Let’s Stop Pretending Obamacare Repeal Is the Big Business Agenda
“We are not working for repeal,” Chamber of Commerce president Tom Donohue said today, when asked about the Affordable Care Act.
Barney Frank, the Democratic former congressman, told the New York Times today about Obamacare: “Nobody who makes their money in health care is going after that bill.”
These statements jibe with my observations. The insurance companies and hospitals sided with the Obama administration in the crucial individual mandate case. On the state level, the push to create exchanges and expand Medicaid has been led by hospitals, with insurers and other providers chipping in.
This undermines a central bit of rhetorical defense of Obamacare. Congressional Democratsattack repeal efforts as “do[ing] the bidding of insurance companies.” Other Obamacare defenders paint the repeal effort as the agenda of Big Business.
These arguments are false. Nobody should take them seriously.
© 2015 by the Washington Examiner. Reprinted with permission.