The Glade 4.0

Facism is not a school of thought, it is a racial slur.

*snip*

The classic definition of chutzpah is the child who kills his parents and then asks for leniency because he's an orphan. But in recent weeks, we've begun to see the Washington definition: A party that does everything possible to sabotage a law and then professes fury when the law's launch is rocky.

On Tuesday, Rep. Paul Ryan became the latest Republicans to call for HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius to step down because of the Affordable Care Act's troubled launch. "I do believe people should be held accountable," he said.

Okay then.

How about House Republicans who refused to appropriate the money the Department of Health and Human Services said it needed to properly implement Obamacare? How about Senate Republicans who tried to intimidate Sebelius out of using existing HHS funds to implement Obamacare? "Would you describe the authority under which you believe you have the ability to conduct such transfers?" Sen. Orrin Hatch demanded at one hearing. It's difficult to imagine the size of the disaster if Sebelius hadn't moved those funds. How about congressional Republicans who refuse to permit the packages of technical fixes and tweaks that laws of this size routinely require?

How about Republican governors who told the Obama administration they absolutely had to be left to build their own health-care exchanges -- you'll remember that the House Democrats' health-care plan included a single, national exchange -- and then refused to build, leaving the construction of 34 insurance marketplaces up to HHS? How about the coordinated Republican effort to get the law declared unconstitutional -- an effort that ultimately failed, but that stalled implementation as government and industry waited for the uncertainty to resolve? How about the dozens of Republican governors who refused to take federal dollars to expand Medicaid, leaving about 5.5 million low-income people who'd be eligible for free, federally-funded government insurance to slip through the cracks?

The GOP's strategy hasn't just tried to win elections and repeal Obamacare. They've actively sought to sabotage the implementation of the law. They intimidated the people who were implementing the law. They made clear that problems would be exploited rather than fixed. A few weeks ago, they literally shut down the government because they refused to pass a funding bill that contiained money for Obamacare.

The Obama administration deserves all the criticism it's getting for the poor start of health law and more. Their job was to implement the law effectively -- even if Republicans were standing in their way. So far, it's clear that they weren't able to smoothly surmount both the complexities of the law and the political roadblocks thrown in their path. Who President Obama will ultimately hold accountable -- if anyone -- for the failed launch is an interesting question. But the GOP's complaints that their plan to undermine the law worked too well and someone has to pay border on the comic.

If Republicans believe Sebelius is truly to blame for the law's poor launch, they should be pinning a medal on her.

In comic strips the person on the left always speaks first. - George Carlin

The theory being that the longer you have to produce a product the more time you have to sort out the bugs. (see RangerDave's post above)

Facism is not a school of thought, it is a racial slur.

It is interesting, though, I find it fascinating that our national healthcare website barely functions and yet every single porn site in the world works like a charm. - Jimmy Kimmel

I appreciate the line-by-line, DFK, but if I may simplify, it seems like whereever I pointed out an opening for them to play games with the numbers, you've simply assumed they didn't. When all is said and done, our disagreement basically boils down to you treating Heritage like a disinterested party performing a good-faith analysis and me saying that's a silly thing to do given their agenda and track record. We are at an impasse.

Licensing is about maintaining standards of care, not ensuring doctors salaries or that medical school tuition remains high.

http://www.deloitte.com/assets/Dcom-UnitedStates/Local%20Assets/Documents/us_chs_2013SurveyofUSPhysicians_031813.pdf

According to the survey 44% of US Physicians think the ACA is "a step in the right direction" and 38% think its "A step in the wrong direction" with 18% undecided.

[Within the Executive Summary]
Based on the results of the Deloitte 2013 Survey of U.S.
Physicians,* most U.S. physicians are concerned about the
future of the profession and consider many changes in the
market to be a threat. Most believe that...
•The performance of the U.S. health care system is
suboptimal, but the Affordable Care Act (ACA) is a
good start to addressing issues of access and cost.
•The future of the medical profession may be in jeopardy
as it loses clinical autonomy and compensation.
•Satisfaction with the profession is driven by patient
relationships.
•Medical liability (malpractice) reform is a major concern
to physicians.
•Health insurance exchanges (HIXs) are unlikely to be ready
for enrollment by the 2013 deadline.
•Physicians are likely to increasingly compete with mid-level
professionals in primary care
[...]

Physicians are pessimistic about the future of
medicine. The majority worry about the profession’s
erosion of clinical autonomy and income, and its
inability to achieve medical liability reform

That said, the Republicans clearly know they don't have the votes to remove the ACA legitimately, and have tried what? 40+ bills doomed from the outset to fail, in hopes of stirring up enough bad press that they can claim victory. They've pulled out every legislative dirty trick in the book and you don't think that's obstructionist?

TheRiov:

I'm still calling bullshit on your friends and family in the medical profession calling the ACA a good idea. The ACA is a disaster. Reform, of some sort, is definitely a good idea. Some of the changes in the ACA, perhaps, are good ideas. The bill itself, however, in its totality, is a disaster and the medical profession knows that best. And, to be honest, I don't care how idealistic the medical practitioner is, none of them want more asymmetric shifts in their overhead and operating costs, which is what the ACA does.

Government doesn't work that way, though. If your **** doesn't work in government, you get paid MORE as politicians try to throw money at the problem.

People vote their paycheck. I'd call bullshit on any assertion to the contrary too. When the paycheck isn't an issue things get fuzzy, but otherwise it's where the smart man will put his chips.

In comic strips the person on the left always speaks first. - George Carlin

Facism is not a school of thought, it is a racial slur.

TheRiov:

The fact that you oppose Texas's new abortion bill actually indicates your ideology does not line up with the reasoning you stated for supporting the ACA. Texas actually took measures to prevent Kermit Gosnell and other individuals from continuing to operate with little to no oversight for abortion procedures. Everything in that bill is about patient protection, information, and knowledge, and assuring the patient that adequate facilities exist in case of an emergency. In fact, Planned Parenthood is having trouble demonstrating its claim that no one west of Houston would have access to abortions in their suit.

Georgia passed a similar bill over a decade ago, as far as admitting privileges at the nearest hospital goes, because an OB/GYN left a woman and the fetus to bleed out in his office after a questionably legal procedure. Said physician fled the country and has, as of yet, not been apprehended.

Stop setting up this straw man and argue the real issue.