Recent television clips have shown a woman exclaiming that without the Affordable Care Act (ACA) some members of her family would be dead. Such tragedies are certainly possible because ACA has saved lives. Before ACA, according to various studies, between 20,000 and 45,000 Americans died each year due to a lack of health insurance. During the first two years of the ACA, the number of uninsured fell from 41.8 million to 29 million, a drop of over 30 percent–the two largest single-year deductions on record. The number of deaths due to the lack of health insurance is assumed to have fallen similarly.
ACA is growing in popularity and has reached its highest point of approval. According to a recent national Pew Research Center poll, 54% of the public favor the law, with 43% disapproving. Of the 43% who are against the law, only 17% want Republicans to repeal the ACA entirely. But of course, the Republicans are dashing toward repeal.
With a majority of the population for the ACA and many claiming it has saved their lives, why are the Republicans still hell-bent on abolishing it? One friend says it’s because the Republicans are evil. Well, I will leave that discussion for another day.
There are at least four reasons to consider for why Republicans are doing this mean deed: (1) they hate Obama and therefore Obamacare (ACA), (2) they are carrying out a political promise, (3) they oppose all social programs, and (4) they want to cut taxes for the rich.
On the first reason, yes, they may hate Obama. Their racially based vilification of him whipped up the racists enough for them to gain the Congress and then the presidency. Remember Republicans in the House vowing to oppose all Obama’s bills and initiatives and Senator McConnell vowing to make Obama so unsuccessful he would be a one-term president. Much of their hostility towards Obama fed into the spoken as well as unspoken narrative that Obama was not a legitimate U.S. President. But, Obama is gone now. Therefore, other reasons are probably at play. The second reason says they are enacting a promise to the American people, and politicians must try to do what they promised. This reason cannot hold water as the American people are demonstrating every day that they do not want the ACA abolished.
The third reason is Republicans oppose all social programs. It is true that Republicans tend to oppose social support programs that use public funds. Despite that in the mid-1960’s Southern Democrats tended to be conservative (Dixiecrats) and Northern Republicans tended to be moderate to liberal, the Republican opposition to social programs manifested itself in 1965 in Congressional voting for Medicare and Medicaid. While many Republicans voted for these programs, a slight majority of Republicans voted against Medicare and Medicaid, and they have tried to weaken both of these programs ever since. With very few, if any, liberals among Republicans in the Congress now, being against social legislation like the ACA (and possibly Medicaid and Medicare) is consistent with past ideology.
We will be remiss if we do not consider the role that lowering taxes may be playing in the current so-called “repeal and replace Obamacare” activity. Lowering taxes, especially on the rich, has been one of the more consistent efforts of Republicans in the last 60-70 years. The repeal of the Affordable Care Act would mean $7 million per year in tax breaks to the richest 400 families in the country.
Whatever the “why” of the actions of this Republican Congress, I do know the “what.” The repeal of the ACA is trading health care for the poor for tax cuts for the wealthy.