The Republican Fear of the Democratic Healthcare Reform

            Over 50 million, or 17%, of Americans were uninsured in 2010. That number was predicted to rise to 57 million in 2022 (Potter 2014). As a response, President Barack Obama issued in March 2010 the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, or better known by its nickname: ObamaCare. He aimed to reform the healthcare system and provide all Americans with affordable quality health insurance. Under ObamaCare, more people became qualified for health insurance and by 2013, 85% of Americans had health coverage (“Affordable Care”). People with chronic illnesses can now be guaranteed healthcare and be given treatment. ObamaCare tremendously impacted and improved so many lives as shown in this video.

(Gilson 2015)

            Ever since ObamaCare was passed and enacted, the Republican party had many criticisms. They advertised it to Republican supporters as a bill that did not fulfill its purpose. For example, conservatives believed that more people would work part-time to avoid taxes implemented by ObamaCare. In reality, part-time employment fell by 300,000 people and full-time employment grew by over 2 million people by 2014 (“Obamacare: conservative”). Now that Donald Trump is president, Republicans plan to repeal and replace ObamaCare with their own healthcare bill, TrumpCare. Why are Republicans so insistent on replacing ObamaCare when they could expand on and modify it instead? I wanted to gain insight into and explore this complex issue.

            Under Bill Clinton’s presidency in 1993, Hillary Clinton submitted a healthcare proposal known as the Health Security Act, or unofficially nicknamed as ClintonCare (Starr 2007). She wanted to provide universal healthcare as ObamaCare does today. However, people were not convinced that there was a healthcare crisis. Republicans especially were not supportive of the idea at the time.

            Republican John Chafee proposed his own healthcare reform bill in November 1993 called the “Health Equity And Access Reform Today Act” (HEART) in an effort to combat support for ClintonCare. He had backing from half of the Republican senate including leader Bob Dole and House of Representative Newt Gingrich. However, when Chafee attempted to move the bill forward, it was unsuccessful because of disagreement on healthcare mandates. The bill never made it to senate (Quadagno 2014).

            The ultimate reason for ClintonCare’s failure was due to the 1993 Kristol Memo. William Kristol feared that healthcare reform would become successful and diminish Republican support. In the memo, he said

"The long-term political effects of a successful... healthcare bill will be even worse—much worse.... It will revive the reputation of... Democrats as the generous protector of middle-class interests. And it will at the same time strike a punishing blow against Republican claims to defend the middle class by restraining government" (Marshall 2013).

Republicans wanted to stop ClintonCare at all costs. The Health Insurance Association of America (HIAA) led by Republican Bill Gradison created a television advertising campaign called “Harry and Louise” to oppose ClintonCare (“Harry and Louise”). In these video commercials, a depicted normal middle-class couple would talk about the downsides to having universal healthcare. Americans saw these advertisements for a year and were consequently discouraged from supporting ClintonCare, leading to its failure.

            With the pressure of the Kristol Memo, the Republican Party was afraid that they would lose party support if the Democratic Party ever successfully passed a healthcare bill. More of the middle class would vote Democrat instead of Republican. This fear drove Republicans to vote against the Affordable Care Act during its proposal and have a desire to repeal it today. A Democratic president established the act, and Republicans cannot risk losing their middle-class supporters to the Democratic party. Thus, Republicans such as Bob Dole and Newt Gingrich voted against ObamaCare even though HEART had very similar goals, as shown in the chart below.

(Mertens 2010)

            Today, Republicans are desperate to repeal ObamaCare. They have proposed a bill to replace it, and House of Representative Speaker Paul Ryan soon after pulled it back. He knew that it was not an adequate replacement of ObamaCare (Horsey 2017). The Republican Party would lose a lot of support if they did not properly replace the Affordable Care Act. They have no desire to modify and improve it because it is tied to a Democrat’s name, Obama. Instead, they would rather have a healthcare act under a republican representative such as President Donald Trump, so that the middle-class citizens will continue supporting them.

How can we improve as a nation if we remain so divided along party lines?

Bibliography

"Affordable Care Act Summary." Obamacare Facts. Accessed April 26, 2017. http://obamacarefacts.com/affordablecareact-summary/.

Clintonlibrary42. ""Harry and Louise" Health Care Ads (Clinton Administration)." YouTube. August 26, 2014. Accessed April 26, 2017. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cd_xPNT1Fh8.

CNN. "Town halls erupt in anger over Obamacare repeal." Town halls erupt in anger over Obamacare repeal. February 12, 2017. Accessed April 26, 2017. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oJmP8b2II8M&feature=youtu.be.

Gilson, Dave. "20 Obamacare stats the GOP doesn't want you to see." Mother Jones. March 23, 2015. Accessed April 27, 2017. http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2015/03/obamacare-charts-stats-health-care-reform.

"Harry and Louise." Wikipedia. February 24, 2017. Accessed April 26, 2017. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harry_and_Louise.

Horsey, David. "Paul Ryan's 'Trumpcare' does not entirely repeal or replace Obamacare." Los Angeles Times. March 9, 2017. Accessed April 26, 2017. http://www.latimes.com/opinion/topoftheticket/la-na-tt-trumpcare-20170308-story.html.

Marshall, Josh. "Stepping Back from the Heady Storm." TPM. September 24, 2013. Accessed April 26, 2017. http://talkingpointsmemo.com/edblog/stepping-back-from-the-heady-storm.

Mertens, Maggie. "Chart: Comparing Health Reform Bills: Democrats and Republicans 2009, Republicans 1993." Kaiser Health News. February 23, 2010. Accessed April 26, 2017. http://khn.org/022310-bill-comparison/.

"Obamacare: conservative logic versus liberal facts." Liberal Bias. March 26, 2014. Accessed April 26, 2017. http://liberalbias.com/post/3374/obamacare-conservative-logic-liberal-facts/.

Potter, Wendell. "The ‘good old days’ before Obamacare." Health Insurance Resource Center. October 25, 2014. Accessed April 26, 2017. https://www.healthinsurance.org/blog/2014/10/25/the-good-old-days-before-obamacare/.

Quadagno, Jill. "Right-wing conspiracy? Socialist plot? The origins of the patient protection and affordable care act." Journal of Health Politics, Policy and Law 39, no. 1 (2014): 35-56.

Starr, Paul. "The Hillarycare Mythology." The American Prospect. September 13, 2007. Accessed April 26, 2017. http://prospect.org/article/hillarycare-mythology.