It may not matter much in a real election with real people who watch reality TV, believe they are getting a good deal with the Super Jumbo Sized Soft Drink, and hope to win the lottery some day, but the question in mind, for the coming Congressional elections in the fall, is this: which parts of Obamacare are you going to repeal?
I don’t know how most Republican candidates will answer that. They won’t want to. They will not want to go on the record declaring that they will take away insurance for the 5 or 10 million people who now have it who did not have it before. They certainly will try to make it sound like they have a better alternative but even Fox News might occasionally ask a question: what? The answer will be magical thinking: we will find imaginary efficiencies that will produce imaginary care and provide imaginary cost savings for an imaginary future. But, hey, have you seen my new, larger flag lapel pin?
As polls have shown, if you ask the average American if he likes Obamacare, only about 45% say yes. But if you ask them if people should be dropped from their insurance coverage because they develop a serious, expensive illness, or should be denied coverage because they had an illness previously, or if children should be dropped from their parents’ insurance while they are in college or university, a large majority say no. Can the Democrats run on that paradox? If I were a campaign advisor, I’d suggest they start early and hammer their Republican opponents with that question: which provisions of Obamacare will you repeal?