Here’s a chart I found at the Kaiser Foundation site (source):
Once again, we see that most people like what’s in the ACA (except for the mandate), but don’t know what’s in the ACA.
Yesterday I ran into some articles saying that if the ACA is struck down or repealed, all hell will break loose in the health care system. See “How An ‘Obamacare’ Repeal Would Take Medicare And The Rest Of The Health Care System With It” and “If The Health Care Overhaul Goes Down, Could Medicare Follow?”
All those seniors who are now getting free preventive care exams and better pharmaceutical benefits would lose them in a twinkle if the ACA goes down. I wonder how many of them actually understand that?
The greatest mistake Obama, his administration, and the Democrats in Congress made, was to NOT spend time and money on ads to let people know the benefits of “Obamacare.”
No.
Instead, they let the right frame the issue, and once they did, the Dumbocrats ran away from it all faster than Superman from kryptonite.
We desperately need a Democratic Frank Luntz.
They can’t frame a paint-by-numbers painting the size of a postage stamp.
Yeesh!
Time to let people know how good ObamaCare’s take on RomneyCare is. It’ll serve two purposes – remind people how much we need some form of nascent form of health care, and that the test program for the Federal program came from MA, when Mitten’s was Governor.
They don’t like the ACA, but they like what’s in it. They don’t like liberal (the word), but they like many of the things liberals stand for. I think we have a PR problem, can we hire Fox to use their propaganda to tell the truth about some of this stuff? People are simply being lied to.
Am I the only person who remembers that four years ago Obama was not supporting the individual mandate – and Clinton was. He never said so, but did Obama see that this critical feature was the weak point when the law came up before the USSC, as any sweeping HC reform certainly would?
It’s too late for AHC PR. This damn thing is like a stone that’s been dropped in a well. It hasn’t hit bottom and whether it will clunk or splash, only time will tell. The arguments have been made and the court will decide. Waiting is a bitch.
If our worst fears are realized, and AHC is struck down, we can ram this down the throat of the GOP. Or up a different orifice. If 8 million people will be without insurance, the question for Romney is what are you going to DO? Having no specifics about just what ‘replace’ (from ‘repeal and replace’) actually means could make things hot for them. If democrats and the press handle the PR right, the demise of AHC might become for the GOP the proverbial – “Be careful what you wish for…”
Depending HOW the USSC words their decision, the court may permanently close the door on any mandate – which leaves the option that progressives prefer to private insurance. When Health Care Reform comes up again, (who knows when) we may be talking about Single Payer or Medicare-for-all, with premiums based on income and the revenue to pay for those working poor raised from who-knows-where. But such a program would kill the private medical insurance industry. RIP.
THE major question – if AHC is struck down – is how quickly and how effectively progressives can craft a message for the moderate middle. The democrats crafted an imperfect plan which the GOP destroyed in the courts – now the ball is in THEIR court – not a court of law – the court of public opinion. WTF are YOU going to do now that you had your way? The problems which AHC addressed are back – WTF is YOUR plan?
Based on what I have seen from democrats, if AHC goes down in flames, the opportunity to pivot and strike back hard will be lost. We will be so busy screaming about the injustice of it all. This is going to happen right in the heat of the general election. Romney is counting on the debate being about the economy, but suddenly it won’t be – and the plight of the working poor without insurance COULD become the central issue and at the right political moment.
There’s a reason I go into detail now – before a USSC decision. NOBODY is going to be listening to ANYBODY if the USSC rules as I expect they will. We (the progressive blogosphere) better get a provisional strategy NOW, because there will be no chance to get organized when the you-know-what hits the fan.