GOP Should Repeal Healthcare Law Regardless of Polls

For the past 18 months, Republicans have felt the wind at their back when it comes to healthcare and public opinion.

But, as the New Republic’s Jonathan Chait recently noted, the picture is becoming a bit cloudier. New polling suggests that just 1 in 4 Americans want to see the new law repealed in whole.

Even among Republicans, support has dropped from 61 percent after the midterm elections to just 49 percent now.

[Check out a roundup of political cartoons on healthcare.]

How should this affect the upcoming House vote on repealing Obamacare?

Not at all, I hope.

Just as I argued in March 2010, when the tables were turned, polling data shouldn’t be a decisive factor in the deliberations of either party.

Democrats thought the bill was the right thing for the country, a moral improvement over an ugly status quo. Consequently, many of them lost their jobs. That’s exactly as it should be.

And now, even with a minority of the country favoring full repeal, House Republicans should move ahead with their plans, and for much the same reason: They believe it’s the right thing to do.

[See a roundup of this month's best political cartoons.]

Complicating this picture even further is the reality of gerrymandered congressional districts, whose ideological homogeneity protected the most liberal Democrats in Congress last November and, today, will obscure for Republicans the public’s diminishing appetite for repeal.

But that’s an argument for another day.

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Should GOP Top Priority Be Healthcare Repeal?

The House plans to start debate this afternoon on whether to repeal last year's healthcare reforms, dubbed Obamacare by critics. Many have called the GOP’s efforts symbolic at best since it’s unlikely the Democrat-heavy Senate would pass such a bill, and even more unlikely President Obama would sign it. A new AP-GfK poll suggests public support for repeal is declining. Of those surveyed, 26 percent said they wanted to repeal the healthcare bill completely, compared to 32 percent last October.

U.S. News blogger Scott Galupo says that polling shouldn’t deter Republicans. He writes, “Democrats thought the bill was the right thing for the country… And now, even with a minority of the country favoring full repeal, House Republicans should move ahead with their plans, and for much the same reason: They believe it’s the right thing to do.”

But is pursuing repeal the best top priority for Republicans? U.S. News blogger Peter Roff says the GOP shouldn’t forget about another topic on the forefront of Americans’ minds—immigration. “To some, especially activists on the right, the call for comprehensive immigration reform is perceived as an argument for amnesty,” Roff writes. “But ‘What part of illegal don’t you understand’ is not a rational basis for formulating public policy.” Particularly looking ahead to 2012, Roff suggests, the GOP can’t afford to ignore the Hispanic vote. “The political consequences of failing to address the immigration issue could, for the GOP, be devastating,” he writes.

What do you think? Should the GOP’s top priority be healthcare repeal, immigration reform, or something else? Take the poll and post your thoughts below.

Previously: Should more congressmen carry guns to protect themselves?

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White House: Healthcare Repeal 'Not Serious'

Home > Politics & Policy > White House: Healthcare Repeal 'Not Serious'

By U.S. News Staff

Posted: January 18, 2011

White House spokesman Robert Gibbs discusses the GOP's goal of repealing the new healthcare law.

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Healthcare Repeal Brings Focus Back to Uninsured

Congressional Republicans are attempting to live up to one of their key 2010 campaign promises with the introduction of H.R. 2, better known as the "Repealing the Job-Killing Health Care Law Act." The House is expected to vote Wednesday on the bill, which aims to repeal the March 2010 healthcare reform act. One of the key provisions that Republicans find most offensive is the reform act's "individual mandate," which requires that all U.S. citizens be covered by health insurance. Altogether, 16 percent of Americans are uninsured, according to figures from the Census Bureau, though some states contribute to that figure far more than others. Under the new healthcare law, over 1 in 4 Texas residents will need to find coverage, along with more than 1 in 5 residents of New Mexico and Florida. The states with the smallest segment of uninsured residents are Massachusetts, Hawaii, and Minnesota. [See photos of healthcare reform protests.]

Many factors influence health insurance coverage rates, and one chief determinant is employment. As many people obtain their insurance from an employer, there is naturally a moderate correlation between state unemployment rates and insurance rates. One of the main outliers in this respect is Massachusetts, which in 2006 passed a law both requiring most residents to obtain insurance and providing a state-regulated health insurance plan to certain low-income residents. Massachusetts has by far the lowest rate of uninsured citizens--5 percent--but a moderate unemployment rate of 8.2 percent. Other states with unemployment rates between 8 and 9 percent have far higher uninsured rates than Massachusetts, ranging from 12 percent to 26 percent. [See a slide show of 10 things that are--and aren't--in the healthcare law.]

Another factor is demographics. For example, Hispanic residents are far less likely to be insured than other major ethnic or racial groups. Many of the states in the top 10, such as Texas, New Mexico, Florida, Nevada, Arizona, and California, have large Hispanic populations. Likewise, Americans age 20 to 24 have historically been less likely to be insured. However, the reform act may have already affected these rates; a provision allowing adults under the age of 26 to remain on their parents' health insurance plans went into effect in September 2010.

Below are the 10 states with the highest and lowest rates of uninsured residents.

StatePercent Uninsured (2008-2009)StatePercent Uninsured (2008-2009)

Source: U.S. Census Bureau Current Population Survey

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Prominent Economists Urge Obamacare Repeal

In the run up to Wednesday’s vote in the U.S. House of Representatives to abolish “Obamacare,” a group of prominent economists—including several former members of the President’s Council of Economic Advisers and two former directors of the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office—have written the congressional leadership urging its repeal.

In their letter, the nearly 200 economists from all over the United States—from the business world, from the academy, and from the think tank community—say that the repeal of the new nationalized healthcare law would “promote job growth and help restore the government to fiscal balance.”

Obamacare, they write, “contains expensive mandates and penalties that create major barriers to stronger job growth. The mandates will compete for the scarce business resources used for hiring and firm expansion. The law also levies roughly $500 billion in new taxes that will enter the supply chain for medical services, raising the cost of medical services. At the same time that businesses juggle the potential for higher interest rates or higher taxes, these medical costs will translate to higher insurance premiums, further increasing the cost of operating a business in the United States.” [Check out a roundup of political cartoons on healthcare.]

Furthermore, they say, the new law “is fiscally dangerous at a moment when the United States is already facing a sea of red ink. It creates a massive new entitlement at a time when the budget is already buckling under the weight of existing entitlements. At a minimum, it will add $1 trillion to government spending over the next decade. Assertions that these costs are paid for are based on omitted costs, budgetary gimmicks, shifted premiums from other entitlements, and unsustainable spending cuts and revenue increases. A more comprehensive and realistic projection suggests that the Affordable Care Act [Obamacare] could potentially raise the federal budget deficit by more than $500 billion during the first ten years and by nearly $1.5 trillion in the following decade.”

Instead, they urge Congress to “start with a clean sheet of paper” that will refocus the debate on a set of core principles that are not at all inconsistent with what the president and his political allies said they wanted to do: encourage providers to offer higher-quality care at lower costs to consumers; reduce the financial pressure that entitlement programs such as Medicare and Medicaid are putting on the federal balance sheet; and give every American options, including keeping the insurance they have if they like it—which, under Obamacare, they cannot necessarily do despite the president’s promise otherwise.

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