Remind Your Congressman: The AHCA IS the Compromise!

Today, I'm calling my deadbeat congressman, Paul Ryan, one of the ringleaders of this foolishness -- (202) 225-3031 or local-Racine  (262) 637-0510 -- to tell him to do his job, pay the bills, and re-open our government.

I'm going to suggest you call Paul, or whomever your congressman is, and/or John Boehner -- (202) 225-0600 -- and do the same.

When I call, I'm going to remind him that The Affordable Health Care Act IS the compromise.

Here are three reasons why:

This implementation date (today) IS the compromise.  October 1, 2013, (today) is years after the AHCA passed, and years later than most of us wanted.  What we wanted was a roll out 2 years ago, right after the bill passed (March 2010).  This is the time that was picked so everyone -- including the Republicans and their Big Money backers -- had plenty of time to prepare.  But instead of preparing, they've spent their time dragging their feet, refusing to cooperate or prepare, lying about the system, and repeatedly trying (and failing) to repeal the law.  (By the way, the AHCA is the law, not a bill.)

This Private-Insurance-based system IS the compromise.  What we wanted is a single-payer system -- like most of the civilized world has -- which would have saved even more money by cutting out healthcare middlemen.  Under the AHCA, insurance is limited to only 20% profit, whereas the cost of government-run single payer would have been 10% or less of the premiums.  (As it is in the rest of the world.)  Our compromise was not putting the healthcare profiteers out of business -- as we probably should have done.

This Republican-designed healthcare system (AHCA) -- including the individual mandate -- IS the compromise.  The basis of the AHCA was designed by the Heritage Foundation (a Republican think tank) and tested by Republican Governor Mitt Romney (in Massachusetts).  This was their alternative to National Healthcare.  What we wanted was Medicare for All -- which would have bee much easier to roll out, because it would have been an expansion of an existing system, and cheaper because it would have cut out the insurance company middle men.

Those are the three reasons that came to my mind (though there are probably more).

While I'm on the phone, I'm also going to suggest that if Paul Ryan really wants to shut down the government, he should start with his own government paycheck and health insurance system.

After that, I'm going to call my sensible senator, Tammy Baldwin (202-224-5653 or 414-297-4451) and thank her for supporting the AHCA, and remind her to not back down and knuckle under, because we've already compromised -- because the AHCA IS the compromise!

I suggest that all of you call the House of Representatives (and the Senate) and do the same.  And while you're at it, check out the AHCA site at https://www.healthcare.gov/.