Any chance we can get the lame ducks to repeal the mandate provision of HCR?

[Ken Burch]

If the 'pug strategy is to take all the good parts out of the watered-down HCR bill, leaving ONLY the mandates, shouldn't OUR reps, before they leave office, do the sane thing and take away their chance to do that?

Given that the mandates were half the reason we LOST the House, why leave them in at all?

[BzaDem]

1. Nope. The mandate is required if insurance companies are required to accept people regardless of

pre-existing conditions. Otherwise, premiums would be like they are in New York state with community rating but without a mandate (thousands per month on the individual market).

If the mandate is removed, the pre-existing conditions regulation would be removed at the same time. Neither is going to be removed.

[JuniperLea]

2. It's also a foot in the door for government benefits...

Once it's determined that everyone can't afford insurance...

[Ken Burch]

3. We already KNEW that millions of people couldn't afford insurance

That's why Obama was PROPOSING healthcare reform to start with.

No additional proof NEEDED to be provided.

All the mandates did was give the Right an issue to beat us over the head with. Thanks to them, we may NEVER get a majority for any future advances in healthcare coverage in the future.

[JuniperLea]

9. Given that he has to prove the sky is blue to the GOTP...

I get it.

Never say never. They said exactly the same thing about Medicare.

[Hello_Kitty]

16. All they have to do is accuse you of "fraud" and they can drop you. eom

[JuniperLea]

21. got a link to that?

seems to me accusations aren't enough.

[BzaDem]

23. No, Hello_Kitty doesn't, because the assertion is false. Any link would therefore have to be false

as well.

[Ozymanithrax]

4. It is the Republicans job and great pleasure to gut healthcare...

If we lost the House because we enacted the most progressive bill to pass Congress since Medicare, then the electorate is so abysmally stupid that they would put Republicans in charge after they destroyed the economy.

Oh shit...

[Ken Burch]

5. If the mandates hadn't been there, there's no way we'd have lost 60 seats.

That issue was used over and over and over again to hurt our candidates.

[JuniperLea]

10. Oh I truly think that's nonsense...

Clearly you've forgotten history... the opposition ALWAYS gets a bump after the other party wins the WH. Always. We've been discussing this for weeks and weeks here on DU.

[Ken Burch]

12. Not in 1934...not in 1962...not in 2002.

We didn't HAVE to lose big this year.

Clearly party's leaders just decided to concede the House without a fight-probably because they believed the bogus Lanny Davis "Obama's better off with a Republican Congress" meme.

If we'd made "we'll FIX HCR next year with a majority" our theme this fall, we could have saved a lot of House seats.

[JuniperLea]

22. Gosh.. you found three years out of how many decades?

I still call BS... sorry.

[Ozymanithrax]

11. The economy lost the house, not health care.

Though I understand why the electorate would reject progressive ideas. There has not been a serious progressive who intended to run for the White House, with a chance of winning, since Huey Long set out to oppose FDR. (He was assassinated). The last politician who both called himself a progressive and was considered a progressive to be elected was Hoover, and a real liberal kicked his ass...because of the economy.

Of course, Johnson was the last real liberal to be elected...and he resigend because he could not kick the ass of a anti-war candidate, which resulted in turning the White House over to Nixon.

[phleshdef]

15. I've yet to see one single exit poll that even comes close to reflecting that baseless nonsense.

[BzaDem]

24. +1 for common sense, as opposed to acting like everyone's views correspond with theirs. n/t

[Proud Liberal Dem]

6. I think that you're misreading the election results

There is not a groundswell of support for repealing "Obamacare". In fact, most people either don't want the law repealed or they want it expanded. Unfortunately, a lot of young and progressive leaning individuals (once again) failed to cast ballots in a crucial midterm election, so a lot of the people whom were "speaking" didn't have highly favorable opinions of it but they're not representative of the public as a whole. It will be harder for the Republicans to take the new law, either in whole or in part, then they may think.
Second of all, the Republicans hate ALL of "Obamacare" including the mandates- that's what they're mainly focusing on in their court challenges and legislative repeal. There is no evidence that I've seen or heard that suggests that they *secretly* love them IMHO.

As somebody else here wrote, the mandates are the structural foundation of the new health care law. Remove them and the whole thing basically just falls apart. I should add too that ANY kind of health care reform is going to include mandates, although in the case of single-payer (which I'm not opposed to at all), they'll be in the form of higher taxes.

[kenny blankenship]

7. That's the ONLY part of it that's non-negotiable.

[Hello_Kitty]

18. I honestly think a lot of DUers would be perfectly happy if HCR were a mandate and nothing else

[kenny blankenship]

20. I think they'll get their chance to prove it

given enough time.

[area51]

26. +1

Except I think (or hope) that it's not a lot, it's a small number of very vocal people. The worst thing to do was to put in a mandate and leave the insurance companies for the most part unregulated, and not to have at least a public option which would force their prices down, and of course, BHO and congress did exactly the worst thing. Since they're so in love with multiple insurance companies, but are completely unwilling to stop their sociopathic behavior, nationalize them. End the denials, bankruptcies and deaths now!

[veganlush]

8. the mandates are necessary. simular to auto insurance.

it diffuses the risk.

[TexasObserver]

13. None. Even less chance than before.

Now they KNOW they won't face reelection.

[Warren Stupidity]

14. no

[derby378]

17. The mandate violates all of our core Democratic principles, BUT...

...our Congressional Democrats are going to hang on to it for all it's worth.

[veganlush]

19. The mandates weren't the problem

..the problem is that the dems were too pussified to make the case, they didn't stand up and fight the lies. Their lack of denial of the lies made people think the lies were true, it's pretty simple. If I accuse you of something, in front of people, and you don't deny it, how does that look? I have rw relatives that hate HCR. when pressed, they reveal their biggset fear: somebody is getting something they don't deserve> They feel that they work for theirs and somebody else is gonna get it free. That's because the dems wouldn't stand up and point out the fact that even someone without health insurance gets treatment at the emergency room, even before reform. Hospitals write off the cost as charitable giving, and inflate the cost, write it off on their taxes. what isn't covered that way is covered by passing on the cost to everyone else. That's why aspirins cost eight dollars each, etc.. So we already pay for the uninsured, but we pay too much because of the inefficient way we pay for them. HCR mandates that people have insurance. In some cases, those who can't afford the premiums will get help in the form of a tax credit. So how would you rather pay, OUTRIGHT, when someone goes to the emergency room, is charged premium hours for emergency care, and the rest is passed on through inflated prices for the rest of us, or would you rather help with their premium, and let them get their bills paid by a private insurer? Would it be cheaper to help someone pay their car insurance premiums or cheaper to just buy them a new car, and pay for whatever else property damage, damage to other cars involved, etc?

[liskddksil]

25. No - but the tea-party will make the Republicans try

and the Republicans will have to choose between them and the insurance companies, who sure like the mandate, and won't let it be repealed.