{"id":19196,"date":"2015-02-08T09:04:45","date_gmt":"2015-02-08T14:04:45","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/inbox\/?p=19196"},"modified":"2015-02-09T10:26:37","modified_gmt":"2015-02-09T15:26:37","slug":"the-healthcare-test-for-rep-stefanik-first-do-no-harm","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/inbox\/2015\/02\/08\/the-healthcare-test-for-rep-stefanik-first-do-no-harm\/","title":{"rendered":"The healthcare test for Rep. Stefanik: First do no harm"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Elise<\/a>

Elise Stefanik. Image: Campaign website<\/a><\/p><\/div>\n

Update<\/em>:\u00a0 Elise Stefanik’s press aide, Tom Flanagin, has reached out to the In Box to point out that the congresswoman explained her vote in a Facebook post, which I hadn’t seen when writing this essay. <\/em><\/p>\n

“I am pleased that this vote today requires the House to develop an alternative approach to the President\u2019s healthcare law,” she wrote.\u00a0 Rep. Stefanik praised the legislation<\/a> for including a list of specific agenda items for what a replacement for the Affordable Care Act might look like.<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

To be clear, however, the bill which passed the House (HR 596)<\/a> doesn’t mandate any timeline for House committees producing such a replacement piece of legislation, not does it offer any specificity for what a bill or multiple bills might look like.\u00a0 <\/em><\/p>\n

PREVIOUSLY<\/strong><\/p>\n

Earlier this month, when Republicans prepared to vote yet again on repeal of the Affordable Care Act, New York Congressman John Katko made it clear that, in his view, the ground in the healthcare debate has shifted.<\/p>\n

“During the course of my campaign I said that I think Obamacare is a mess and I think you have to use the word ‘train wreck’ quite a bit,” Katko said, according to the Auburn Citizen newspaper<\/a>.<\/p>\n

But the Republican added a point that seems worth dwelling on:\u00a0 “I still believe that,’ he said.\u00a0 “But I also said that it would be irresponsible to just vote for repeal of Obamacare without having a viable replacement ready to go.\u201d<\/p>\n

Keep that word, irresponsible<\/em>, in your mind as you work through the rest of this essay.<\/p>\n

Here\u2019s the reality Katko is describing.\u00a0 When Obamacare was first signed into law, it was an abstraction, a policy idea that was \u2013 to say the least \u2013 deeply controversial and deeply flawed.\u00a0 But half a decade later, the ACA is simply how we do healthcare in America.<\/p>\n

A report issued last week found that roughly 2 million New Yorkers, many of them here in the North Country, now rely directly on the various provisions of Obamacare for their coverage<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Let me say this again more clearly:\u00a0 More than 10% of New Yorkers rely on the ACA for this most basic of services.\u00a0 That includes working families, children and business owners.<\/p>\n

Independent surveys suggest that 20 million Americans have gained insurance since 2010 because of this one policy, cutting the rate of the uninsured in our society by a third.\u00a0 That\u2019s not to say that ACA is perfect or the best way for healthcare to be structured in the US.\u00a0 People across the political spectrum find a great deal to dislike about it, as do many doctors and hospital administrators.<\/p>\n

But it is now the system that we have and not merely an expression of Barack Obama\u2019s political brand, or a meme on Fox News or a punching bag for Rush Limbaugh.\u00a0 Knocking it down without having any actual policy ready to replace it would produce something like chaos.\u00a0 The truth is, no one’s really sure what would happen.\u00a0\u00a0 We’d be flying blind.<\/p>\n

Yet last week, Republicans voted nearly unanimously to do just that.\u00a0 For a 56th<\/sup> time, the GOP tried to yank the plug on the ACA, without having any specific, politically viable idea of how to replace it.<\/p>\n

In late January, during a visit to Lake Placid, Rep. Stefanik acknowledged that<\/a> some kind of plan is needed.\u00a0 \u201cRepublicans have a responsibility to put forth a replacement package,” she said, according to the Adirondack Daily Enterprise.\u00a0 Yet less than a month later, she voted with the GOP to dismantle Obamacare without any plausible, realistic Plan B on the table.<\/p>\n

After half a decade, back to the drawing board?<\/strong><\/p>\n

What’s more, there is absolutely no evidence to suggest that a real-world policy proposal will emerge from the Republican side any time soon.\u00a0 During an appearance late last month on CBS\u2019 news magazine \u201c60 Minutes,\u201d the two most powerful Republicans in the country again trotted out the old complaints about the ACA.<\/p>\n

But asked repeatedly how it would be replaced, they fired blanks.<\/p>\n

\u201cI just think it\u2019s time for us to look at this differently,\u201d said House Speaker John Boehner.\u00a0 \u201cWe\u2019re working on this, having discussions among our members, we\u2019ve got a lot of divergent views about how best to go back to a doctor patient relationship that\u2019s revered.\u201d<\/p>\n