Republicans can
continue to cower, now. Their biggest fear has happened yet again: Obamacare
enrollment reaches over eight million, surpassing its already-reached goal of seven
million. So far, approximately 35 percent of those enrolled are people under
the age of 35.
Young people are
crucial to the law’s success. With numbers surging everyday, the GOP might want
to re-think running on their anti-Obamacare platform. Democrats, who fear the
anti-ACA rhetoric from the right might cost them the Senate, can now flex their
arms and proclaim that the healthcare exchanges are working, and working well.
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| Number enrolled would double if not for GOP sabotage |
The Republicans have
beefed up their premature Obamacare “victories” most recently using the recent
special election in Florida last month between Republican David Jolly and
Democrat Alex Sink to show that the ACA has the potential to shut down
Democrat’s chances of winning.
However, Jolly won by
only two percent, whereas in the past three elections, the Republican contender
always won by double digits. Obamacare was the biggest campaign message from
both sides of the aisle.
Democrats too have
been on edge since October when the healthcare law faced major criticism for
its botched rollout. But with the administration reaching its goal of 7 million
on March 31st, and now 8 million today, the GOP are the ones who have had to
play defense in order to gain political clout.
Republican officials
across the country met at an event attended by hundreds of conservatives in New Hampshire
last week, blasting President Obama’s signature healthcare law and shared their
views on the party’s future, which included an array of speeches were Senators
Ted Cruz, Rand Paul of Ky. and former Governor of Arkansas Mike ‘Uncle Sugar’
Huckabee. The event was called the Freedom Summit and was hosted by Citizens
United and Americans for Prosperity.
But that hasn’t
stopped Democrats from standing strong on the law. In a statement made by House
Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, the Democrat from Califorinia laid into the GOP for their unhealthy obsession with repealing Obamacare,
saying:
“It’s time for
Republicans to seek treatment for their obsession with repealing the Affordable
Care Act, and join Democrats to strengthen and improve it’s historic
protections.”
In Pelosi’s state of California alone, over 1.4 million citizens have enrolled
through the state’s own run exchange program, beating the administration’s
expectations by a whopping 100,000 people.
Similarly, over 1.9 million people
have obtained insurance through the state’s expansion of Medicaid under the
ACA. Meanwhile, hundreds of thousands of individuals in states with GOP
governors will be denied access to healthcare because of their refusal to
expand on Medicaid.
Gallup estimates that more than half of individuals receiving healthcare
through the state and federal exchanges had been previously uninsured,
highlighting the purpose of the law to insure the previously uninsured.
At this point in time,
if Republicans repealed the healthcare law, that would risk yanking away the
healthcare of over eight million Americans, four million of whom have it for
the first time. That would also risk letting insurance companies deny coverage
to individuals with pre-existing conditions, among other things.
The Republicans raised
hell when 300,000 Floridians were having their insurance shifted, and they
raised hell when 119,000 Californians had their plans shifted. But apparently
they have no problem taking about healthcare from eight million Americans and
counting.