The Republican Party had said they would be voting again to repeal the Affordable Care Act (Obamacare) this coming week, and this time they would be passing their own version of health care reform. But that's now not going to happen.The Republicans have been saying for years now that they will produce a better health care reform plan -- and for years they have been unable to do that. They have been unable to do it because whatever proposal a Republican comes up with, there are a majority of Republicans against it. And the same thing happened to their plan for this week. They were unable to get enough Republicans to support any reform plan at all to get it passed.
While their opposition to Obamacare is nearly universal with their elected officials, they simply cannot come up with any other cure for our broken health care system (except to cut taxes for the insurance companies and other corporations, which is their "cure" for every problem the nation faces). So, instead of voting to repeal Obamacare and replace it with a GOP reform plan this week, they are going to just propose and vote on a one-year delay of Obamacare's individual mandate.
Even if this proposal passes both houses and becomes law (which it won't), this is nothing short of a surrender to reality -- the reality that Obamacare is here to stay (and there's nothing they can do about it). And it's not just their inability to come up with an alternative that makes them realize this (even if they won't admit it).
They can see the numbers of people who have purchased private insurance under Obamacare -- numbers that are significant, and continue to grow. And they know it is simply not politically viable to deny these millions of people the cheaper and better insurance Obamacare is providing them. The Department of Health and Human Services is reporting that the number of people who have purchased private insurance under Obamacare has now topped 4 million (and that doesn't count the millions more who have now qualified for Medicaid).
I'm sure the Republicans will continue to mouth their proposals to repeal Obamacare during their primary season, because that's what their teabagger base wants to hear. But they know the fight is over. Obamacare is here to stay. Now we need to start a dialog on how to improve Obamacare.
