I am asking this question seriously of my Conservative Facebook friends. I will not debate your answers, but am honestly interested in your responses. The question is... How can you all reconcile the recent few years history of Health Care with your current opposition to the ACA? A Little ACA History. The idea goes back as far as 1989, when it was initially proposed by the conservative Heritage Foundation as an alternative to single-payer health care. It was championed by many Republican politicians as a market-based approach to healthcare reform on the basis of individual responsibility. After Bill Clinton proposed a healthcare bill, Republican Senators proposed an alternative that would have required individuals, but not employers, to buy insurance. The 1993 Republican alternative, introduced by Senator John Chafee as the Health Equity and Access Reform Today Act, contained a universal coverage requirement with a penalty for noncompliance—an individual mandate—as well as subsidies to be used in state-based purchasing groups. In 2006, Republican Governor Mitt Romney signed an insurance expansion bill with strong bipartisan support, including that of Senator Ted Kennedy. Romneys successful implementation of the Health Connector exchange and individual mandate in Massachusetts was at first lauded by Republicans. During Romneys 2008 presidential campaign, Senator Jim DeMint praised Romneys ability to take some good conservative ideas, like private health insurance, and apply them to the need to have everyone insured. Romney himself said of the individual mandate: Im proud of what weve done. If Massachusetts succeeds in implementing it, then that will be the model for the nation. In 2007, a year after the Massachusetts reform, Republican Senator Bob Bennett and Democratic Senator Ron Wyden introduced the Healthy Americans Act, which also featured an individual mandate and state-based regulated insurance markets called State Health Help Agencies. Legislation that eventually emerged from Congress in 2009 and 2010 bears many similarities to the 2007 bill and that it was deliberately patterned after Romneys state healthcare plan and Jonathan Gruber, its architect, went on to serve as the technical consultant to the draft ACA. Anyone care to comment?
Posted on: Mon, 25 Nov 2013 23:08:21 +0000
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