The substantive details of health care policy are complicated, but the politics surrounding the debate on Capitol Hill are relatively straightforward. Democrats have spent much of the year reminding Republicans that tens of millions of American consumers are poised to face vastly more expensive premiums under the Affordable Care Act unless lawmakers do something. In the coming weeks, families nationwide will have to choose between paying far more or going without.
Many GOP officials seem to understand that doing nothing isn’t politically tenable, but with time running out, Republicans are stuck on a familiar problem: The party that has struggled for years to figure out what to do on health care policy still has absolutely no idea what to do on health care policy.
Part of the foundational problem for Republicans is that they continue to hate the ACA, which they’ve long referred to as “Obamacare.” As recently as Monday, Donald Trump insisted that the reform law is “so bad.” A week earlier, the president similarly condemned the existing system as “a disaster.” Countless GOP officials have pushed similar rhetoric, not just in recent days, but for the last 15 years.
This creates an obvious dilemma for Republican officials: They don’t want to use subsidies to bolster a law that they hate, but if they don’t, consumers will blame them for failing to do the right thing for the American people.
And even though Trump and his party see the ACA as a disaster, much of the country apparently disagrees. Consider the latest national polling report from Gallup:
Americans’ approval of the 2010 Affordable Care Act has edged up to a new high of 57% as the clock ticks down to Dec. 31, when enhanced healthcare subsidies enacted during the pandemic are set to expire unless Congress takes action. Gallup has tracked Americans’ approval of the ACA since November 2012, and the latest rating is up three percentage points from last year’s, which was similar to the previous 55% high recorded in April 2017 and in November 2020. While it might be tempting for some on the right to dismiss the Gallup survey as an outlier, it’s not: The KFF Health Tracking Poll has also showed the Affordable Care Act’s popularity reaching record highs this year. In theory, Republicans might see this, worry about a public backlash and move quickly to protect consumers ahead of this month’s looming deadline. In practice, GOP leaders don’t want to, regardless of the ACA’s growing public support. Tick tock. This post updates our related earlier coverage.
Steve Benen is a producer for "The Rachel Maddow Show," the editor of MaddowBlog and an MS NOW political contributor. He's also the bestselling author of "Ministry of Truth: Democracy, Reality, and the Republicans' War on the Recent Past."
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