothing and let it fail. This has sent the Democrats into a panic because Obamacare is their program. The Democrats want the Republicans to pass a replacement bill so they are off the hook and can then blame Trump for any problems with the replacement bill.
For example, Senator Chris Coons (D-Del.) said: "That's just heartless. We're talking about real people here, literally tens of millions of people. One of the things the Affordable Care Act did was provide better quality insurance for over 150 million Americans, who get their insurance through their employer and provide access to health care for the first time for tens of millions of Americans in addition. to simply throw his hands up and say, I'm not responsible, I have nothing to do with this, we'll simply let the insurance markets fail, and then begin to work toward some sort of replacement plan, that's just callous."
The bottom line is that the Democrats and the Destroy Trump Media want the Republicans to continue arguing over a replacement bill so it delays the Trump agenda of cutting taxes and building the border wall. They want to see the divisions in the Republican Party over the proposals. They have no interest in dealing with health care issues, but just want to see the Republicans become mired in trying to fix Obamacare. The Democrats and Destroy Trump Media are using and will continue to use the health care bills as another weapon to attack Trump.
Obamacare cannot be fixed. It must be repealed. It is a swamp.
Trump should now offer his tax reform bill, and Trump should offer specific bills to deal with specific issues. He should not leave it up to Ryan and McConnell to draft the bills.