Concepts of Health Care Plans → Humiliation Trying to Pass Them
They still haven’t figured out this health care thing. Don’t hold your breath.
A geek tragedy
More than fifteen years after President Barack Obama signed the Affordable Care Act (better known as Obamacare) into law, congressional Republicans are still squabbling with each other and struggling to put together a coherent replacement. And proving incapable of actually getting anything passed.
On Tuesday, the Senate failed 51-48 to advance a health savings plan authored by Republican Sens. Mike Crapo (R-Idaho) and Bill Cassidy (R-La.). A Democrat-led, clean, three-year extension of the enhanced ACA subsidies subsequently failed as well, 51-48, but with three Republicans crossing over.
The outcome is a disaster on a human level. Millions of people are now facing the prospects of drastically elevated premiums at a time when affordability concerns are already paramount. It’s also a calamity for Republicans politically, who are now set to be blamed for those skyrocketing premiums all while proving, yet again, that they are incapable of finding a health care plan that doesn’t ultimately make the system even worse and more chaotic.
The build up to Thursday was a portrait of policy ineptitude.