‘Obamacare has fallen apart without Republicans’ dismantling it’

NRO’s Kevin Williamson has a good short review of the history of Obamacare to date: “Obamacare Is Dead”.

This was entirely predictable; in fact, it was predicted . . . .

Things You Hear on NPR: Forget about Legislative Intent, Let’s Get Back to Bashing Republicans

The Supreme Court last week heard oral arguments in King v. Burwell, in which the plaintiffs argue that under the text of Obamacare, the government can provide subsidies and inflict penalties only on people in states that have set up state-run insurance exchanges.  Here is some of NPR’s coverage of the arguments.

Some of the ways you know that NPR knew they were producing political propaganda, not a news story:

1.  They bring Scott Walker into their arguments about legislative history.

Obamacare—Remember When?

Update (March 10th, 2015): Illustrated at Conservatism Repackaged.

(Reworded to match.)

Conservatives in 2009: If you pass Obamacare, healthy people will opt out, sending the insurance industry into a death spiral.
Also, you shouldn’t pass thousand-page bills that no one has read; you never know what will happen.

Liberals in 2009: NO IT WILL BE AWESOME
ARE YOU RACIST OR SOMETHING?

Liberals in 2015: IF THE SUPREME COURT DOESN’T FIX OBAMACARE, HEALTHY PEOPLE WILL OPT OUT, SENDING THE INSURANCE INDUSTRY INTO A DEATH SPIRAL
ALSO NO ONE COULD HAVE KNOWN THIS WOULD HAPPEN

Conservatives in 2015: (Speechless)

Top Five New ‘Repeal Obamacare’ Shirts: Puns, Parodies, and More

Republicans have a real chance of winning the Senate this November, as many have been discussing (a few examples at random).  Even if Republicans get a majority, however, they won’t continue the hard work toward repealing Obamacare unless they believe that the overwhelming majority of the American people still care about that.  Given the opportunity, there will always be politicians willing to give in and let the entitlement state keep expanding, like the sometimes great but sometimes surprisingly viciously liberal Ohio Governor John Kasich.  (Hot Air and a Washington Post blog are talking about his latest remarks on Obamacare.)

New Obamacare Parody T-shirt: ‘Amazing’

In 2012, conservatives remarked that government is much worse at many things than the free market, and asked, Do you want your health care to be more like using Amazon.com, or more like the Bureau of Motor Vehicles?  Here’s conservative blogger Wintery Knight, July 5th, 2012:

I think this is important because conservatives are constantly being portrayed as “mean” in the media because we don’t embrace big government health care solutions. Everyone agrees on the problems, and everyone wants to help. The difference is that we conservatives think that health care is better when it is run profitably and is responsive to consumers and offers choice, low prices and high quality — like Amazon. . . .

All That, and More than 40 Million Americans Still Uninsured

One of the central arguments for Obamacare was that it was outrageous that more than 40 million Americans supposedly did not have health insurance (not necessarily that they didn’t have health care, but that they didn’t have health insurance).  For example, President Obama said on June 15th, 2009,

We are not a nation that accepts nearly 46 million uninsured men, women and children. . . . We need to get this done.

The Democrats pushed Obamacare through, and it made employers afraid to hire,* reduced many of those who had jobs to part-time hours,** and significantly increased health-care spending (as even the Obama administration eventually admitted).  A survey indicated that a majority of doctors supported repealing or defunding the law (not to mention a majority of the country).  Even NPR admitted that Obamacare would cause a doctor shortage or make it worse.

Obamacare Gave Us Ebola?

If the case of Ebola in America turns into a nationwide epidemic, it may be thanks to Obamacare.  NPR this morning:

INSKEEP:  Geoff, I want to ask about one other thing.  Of course there have been many questions about why it was that the man with Ebola at one point checked into a hospital and was sent away again.  Is it better understood how that happened?

BRUMFIEL:  Yeah, Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital has released more details about how this was overlooked.  What happened was, last week Duncan showed up sick at the ER.  Now, he told the nurse he had come from Africa.  The nurse reported that, but the electronic system was set up so that doctors never saw that.  Duncan went home and came back a few days later in an ambulance.  In between that time, he may have infected other family members; so this little misstep could have had big implications.

Video: Meet the Little Sisters of the Poor (Victims of the Obamacare HHS Mandate)

Further to our efforts to reach people with personal stories they can relate to, please enjoy and consider sharing this short video by the Becket Fund for Religious Liberty:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cdfn0Wiywk4&list=PL02D02B9A144182DB

Hat tip to Kathryn Jean Lopez, who provides extensive background here.

AMA Supports Obamacare, but Doctors Don’t Support AMA

Good to know:  Matt Rodgers of Well-spent Journey, in “‘Primum non Nocere’ and the Affordable Care Act” at Liberty without Apologies, points out that the American Medical Association’s membership includes only “somewhere in the neighbourhood of 15% of practising US doctors” (not including the “Up to a third” of AMA members who “don’t pay the full $420 annual dues, including medical students and residents”).  (The source is an article from the Canadian Medical Association Journal as reprinted on the Web site of the U. S. government’s National Center for Biotechnology Information.)  This is useful to know when you hear any remaining supporters of Obamacare argue that the AMA supported or supports the law.  It doesn’t mean that American doctors in general support the law.