Last week the President celebrated the enrollment of 7.1 million Americans in health insurance with the words “The debate over repealing this law is over… The Affordable Care Act is here to stay,” here. Indeed, as the number of insured under the Act has grown, Medicaid has gained another 3 million enrollees, here, and other ACA provisions have kicked in so the conventional wisdom has emerged that while a political turn in favor of Republicans would lead to some important “tweaks,” the so-called “popular parts” such as guaranteed issue would survive. This world view seemed confirmed when Senators Burr, Coburn and Hatch introduced the first true Republican alternative to the ACA, here. Tim Jost commended that effort for going beyond the rhetoric of repeal noting, here, “Republicans seem to be coming to terms with the fact that the ACA has permanently changed the health policy landscape.” However, House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan seems to be having none of this suggesting, here, that total reform remains the objective and that “We can have in this country universal access to affordable health insurance for everybody, including people with preexisting conditions without a costly government takeover of one-sixth of our economy.” It’s going to be a long election season.
Repealing the ACA. Will the debate ever end?
