Yep, that guy in Kentucky has been told so many times to hate Obamacare that he genuinely believes it’s awful. But in Kentucky, a red state with a Democratic governor, implementation of the Affordable Care Act is continuing apace with the creation of “Kynect” — the state’s new health care marketplace. Indeed, as Cherkis explained, “The state had spent millions establishing the exchange, staffing up outreach, and conducting market research that included holding a dozen focus groups in Louisville, Paducah and London.”
And as the anecdote helps demonstrate, it’s having some success. People don’t necessarily realize that new benefits available in Kentucky have anything to do with the federal law they’ve been conditioned to reject. It’s why they’re impressed when they hear the pitch from policy experts like Reina Diaz-Dempsey — the benefits sound like a pretty good deal for folks.
If they think those benefits “beat Obamacare,” so be it.
Of course, this does suggest something health care proponents are going to have to get used to: the Affordable Care Act has an Obamacare problem.
Quite right. That middle-aged man in the red golf shirt at the Kentucky State Fair may very well get coverage through Kynect, benefit from protections extended to those with pre-existing conditions, and be thankful for the elimination of lifetime caps — all the while assuming that the dreaded Obamacare is a bad idea.
Or as Bernstein put it, “Fortunately, the Limbaugh self-employed listener will think, I don’t have Obamacare; I have the private health insurance I purchased on that StateCare web site. But if the liberals had their way, everyone would be forced to have Obamacare, and … America would be ruined.”
For several years now, it’s been the dirty little secret the political world brushes over when talking about health care reform: Americans don’t like the law, but they love everything in it, and don’t want anyone to take those benefits away.
It’s a detail Republicans need to understand. When they vote several dozen times to repeal the reform law, GOP lawmakers assume they’ll pay no political price. But the more Americans take advantage of the law, the more voters will balk at a Republican crusade that undermines families’ health care security — whether “Obamacare” polls well or not. Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) was there, listening to this, suggesting the governor was talking quite directly to him.
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." Recommended
