Now that Obamacare accounts for the health insurance coverage of approximately 25 million people, can Republicans continue to claim that the law has been a massive failure?
They can't cite low numbers of coverage to make their case so now they're saying the coverage is poor quality.
“Yeah, you know why there’s more people insured? Because a lot more people are on Medicaid."
“Giving people Medicaid insurance is almost like giving them nothing, because you can’t find a doctor that will see Medicaid patients,” [House Speaker] Boehner added. “And so where do they end up? The same place they used to end up, in the emergency room.”
Nothing about this new line of attack is any more honest or accurate than the GOP's previous line attack that Obamacare hasn't actually expanded coverage. And even at face value, a person who visits the emergency room with Medicaid coverage necessarily costs the state less money to care for than someone without coverage who also cannot pay their bills.
It's not true that giving people Medicaid is like "giving them nothing." In fact, states that have refused to expand Medicaid have experienced a number of hospital closures because they do not have enough patients who are covered by the program to remain open. Operating a hospital isn't free.
The healthcare industry depends on the Medicaid and Medicare programs to survive because our healthcare system simply wouldn't be sustainable without all that big government cash. Isn't socialism great?
Expanding Medicaid is not just an expansion of healthcare for poor people; it's an expansion of business for the healthcare industry. Potential customers (patients) become actual customers because they have coverage.
The GOP's position on Medicaid is not just mean spirited, it's anti-business.