Explanation of law is a weekly series that looks at what the right is obsessed with right now, how it's affecting politics, and why you need to know.
In response to the Democrats' emphasis Republican Party opposition With Affordable Care Act subsidies that millions of Americans rely on, Republicans have once again been forced to rethink their approach to health care.
Current crisis
Republican Party Senator. Ron Johnson of Wisconsin argued that the loss of critical health care subsidies is not a serious problem, even if families experienced sticker shock as their premiums increase.
“I don't think it's going to be a painful problem if these increased subsidies just go away. We're probably going to have to live through the lies that Democrats are telling. Democrats are saying all sorts of things that aren't true.” He told CNBC.
Meanwhile, failed presidential candidate and current Florida Governor Ron DeSantis interrogated Do people even need comprehensive coverage?
“Most people, especially those under 50, really need a catastrophic plan that's affordable and allows them to pay for everything they do out of their savings account,” he argues.
DeSantis is a Navy veteran and, incidentally, has access to comprehensive insurance for himself and his family.
In Congress, subsidies have become a key issue in the ongoing government shutdown. republicans refused to go through legislation that would fund a vital program, causing the shutdown that has swept through the economy.
The Right Has Always Hated Health Care
Opposition to health care legislation is deeply ingrained in the Republican Party, which has opposed efforts to help families for decades.
Back in the early 1960s, when he was transitioning from actor to politician, Ronald Reagan made a note it was sent throughout the country warning of the dangers of “socialized medicine.”
Before President Lyndon B. Johnson signed into law popular programs like Medicaid and Medicare as part of his Great Society policies, Reagan and company declared that health care would be used to open the door to communism.
Of course, this didn't happen.
Just over 30 years later, the Clinton administration attempted health care reform. Right opposed the planwhich was led by First Lady Hillary Clinton, ultimately ending more than a decade of reforms.
Still struggling in the 21st century
It took the crisis of the Great Recession and President Barack Obama's stunning victory to make health care reform possible in 2009. The right mounted perhaps its biggest smear campaign to portray the plan (which was modeled after Republican ideas implemented in Massachusetts) as a socialist takeover of the health care system.
The right says the law will create “death squads” of bureaucrats cutting off health care. was named That year's PolitiFact Lie of the Year. Ultimately the campaign was unsuccessful, and Obama signed the Affordable Care Act, which was derided by the right in 2010 as “Obamacare.”
After this, the right failed to challenge the law all the way to the Supreme Court. spending most of the next years vote again and again in Congress to repeal the bill.
In the midst of the fight over the ACA, conservative voters showed their position. During the Tea Party debates with presidential candidates in 2011. audience members welcomed on the idea that instead of providing government-funded medical care to a sick patient, it would be preferable to simply “let him die.”
But when the right wasn't fighting insurance reform and comprehensive coverage, it was attacking health care elsewhere.
For example, the late Senator John McCain Arizona criticized the Democrats for supporting abortion when “the mother's life” is at risk, using quotation marks to sarcastically repeat the phrase during the 2008 anti-Obama debate.
More recently, the Trump administration pursued numerous cuts and changes in veterans' health care. And ahead of the GOP's “One Big, Beautiful Bill” health care cuts, Sen. Joni Ernst of Iowa argued in May that it doesn't matter if people lose health care because “we're all going to die.”
Conservatives have no health care plans
Right-wing figures like Trump have spent nearly a decade promising political solutions to health care problems. Trump promised at first a health care plan that would have provided “insurance for everyone” back in January 2017. This has not happened yet.
What the right refuses to acknowledge is that the public, including many Republicans, supports government-sponsored health care. Programs like Medicare, Medicaid, and now Obamacare. have significant support.
It turns out that people would rather see doctors and have access to medications. instead of relying about the “free” market and the profit-driven whims of the insurance industry.
Conservatives have dedicated themselves to destroying and undermining government assistance for health care while failing to offer any viable alternative.
The right supports a world in which health care is so lacking that the alternative is disease, suffering and death—the sooner the better.
