Congressional conservatives have rocks in their heads. They’ve gone ’round the bend. They need some smelling salts.
They’re angry with House Speaker John Boehner who they believe is stalling their effort to get a bill that repeals the Affordable Care Act to the desk of the president of the United States — who hails the ACA as his signature domestic legislative achievement.
http://www.politico.com/story/2015/04/conservatives-obamacare-repeal-republicans-117364.html?hp=t1_r
Gosh, what do you suppose President Obama is going to do when he receives a bill repealing the ACA?
Sign it into law? Guess again.
Put it on ice? Hardly.
Veto it outright? Yes.
The ACA happens to be working. It’s gaining popularity among millions of rank-and-file Americans — particularly those who now can afford health insurance whereas before they couldn’t.
Their effort is doomed to fail. As Politico reports: “House Republicans have already voted more than 50 times to try to defund, alter or overturn the health care law that conservatives despise. The latest effort, if it happens, would no doubt fail, too ā and there are some indications that GOP leaders are ready to move on. But getting a bill to President Barack Obamaās desk and forcing him to veto it would send a powerful symbolic message to the Republican base that House conservatives havenāt given up on scuttling the law.”
That’s the point, I guess: make the base happy.
They want the law repealed, no matter what. The rest of the country? Well, the tideĀ appears to beĀ pulling in the opposite direction.
I am an independent voter and my #1 issue is affordable health insurance.
Paying for my own policy has educated be greatly … after seeing double-digit premium increases, I now have an ACA policy that is saving me money.
My health is good as is my bride’s … but over the past two years, she has had need of two medical devices. The first was before the ACA benefits kicked in and the second after … in both instances, the 2.3% medical device tax would have been applicable. We had no debate about the medical need for the devices … and when I asked both the doctors and their staff if the “onerous” medical device tax was impacting their business, the answer was “What medical device tax ?”
That’s the purpose of my comment. The Democrats are joining with the Republicans in an effort to repeal the medical device tax … which will cause a big hole in the funding necessary to support the ACA.
So if it isn’t patients and doctors who are complaining, who is … the medical device manufacturers and their lobbyists.
Repeal isn’t bad enough, H.R. 160 Protect Medical Innovation Act of 2015 would not only repeal the tax but also refund the payments that the device makers have already paid since 2013. H.R. 160 has 277 cosponsors — including probably yours. Tell them they are wrong to repeal this tax … which in essence is a “user” tax …. they fearmongered that there would be job losses for the industry, but the companies are increasing dividends. Further a study of RomneyCare by the British Medical Journal shows that more surgeries were done after it was enacted, so the device makers will be getting more patients.
Keep pushing the message of the value in the ACA … but don’t limit your complaints to only the Republicans.