There was always more grassroots support for Obamacare than against it
Senate Majority Leader John Cornyn wants 22 million American know that freedom is coming, thanks to Trumpcare.
People won’t “lose” their insurance, he argued on Twitter, they’ll choose not to be insured.
Fact checking Trump’s GOP is like trying to quell a fire with fertilizer — shit just explodes and everything stinks. But you know the vast majority of 22 million Americans uninsured by Senate Trumpcare are on Medicaid, 14-15 million in the Senate bill. That means they’ll go uninsured rather than move from Medicaid’s $0 deductibles, in most cases, to pay for Trumpcare plans with $6,000 deductibles.
What a choice!
Another 4 million will just straight-out lose their employer health coverage because of the end of any threat of a penalty for businesses that don’t offer coverage. I guess Cornyn might argue they’re choosing go uninsured because they didn’t pick assisted-suicide instead.
That leaves about 3-4 million Americans who will actually choose not to be insured, many of them older Americans being forced to pick financial solvency over insurance coverage because of the horrendous costs of Trumpcare, which generally offers them higher premiums and deductibles, though Donald Trump promised the exact opposite.
Big loser in Senate health plan?
A 64-year-old making ~$43K a year in Anchorage.
They go from $20K subsidy under ACA to zilch.— Steven Dennis (@StevenTDennis) June 22, 2017
What I’m wondering is: If there are so many people eager to shed their insurance coverage, where the hell are they?
If 22 million Americans are dying to be uninsured, you’d think there would be at least one spontaneous pro-Trumpcare rally. You’d think this wouldn’t be least popular bill in decades, possibly ever. You’d think Republicans would be proud to go out and defend the amazing freedom to die they’re offering in bulk.
Where are the millions of Americans who demanding their pre-existing conditions back?
But nothing.
Republican Members of Congress won’t even report the numbers of calls their receiving for Trumpcare and the number of GOP Senators holding town hall meetings is so small, you could probably drive around the country on a moped and catch most of them.
Where is all the outrage at Obamacare from the summer 2009 when an allegedly non-partisan group called the Tea Party carefully coordinated rage at Democrats who were daring to insure tens of millions and add benefits and life to the Medicare trust fund?
You could say it was fake grassroots and that movement wouldn’t have happened without the prodding of Fox News and Koch-funded groups. But the outrage was real. Turns out it was just more pointed at our first black president in general and not the actual idea of the government expanding health insurance, an idea which becomes more popular all the time, especially as Republicans try uninsure millions.
The truth is the grassroots movement against Obamacare was good at building a network of local activists who have fed off the GOP’s other vast investments in state networks, gerrymandering and voter suppression. But the real grassroots effort in favor of Obamacare won in 2010 and it’s on the march today.
Our pal Andrew Sprung explains:
The Tea Party protests against the ACA-in-progress at Town Hall meetings in the long hot summer of 2009 have become part of American political lore. What’s less well known is that progressive groups supporting health reform fought back on the spot, often with equal or superior manpower and local impact. The media preferred the screamers, of course.
There was a massive coordinated effort led by Health Care for American Now (HCAN), an umbrella organization for groups committed to universal healthcare, formed in the runup to the 2008 election. Member groups’ ability to muster supporters provided vital support that kept many representatives and senators committed to passing the bill that became the ACA.
HCAN disbanded after the ACA became law. The Tea Party didn’t, mostly because the Tea Party was just an activated strand of the GOP base deciding to become more active.
The party’s hard core believers and GOP donors like Sheldon Adelson, who stands to pull in a $480 billion tax break from Trumpcare over the next 10 years, are among the 12-38 percent of America who supports Trump’s bill.
But even they aren’t willing to go shout about it.
[Meme generated at ImgFlip]
