GOP’s Obamacare Nightmare Coming True

No one should be surprised that Republicans have been willing to take down the entire U.S. government and endanger a fragile economy in their quest to delay-repeal-defund, or otherwise make an end run around the implementation of the Affordable Care Act. They’ve been fighting tooth and nail since day one.

But, you say, it’s the law of the land! The ACA was passed by two houses of Congress, signed by the President, upheld by the United States Supreme Court, and affirmed by a majority of voters via the reelection of the President. Why can’t the GOP just accept that and work within a legitimate framework to improve and enhance the new program? Well, simply put: it’s about their political future.

If Americans get acquainted with Obamacare and like it, that’s just one more in a long list of social programs brought to the American public by Democrats. Think about it: the history of the 20th century is one of big ‘D’ Democratic government introducing and expanding programs that benefit the majority of Americans; while Republicans have fought them every step of the way. Obamacare threatens to carry this over into the 21st century.

But, despite GOP intransigence and roadblocks, ACA exchanges opened yesterday. Here’s the ugly news for Republicans: a minimum of 5 million people hit the exchanges in search of coverage. 4.7 million people visited the federally run healthcare.gov site alone. Add on visit to state-run exchanges, and you start to see a real problem developing for the GOP. What if those millions actually like what they find? What if they don’t want to give it up? What if they credit Democrats??

The stories you’ve undoubtedly seen of glitches and slow sites are true, not due to programming issues, but to heavy traffic. In other words: high demand. And peppered in with the those stories of laggy sites and suspended account registrations on day one, are stories like that of Melissa Martinez of California. Martinez has gone for three years without insurance due to prohibitively expensive premiums and high costs for prescription lupus medication.  She got on the exchange yesterday:

BARTOLONE: Martinez is 41 years old and made $30,000 this past year because of her illness. When she finished entering her information, a handful of plans popped up on the screen. She said the Silver Plan looks right for her, it has a $500 deductible and is just over $100 a month.

MARTINEZ: A hundred dollars a month versus 600 is amazing. It really is.

BARTOLONE: Martinez says she’s excited about signing up for coverage. She says it’s been terrifying to be uninsured, not so much because she has lupus but because she fears about unknown future health events.

These are the kinds of stories that will keep Republicans up at night.

By: Sandi Behrns

Sandi Behrns is a noted policy nerd, new media & web developer, and consultant to progressive organizations and campaigns. She is a senior contributor to Liberaland, and the Executive Editor of Progressive Congress News.