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We Don’t Have to Repeal Obamacare to Eliminate It — Mike H
The American people are not going to be receptive to repeal of Obamacare because it sounds radical at this point. But that’s OK, because we don’t have to sell repeal in order to get elected and we don’t have to pass repeal in order to trivialize Obamacare.
We simply need to pass very reasonable sounding “fixes” that will have the effect of neutering the legislation while not disruptively altering the status quo.
First, we obviously get rid of the mandate, freeing people to buy the healthcare products they want.
Then, we pass legislation that allows companies to sell products will little or no regulation. If done in the ideal fashion, we would overule the state regulations using the same supremacy of federal law that has made Obamacare such a nuisance. Companies could sell products that meet what people want, in the amount they want, for the price they are willing to pay. When the left complains that the proletarians won’t have all the coverage that the benevolent caretakers think they should have, just point to the Obamacare option: it’s still there.
In addition to this, many of the good ideas that have been proposed as part of a replacement to Obamacare can be implemented, overriding parts of Obamacare in the process: decoupling health insurance from work and taking your plan with you, eliminating the tax preference for employer-provided plans, etc.
Most of this should be an easier sell than “lets eliminate everything we have and replace it with all this new stuff right now,” which would trigger citizens’ status quo reflex and turn them against us.
Then we wait … and allow businesses and entrepreneurs to solve the problem for us.
Things could shift quickly but smoothly under this new paradigm. The flailing remnants of ObamaCare can be left to continue to do what they do best: fail.
When people have all but forgotten about ObamaCare — or become even more disgruntled by dealing with it during the transition — they will either beg us to put it out of its misery or allow us to quietly drop it when no one’s paying attention any longer.
It’s not repeal and replace; it’s replace then repeal.
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Well, that’s why I’m a scientist and not a business owner. I like your words, and there needs to be a simple phrase to go with the idea.
Just call it the Healthcare Equality Act. Everyone likes equality.
Something like “tailoring a plan to your needs” or “making health technology work for you”
Build on the Apple and app culture.
“Equality” is too loaded too, turns off conservatives especially. Not everyone likes equality anyway. Connotations of jealousy, nannyism, and a nasty undertone of “special priveleges” among white audiences. People see that word think “Oh, who is whinging about “unfairness” now?”
“Custom” or “Customize” work well in this context. As does “Portable” or “cloud”. Emphasize words like “your” and “yours”.
Heh. That’s a whole lot of conversations there.
The very phrase, “Repeal & Replace” unfortunately needs to be stricken from the public dialogue. Now that the system is implemented, for better or worse (definitely worse), the phrase will just introduce more uncertainty in the minds of low-information voters, who’ll fear (and will probably be told by Democrats) that they’ll be left without health coverage between the process of “repealing” and “replacing.” It’ll be just more of the “Republicans want the Wild, Wild West back where you fend for yourself” demagoguery. So Repeal & Replace is out — it’s going to have to be something far more palatable to the public, like “Revise & Restore.”
That option flew out the window when Obama won reelection.