PHOTO: Vice President-elect Mike Pence and GOP lawmakers — “The Republicans’ arguments are rubbish”
I spoke with Monocle 24’s The Briefing on Thursday afternoon about the effort launched by US Republicans to repeal Obamacare.
The discussion focused on the GOP’s political tactics and the reality — rather than Republican fiction — about the health care situation in the US, before Obamacare, since its implementation, and under the non-existent GOP alternative.
See also US Podcast: Debate — Should Obamacare Be Repealed?
Let me use the academic term — the Republicans’ arguments are rubbish. Twenty million Americans who were uninsured have been covered by Obamacare and that will be swept away. Secondly, costs under Obamacare have risen about 5% per year since 2009; in the years before 2009, it was 9%. The costs if Obamacare is repealed are not likely to go down; they are likely to go up.
Let’s be blunt about it. This battle against Obamacare is not based on what will happen or what is best for Americans. It is based on an ideological commitment by many Republicans who said all along that they would try to scrap this act, that any form of public guarantee beyond Medicare or Medicaid is unacceptable to them.
Listen from 11:56:
