Everything you need to know about the plans to ‘fix’ Obamacare
By Ezra Klein, WashPost, Updated: November 14, 2013
Democrats are engaged in a tricky game right now: They want to do something to respond to public outrage over the flawed implementation and broken promises of Obamacare. But they don't want to do something that further breaks Obamacare.
"People are mad at us because the ACA rollout has been a disaster," says one Democratic Senate aide. "So we have to show that we hear them and are willing to address the problems at hand. That is doable. Resisting any changes is probably untenable at this point, but there is still plenty of room to make changes that show the public we are listening without doing irreparable harm to the law long-term."
The Republican Party's play is Fred Upton's "Keep Your Health Plan Act." The law is poorly named: It doesn't actually guarantee that you can keep your health care. Instead, it allows insurers to keep offering their current plans and also allows them to offer new plans that aren't ACA compliant.
At a slim 235 words, Upton's bill is a master class in the pitfalls of soundbite legislation. It manages to fail to solve the problem it's actually aimed at while creating a new political problem — this time, for Republicans.
(More here.)
Democrats are engaged in a tricky game right now: They want to do something to respond to public outrage over the flawed implementation and broken promises of Obamacare. But they don't want to do something that further breaks Obamacare.
"People are mad at us because the ACA rollout has been a disaster," says one Democratic Senate aide. "So we have to show that we hear them and are willing to address the problems at hand. That is doable. Resisting any changes is probably untenable at this point, but there is still plenty of room to make changes that show the public we are listening without doing irreparable harm to the law long-term."
The Republican Party's play is Fred Upton's "Keep Your Health Plan Act." The law is poorly named: It doesn't actually guarantee that you can keep your health care. Instead, it allows insurers to keep offering their current plans and also allows them to offer new plans that aren't ACA compliant.
At a slim 235 words, Upton's bill is a master class in the pitfalls of soundbite legislation. It manages to fail to solve the problem it's actually aimed at while creating a new political problem — this time, for Republicans.
(More here.)
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