…or “Healthcare reform.” Either way, it’s time for center-right voices to stop talking about “Obamacare Repeal” and start talking about “Healthcare Reform.”
The website might as well have been cobbled together on Geocities. Premiums are going up, and current plans are being cancelled. Jobs are being downgraded and lost. The flashpoint of the recent government shutdown was Obamacare, which has many on the conservative side locking and loading for 2014 and 2016 with the hope of repealing the law with a more favorable Senate and White House.
There’s a reason a President was able to get elected and re-elected based on the idea of improving the country’s health care system (even if the actual policy won’t do that): people were generally dissatisfied with the health care system. They were very satisfied with their own coverage, but unsatisfied with the system overall (kind of like the old “I hate Congress but love my Congressman” mentality).
So talking about going back to 2008 isn’t going to move voters, no matter how horrible the law is. It also doesn’t help the GOP emerge from the “Party of No” boulder they keeping getting stuck behind.
Republicans can win on health care by ditching the talk about “repeal” and carrying the mantle of “reform.” Costs are high, the program is mismanaged, and people are being forced into inefficient, one-size-fits-all coverage plans. In other words, health care now is just as ripe for reform as it was in 2008, but the Democrats have had their shot – and it failed. The Republicans have the opportunity to fix it.
The vision of a better tomorrow resonates a lot better than the image of a slightly better yesterday.
Jim Eltringham 