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Mark Sanford has been trying to shoot straight recently. Chris Hayes forced his hand.
The excerpted video clip begins with a constituent asking Sanford if he supports the Individual Mandate. Sanford said no. The constituent then questioned how he would cover preexisting conditions. Of course, Republicans cannot give a coherent answer to this issue because all their proposals are flawed or are giveaways to corporations.
“Let me ask you this,” Chris Hayes said. “I remember covering the first Affordable Care Act fight. A huge problem for Democrats was the status quo bias. Folks are scared about something new and uncertain when it comes to healthcare. You guys are on the opposite side of that same kind of status quo. The question is, can you look your constituents in the eye and across the sort of Bell Curve of the different kinds of ways that people might be affected by the system, look them in the eye and say, ‘You will be better off. I guarantee you; you are going to have care, you are going to have coverage if you have it now.”
Sanford started to stammer.
“I hate the issue of political guarantee,” Sanford stammered. “It’s because they rip apart so quickly.”
“Wait,” Hayes interjected. “The answer to that is no, right?”
“Yes,” Sanford stammered as he realized he told the truth. “Well, the answer is we don’t know with precision. I think what is going to happen is that the two ideas are going to get melded. You are probably going to have a little bit of Obamacare, and you’ll have a bit of the free market.”
My blood boils every time I hear that nonsense about the free market and the ACA. I rebuffed that in this post where I wrote the following.
Please do not buy into the fallacy that Obamacare was a government takeover of health care. Not because your anti-Obamacare politician says it, means it is true. You interact with your healthcare system through your doctor, your hospital, and your drug store.Your doctor works for herself or himself, or for a private corporation. Your hospital is a private corporation. Your drug store is a private corporation. The drug companies that supply the drugs to the drug store are private corporations. The companies that supply the tools to the hospitals are private corporations. The supplies used in the doctor’s offices are private corporations. The insurance companies that pay the bills are private corporations. It cannot be a government takeover if the system is run almost entirely by the private sector via private corporations and private doctors.Before Obamacare, there were much fewer rules governing what these corporations could do. Corporations are profit centers. They have a fiduciary responsibility to make a profit for the people who own the corporation, the shareholders. As such they always try to minimize their cost. Obamacare is mostly a body of rules, regulations, and taxes intended to ensure that the service they provide falls within guidelines, the ultimate goal being the good health and safety of every American. It is no different than the government mandating a speed limit through research to keep us relatively safe. It is no different than the government making some substances illegal to prevent unnecessary deaths. Obamacare ensures that everyone has access to healthcare. …We should only be fighting for Obamacare repeal if the results were Medicare for all, a single-payer solution that ensures all Americans have health insurance and health care.
Let’s keep the calls, emails, faxes and our bodies at the Congresspeople and Senator’s offices going. We must not allow them to win the narrative or the health care war.
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