Is The Public Sabotaging Trump's Health Care Sabotage?

A funny thing seems to be happening on sociopath moron Donald "Rump" Trump's way to gutting the Affordable Care Act:

A record number of people signed up for ObamaCare in the first few days of open enrollment this year compared to the same period in previous years, several sources close to the process told The Hill. 

The surge in sign-ups, which was confirmed by an administration official, comes despite fears from Democrats that enrollment would fall off due to the Trump administration's cutbacks in outreach and advertising. 

On the first day of enrollment alone, Nov. 1, one source close to the process told The Hill that more than 200,000 people selected a plan for 2018, compared to around 100,000 last year. More than 1 million people visited healthcare.gov that day, compared to around 750,000 last year, the source said. (our emphasis)

We'll see if the trend continues through the open enrollment period, which ends December 15. In the meantime, if you don't have health insurance, or want to shop for the best plans, visit www.healthcare.gov before the deadline.

There's a bit more good news for now:

The House is unlikely to repeal the mandate to buy insurance under ObamaCare as part of its tax-reform bill, GOP sources say, though the issue could return down the road. 

President Trump and conservative lawmakers are pushing for the individual mandate to be repealed in the bill, but House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Kevin Brady (R-Texas) has expressed worry that the controversial measure would jeopardize the broader tax-reform bill, given the Senate’s failure on health care earlier this year.

The lesson remains that for Republicans the only thing more important than taking health insurance away from people is to take their tax dollars and shovel them into the pockets of corporations and the one percenters.

Quote of the Day

"...it’s one of the key rules of lazy political journalism that Republicans are the heartland and by definition can’t be out of touch with it (rules dreamed up, by the way, mostly by people from the Eastern seaboard who went to private universities and haven’t the slightest idea in the world about the actual heartland). Only Democrats can be. That’s how it can come to pass that liberals and Democrats can be defending a law whose major provisions enjoy broad support, and a law that most Americans have come around to accepting as a part of life that they’ll learn to live with, and be called out of touch."  -- Michael Tomasky, in The Daily Beast, writing as the number of people signing up for health insurance under the Affordable Care Act surges. (emphasis added).

Regardless of what the Rethuglican-wired Beltway media is peddling on "Obamacare," millions of people now have health insurance for the first time that doesn't disappear when they get sick, that doesn't deny them coverage due to a preexisting condition, and that they can afford.  As Tomasky points out in his article, the majority of the public doesn't want the law repealed, and favors the key policies of the law by a large margin.  Now, the Rethugs won't stop their attacks -- they still want to gut Medicare after almost 50 years -- but at some point the Beltway media might want to check outside their bubble.

Three Million Enrollees Under ACA

The Department of Health and Human Services reports that some 3 million Americans have signed up for private health insurance under the Affordable Care Act (ACA) as of January 15.  Despite a botched roll-out in October, the numbers of people signing up for affordable health insurance through the HealthCare.gov website or through State health insurance exchanges is roughly on pace to reach up to 7 million enrollees by the end of March.

The more Americans that receive affordable coverage under the ACA -- coverage that doesn't stop when they get sick and that covers pre-existing conditions --  the harder it will be for right-wing reactionaries to campaign against it.