Surprise! GOP Plan To 'Fix' Obamacare Will Just Make It Worse

Here's a fun fact you already knew, but now there is math to back it up. That Republican Senate bill to salvage Obamacare tax subsidies (while still gutting other parts of Obamacare), just in case the Supreme Court overturns them and every single American blame the GOP for taking away their healthcare? Yeah, that bill sucks. 

The nerds at the American Academy of Actuaries looked at the bill proposed by Wisconsin Sen. Ron Johnson and supported by the Senate's Republican leadership, and whaddaya know? Millions of people will STILL lose coverage because Johnson's bill only reinstates the subsidies through August 2017 and then -- well, heck, hopefully, the Republicans will win the White House (they won't) and repeal Obamacare fully (not gonna happen) and replace it with something else (still working on what that might be), and they'll just worry about that later. Great idea! Except, at best, that will only delay the otherwise inevitable FACT that without subsidies, millions of people who currently have health insurance will no longer have health insurance.

Is that not quite catastrophic enough for you?

The legislation also repeals the health care law's individual mandate, which the AAA brief said would exacerbate the problems, as it "could result in adverse selection that would raise premiums and threaten the viability of the market." In plain English, that means healthier people would drop their coverage and leave insurance companies caring for sicker people, causing them to raise premiums -- what health economists call a "death spiral."

We're not doctors, or economists, but "death spiral" sounds pretty bad. Probably the kind of thing we should try to avoid. If only there were some way ... Oh, but darn it, it just might be too late because Obamacare is now in the hands of the Supreme Court, and who even knows what those judicial activists will do?

Too bad no one ever told Republicans that Obamacare has expanded insurance to millions of Americans, driven down the costs of health care, saved hospitals billions of dollars, and most Americans might like to see some improvements but do NOT want to lose Obamacare completely. Oh wait, everyone did that, but Republicans refused to listen and kept looking for horror stories that didn't exist, and now, thanks to GOP diligence, Americans might get screwed just like in the freedom-y pre-Obamacare days, hooray!

[contextly_sidebar id="7GQzN4qhYUFTBQeaJzzWCLQCbriG2kXk"]

Good job, Republicans. Take a bow. You've really outdone yourselves. Again.

[ Bloomberg ]