World News Korner

Robert Reich points out that the health care plan that Republicans are so vehemently against today, was once proposed by one of their own, Richard Nixon.

Courtesy of HuffPo:

In February 1974, Republican President Richard Nixon proposed, in essence, today's Affordable Care Act. Under Nixon's plan all but the smallest employers would provide insurance to their workers or pay a penalty, an expanded Medicaid-type program would insure the poor, and subsidies would be provided to low-income individuals and small employers. Sound familiar?

Private insurers were delighted with the Nixon plan but Democrats preferred a system based on Social Security and Medicare, and the two sides failed to agree.

Thirty years later a Republican governor, Mitt Romney, made Nixon's plan the law in Massachusetts. Private insurers couldn't have been happier although many Democrats in the state had hoped for a public system.

When today's Republicans rage against the individual mandate in the Affordable Care Act, it's useful to recall this was their idea as well.

In 1989, Stuart M. Butler of the conservative Heritage Foundation came up with a plan that would "mandate all households to obtain adequate insurance."

Insurance companies loved Butler's plan so much it found its way into several bills introduced by Republican lawmakers in 1993. Among the supporters were senators Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, and Charles Grassley, R-Iowa (who now oppose the mandate under the Affordable Care Act). Newt Gingrich, who became Speaker of the House in 1995, was also a big proponent.

Romney's heathcare plan in Massachusetts included the same mandate to purchase private insurance. "We got the idea of an individual mandate from [Newt Gingrich], and [Newt] got it from the Heritage Foundation," said Romney, who thought the mandate "essential for bringing the health care costs down for everyone and getting everyone the health insurance they need."

So why are today's Republicans so upset with an Act they designed and their patrons adore? Because it's the signature achievement of the Obama administration.

There's a deep irony to all this. Had Democrats stuck to the original Democratic vision and built comprehensive health insurance on Social Security and Medicare, it would have been cheaper, simpler, and more widely accepted by the public. And Republicans would be hollering anyway.

I think that this is the point where a lot of liberals are yelling at their computer screens and asking why didn't we just go with single payer in the first place if the Republicans were going to freak out anyway?

However, considering how aggressively the Right Wing is working to stop Obamacare now, just imagine how much worse it would have been if the Dems had tried to shove universal health care down their throats. And yes, it COULD be worse.

I think the interesting thing is that the President attempted to offer the Republicans numerous reasons why they should embrace this health care law, essentially including almost all of the compromises that they had demanded in the past, and yet they STILL could not bring themselves to support it.

Sort of deflates that whole, "If only the President had been willing to compromise with us" argument doesn't it?

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