The GOP healthcare bill — billed in a “friendly” way as the Better Care Reconciliation Act — did not receive a warm embrace before or after its CBO score, which predicted that 22 million people would lose insurance within a decade. This did not bode well for the happiness of Paul Ryan, whose frat-boy dreams of slashing Medicaid were crushed in March when he was forced to pull the House bill, and a few incarnations later, Senate Majority Mitch McConnell has delayed a new vote because of leading GOP opposition.
And that brings us to an interview that Ryan gave this morning to Fox News, to which he actually tried to argue semantics on how those millions of people will end up without insurance. To Ryan, the removal of Obamacare’s individual mandate means that people will “choose not to buy” insurance … because they simply aren’t interested:
“What they are basically saying at the Congressional Budget Office, if you’re not going to force people to buy Obamacare, if you’re not going to force people to buy something they don’t want, then they won’t buy it. So, it’s not that people are getting pushed off a plan, it’s that people will choose not to buy something that they don’t like or want.
To Ryan, the removal of the individual mandate somehow justifies all of the bill’s flaws that have been exposed by opponents, including the drastic Medicaid cuts that will affect people who generally cannot “choose” whether or not purchase insurance. And with his argument, Ryan overlooks how several leading GOP senators oppose the bill, and conservative Governor John Kasich furiously tore up the bill for its attempt to pass the Medicaid burden to states, which also cannot afford to shoulder the cost. Further, Kasich stood on solid ground while pointing out that the GOP bill will be counterproductive to their goal of putting people to work, but all Ryan can see are budget-draining entitlements.
(Via Fox News)