# Trump supporters who need the ACA are in for a rude surprise **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [December 21, 2016, 3:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trump-supporters-who-need-the-aca-are-in-for-a-rude-surprise/775301 "2016-12-21T15:08:49Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![ThelmaLou](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thelmalou/32/390_2.png) [@ThelmaLou](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ThelmaLou)\ **Post date:** [December 21, 2016, 3:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trump-supporters-who-need-the-aca-are-in-for-a-rude-surprise/775301/1 "2016-12-21T15:08:49Z")
A very bad surprise. This is bitter irony. I spent the last 12 years working for an agency with a medical clinic whose target population was exactly these people. [Trump voters didn’t take him literally on Obamacare. Oops?](https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/trump-voters-didnt-take-him-literally-on-obamacare-oops/2016/12/20/46ef3cae-c6f3-11e6-bf4b-2c064d32a4bf_story.html?hpid=hp_no-name_opinion-card-c%3Ahomepage%2Fstory) My bold. > [@](#): > > Donald Trump’s supporters, in conservative writer Salena Zito’s memorable formulation, take him seriously but not literally. > > They will be forgiving if, say, he doesn’t literally get Mexico to pay for a border wall, or if he doesn’t literally ban all Muslims from entering the United States. > > But in other areas, Trump’s supporters perhaps should have taken him literally — because they now may have a serious problem. > > Vox senior editor Sarah Kliff wrote a poignant account last week of her visit to Whitley County, Ky., where the uninsured rate declined 60 percent under Obamacare but 82 percent of voters supported Trump. There, Kliff, a former Post colleague, f **ound Trump voters who were downright frightened that the president-elect would do exactly — literally — what he and Republicans promised: repeal Obamacare.** > > Among those she found was Trump voter Debbie Mills, a store owner whose husband awaits a lifesaving liver transplant; they got insurance through Obamacare, and Mills is hoping the law won’t be repealed. > > “I don’t know what we’ll do if it does go away,” Mills said. “I guess I thought that, you know, [Trump] would not do this. That they would not do this, would not take the insurance away. Knowing that it’s affecting so many people’s lives. **I mean, what are you to do then if you cannot . . . purchase, cannot pay for the insurance?”** > > Mills, who supported Trump for other reasons, figured Obamacare repeal was just talk. “I guess we really didn’t think about that, that he was going to cancel that or change that or take it away,” she said. “I guess I always just thought that it would be there. \*\*I was thinking that once it was made into a law that it could not be changed.” > \*\* > … > > \*\*“The people hit the hardest are a lot of the demographics that went heavily for Trump,” \*\*observes Bob Greenstein, who runs the Center for Budget and Policy Priorities, a liberal number-crunching group. … “Once it was made into law, it couldn’t be changed”??? WTF? This level of ignorance that has now jumped up and bitten this woman in the ass is appalling. :smack: She and her husband will likely pay a huge price for their stupidity. What happens if you can’t get insurance that will pay for a liver transplant? Why, you die of liver disease. Quite simple. But wait, there’s more! > [@](#): > > And it’s not just Obamacare. Take — literally — Trump’s “Penny Plan,” which would reduce non-defense discretionary spending by 1 percent each year for 10 years. It’s one of the more modest of Trump’s promises, yet Greenstein’s group calculates that, once inflation is factored in, it would require the government to cut by a third what it spends on such things as cancer and medical research, highways, air traffic, the Coast Guard, job training, education, Pell Grants, housing, energy, child care and food assistance, the administration of Social Security and Medicare, national parks, NASA, the IRS, Congress and the courts, disaster assistance, global health and diplomatic protection (remember Benghazi?). > > Take literally Trump’s promise to exempt public safety (the FBI, border control and the like), and other cuts would have to be even deeper. If you suspend credulity and take literally Trump’s promise to eliminate the entire federal debt in eight years, “you would have to eliminate very large parts of the federal government,” Greenstein says. Who needs a military, anyway?.. Yeah, just let the states take care of all of that. North Caroliina? Kansas? Indiana? And of course, [Texas](https://www.washingtonpost.com/national/texas-gives-planned-parenthood-notice-of-medicaid-ouster/2016/12/20/37b421d4-c72d-11e6-acda-59924caa2450_story.html), which just announced its intention to kick Planned Parenthood out of Medicaid and to defund its regular medical services (mammograms, birth control), totally apart from abortions. ---
**Author:** ![SteveG1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/bb73d2/32.png) [@SteveG1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SteveG1)\ **Post date:** [December 21, 2016, 3:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trump-supporters-who-need-the-aca-are-in-for-a-rude-surprise/775301/2 "2016-12-21T15:11:53Z")
They will be getting exactly what they asked for and voted for. They deserve it, ALL of it. ---
**Author:** ![monstro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ba9def/32.png) [@monstro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/monstro)\ **Post date:** [December 21, 2016, 3:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trump-supporters-who-need-the-aca-are-in-for-a-rude-surprise/775301/3 "2016-12-21T15:22:21Z")
> [@SteveG1](#): > > They will be getting exactly what they asked for and voted for. They deserve it, ALL of it. I wish it could just be the people who voted recklessly who get harmed. But it never works that way. We’re all going down, whether we deserve it or not. ---
**Author:** ![E-DUB](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/e-dub/32/403_2.png) [@E-DUB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/E-DUB)\ **Post date:** [December 21, 2016, 3:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trump-supporters-who-need-the-aca-are-in-for-a-rude-surprise/775301/4 "2016-12-21T15:25:37Z")
I’ve been getting a lot of mileage out of this H.L. Menken quote lately. “Democracy is the theory that the common people know what they want, and deserve to get it good and hard” ---
**Author:** ![Kimstu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/ecd19e/32.png) [@Kimstu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kimstu)\ **Post date:** [December 21, 2016, 3:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trump-supporters-who-need-the-aca-are-in-for-a-rude-surprise/775301/5 "2016-12-21T15:31:36Z")
There’s also the futile wastage of [money spent to set up a working system and money spent to gratuitously take it apart](http://www.usnews.com/opinion/blogs/opinion-blog/articles/2016-01-15/gov-bevin-to-end-kentuckys-successful-obamacare-exchange). > [@](#): > > Taking Kynect apart will also cost the state money. According to the Times, the previous governor’s administration estimated it will cost “at least $23 million” to shut it down. There’s also the question of unused grant money, approximately $57 million, which Kentucky might have to repay to the federal government. In contrast, leaving the exchange in place would provide consistency and predictability for its customers and allow the state to continue building on Kynect’s success, perhaps even lowering the state’s uninsured numbers further. So much for “the party of fiscal responsibility”. ---
**Author:** ![Happy\_Lendervedder](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/happy_lendervedder/32/8488_2.png) [@Happy\_Lendervedder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Happy_Lendervedder)\ **Post date:** [December 21, 2016, 3:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trump-supporters-who-need-the-aca-are-in-for-a-rude-surprise/775301/6 "2016-12-21T15:46:21Z")
> [@monstro](#): > > I wish it could just be the people who voted recklessly who get harmed. But it never works that way. > > We’re all going down, whether we deserve it or not. Seriously, my family purchases insurance off the marketplace. We could be, putting it unpolitely, fucked in the year ahead. We chose to launch a small business a couple years ago and I also work for a small non-profit (I’m the only employee) that doesn’t have a lot of money to pay both a salary and benefits. So having the ACA allowed us to do both of those things (start a business and have me work for a non-profit I care about). We may have to shutter our business and I may have to quit this job and look elsewhere if this shit happens. Thanks Republicans. Anecdotally, this repeal would fuck a small business owner AND someone who works in community service. Incidentally, my own Congressfucker, Bill Huizenga, just said this week that patients should be responsible for more of their medical costs, (one way he suggests: higher deductibles!) and they shouldn’t just whip out their insurance card whenever they need health care, rather they should consider the cost of each treatment before proceeding and factor in whether they can actually afford it. [This guy’s a real shit brick.](http://www.mlive.com/news/grand-rapids/index.ssf/2016/12/sons_broken_arm_bill_huizenga.html) ---
**Author:** ![buddha\_david](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/ee7513/32.png) [@buddha\_david](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/buddha_david)\ **Post date:** [December 21, 2016, 3:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trump-supporters-who-need-the-aca-are-in-for-a-rude-surprise/775301/7 "2016-12-21T15:49:17Z")
Doesn’t surprise me that all those selfish, insular Republicans who thought repealing ACA would only apply to gays, liberals, gay liberals, and those smelly brown people, are now shocked!! I say, shocked!! that it would affect them as well. Republicans always think they live in some bubble world where the rules don’t apply to them. But that’s why I’ve been saying all along, in other forums, that most likely, the newly dominant Republican Congress will probably _not_ repeal ACA, for fear of a voter revolt. Oh sure, they’ll threaten and bluster and make promises to their campaign-funding corporate puppetmasters, but they won’t actually do it. I could be wrong, of course. But I hope I’m not wrong. ---
**Author:** ![cochrane](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cochrane/32/10441_2.png) [@cochrane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cochrane)\ **Post date:** [December 21, 2016, 3:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trump-supporters-who-need-the-aca-are-in-for-a-rude-surprise/775301/8 "2016-12-21T15:56:19Z")
> [@E-DUB](#): > > I’ve been getting a lot of mileage out of this H.L. Menken quote lately. > > “Democracy is the theory that the common people know what they want, and deserve to get it good and hard” There’s a quote I heard about democracy. It’s two wolves and a sheep discussing what to have for dinner. ---
**Author:** ![Giles](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/giles/32/60_2.png) [@Giles](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Giles)\ **Post date:** [December 21, 2016, 4:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trump-supporters-who-need-the-aca-are-in-for-a-rude-surprise/775301/9 "2016-12-21T16:04:44Z")
But in Trump’s America, the sheep votes for mutton. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/the_other_waldo_pepper/32/12370_2.png) [@The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Other_Waldo_Pepper)\ **Post date:** [December 21, 2016, 4:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trump-supporters-who-need-the-aca-are-in-for-a-rude-surprise/775301/10 "2016-12-21T16:05:41Z")
> [@buddha\_david](#): > > Doesn’t surprise me that all those selfish, insular Republicans who thought repealing ACA would only apply to gays, liberals, gay liberals, and those smelly brown people, are now shocked!! I say, shocked!! that it would affect them as well. Republicans always think they live in some bubble world where the rules don’t apply to them. > > But that’s why I’ve been saying all along, in other forums, that most likely, the newly dominant Republican Congress will probably _not_ repeal ACA, for fear of a voter revolt. Oh sure, they’ll threaten and bluster and make promises to their campaign-funding corporate puppetmasters, but they won’t actually do it. I could be wrong, of course. But I hope I’m not wrong. What I’ve been wondering: what happens if the GOP moves to repeal it, but only with enough votes that Senate Democrats can save it with a filibuster? So the Republicans can say they voted as they said they would, and the Democrats can say they saved the ACA – and if there’s _any_ bad economic news, at any point over the next four years, then Trump goes out to do some shouty call-and-response with cheering crowds about how everything is the fault of those obstructionist Dems who thwarted the will of the public and screwed the working class and, wow, they should all be locked up, huh? _“Lock Them Up, Lock Them Up,”_ that’s right. And so on. Plausible? ---
**Author:** ![Sattua](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sattua/32/11906_2.png) [@Sattua](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sattua)\ **Post date:** [December 21, 2016, 4:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trump-supporters-who-need-the-aca-are-in-for-a-rude-surprise/775301/11 "2016-12-21T16:12:29Z")
> [@The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](#): > > What I’ve been wondering: what happens if the GOP moves to repeal it, but only with enough votes that Senate Democrats can save it with a filibuster? > > So the Republicans can say they voted as they said they would, and the Democrats can say they saved the ACA – and if there’s _any_ bad economic news, at any point over the next four years, then Trump goes out to do some shouty call-and-response with cheering crowds about how everything is the fault of those obstructionist Dems who thwarted the will of the public and screwed the working class and, wow, they should all be locked up, huh? _“Lock Them Up, Lock Them Up,”_ that’s right. > > And so on. Plausible? Plausible, but at least we’d still have the ACA. ---
**Author:** ![Bryan\_Ekers](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bryan_ekers/32/183_2.png) [@Bryan\_Ekers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bryan_Ekers)\ **Post date:** [December 21, 2016, 4:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trump-supporters-who-need-the-aca-are-in-for-a-rude-surprise/775301/12 "2016-12-21T16:12:48Z")
> [@The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](#): > > Plausible? Given the established levels of stupidity involved… yes. ---
**Author:** ![Just\_Asking\_Questions](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ba9def/32.png) [@Just\_Asking\_Questions](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Just_Asking_Questions)\ **Post date:** [December 21, 2016, 4:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trump-supporters-who-need-the-aca-are-in-for-a-rude-surprise/775301/13 "2016-12-21T16:18:14Z")
I read this in the NYT: House Republicans, responding to criticism that repealing the Affordable Care Act would leave millions without health insurance, said on Thursday that their goal in replacing President Obama’s health law was to guarantee “universal access” to health care and coverage, not necessarily to ensure that everyone actually has insurance. What does that even mean? Coverage just magically appears out of the aether? Republicans have an **“ironclad commitment”** to repeal the law, the aide said, as lawmakers moved to discredit predictions that many people would lose coverage. “We can reassure the American public that the plan they are in right now, the Obamacare plans, will not end on Jan. 20,” the day Donald J. Trump will be inaugurated. So, thery’re going to repeal it, but not repeal it. They make as much sense as the people quoted in the OP. [Full Article](http://www.nytimes.com/2016/12/15/us/politics/paul-ryan-affordable-care-act-repeal.html?_r=0) ---
**Author:** ![BlankSlate](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/blankslate/32/80_2.png) [@BlankSlate](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BlankSlate)\ **Post date:** [December 21, 2016, 4:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trump-supporters-who-need-the-aca-are-in-for-a-rude-surprise/775301/14 "2016-12-21T16:22:40Z")
Remember Kelly-Anne Cuntface discussing the possibility of holding a special session in Congress on Inauguration day to repeal Obamacare? Not that they had some brilliant plan to replace it, because that would involve thinking and figuring and stuff, but rather to let the American people know that job one was destroying healthcare for millions. Like ISIS and Al-Queda, the republicans are bloody great at destroying things…and utterly useless at building anything. ---
**Author:** ![MindsEye\_Watering](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mindseye_watering/32/3619_2.png) [@MindsEye\_Watering](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MindsEye_Watering)\ **Post date:** [December 21, 2016, 4:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trump-supporters-who-need-the-aca-are-in-for-a-rude-surprise/775301/15 "2016-12-21T16:56:13Z")
The most profoundly stupid and uninformed voters in America put the most spectacularly unqualified candidate into the world’s most powerful office. What could go wrong? ---
**Author:** ![Bryan\_Ekers](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bryan_ekers/32/183_2.png) [@Bryan\_Ekers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bryan_Ekers)\ **Post date:** [December 21, 2016, 4:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trump-supporters-who-need-the-aca-are-in-for-a-rude-surprise/775301/16 "2016-12-21T16:56:48Z")
> [@Just\_Asking\_Questions](#): > > What does that even mean? Coverage just magically appears out of the aether? Aether is _so_ passé. The Republicans are using pure Phlogiston! ---
**Author:** ![3trew](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/3/13edae/32.png) [@3trew](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/3trew)\ **Post date:** [December 21, 2016, 5:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trump-supporters-who-need-the-aca-are-in-for-a-rude-surprise/775301/17 "2016-12-21T17:10:45Z")
Now, now. You can’t go blaming these people, they didn’t vote to have the ACA repealed, they just wanted to get rid of Obamacare, and have the government keep its hands off their Medicare. Nobody helped them when they were on welfare and food stamps, after all. ---
**Author:** ![Fiveyearlurker](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/da6949/32.png) [@Fiveyearlurker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fiveyearlurker)\ **Post date:** [December 21, 2016, 5:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trump-supporters-who-need-the-aca-are-in-for-a-rude-surprise/775301/18 "2016-12-21T17:11:13Z")
> [@Just\_Asking\_Questions](#): > > I read this in the NYT: > > House Republicans, responding to criticism that repealing the Affordable Care Act would leave millions without health insurance, said on Thursday that their goal in replacing President Obama’s health law was to guarantee “universal access” to health care and coverage, not necessarily to ensure that everyone actually has insurance. > > What does that even mean? Coverage just magically appears out of the aether? > > Republicans have an **“ironclad commitment”** to repeal the law, the aide said, as lawmakers moved to discredit predictions that many people would lose coverage. > > “We can reassure the American public that the plan they are in right now, the Obamacare plans, will not end on Jan. 20,” the day Donald J. Trump will be inaugurated. > > So, thery’re going to repeal it, but not repeal it. They make as much sense as the people quoted in the OP. > > [Full Article](http://www.nytimes.com/2016/12/15/us/politics/paul-ryan-affordable-care-act-repeal.html?_r=0) The “ironclad commitment” was made before they actually thought that they would have the ability to follow through with it. It’s much easier to be ironclad in your commitment when you don’t actually believe you’ll ever have to do it, and suffer the consequences. ---
**Author:** ![Budget\_Player\_Cadet](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/budget_player_cadet/32/205_2.png) [@Budget\_Player\_Cadet](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Budget_Player_Cadet)\ **Post date:** [December 21, 2016, 5:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trump-supporters-who-need-the-aca-are-in-for-a-rude-surprise/775301/19 "2016-12-21T17:37:01Z")
> [@ThelmaLou](#): > > She and her husband will likely pay a huge price for their stupidity. What happens if you can’t get insurance that will pay for a liver transplant? Why, you die of liver disease. Quite simple. Good. I have absolutely no fucking sympathy for these people. If this is what’s going to happen to good, honest people who _didn’t_ vote to fuck everyone in the ass: > [@Happy\_Lendervedder](#): > > Seriously, my family purchases insurance off the marketplace. We could be, putting it unpolitely, fucked in the year ahead. We chose to launch a small business a couple years ago and I also work for a small non-profit (I’m the only employee) that doesn’t have a lot of money to pay both a salary and benefits. So having the ACA allowed us to do both of those things (start a business and have me work for a non-profit I care about). We may have to shutter our business and I may have to quit this job and look elsewhere if this shit happens. Then I have absolutely no fucking sympathy, and I honestly have to hope, for the sake of the people I am willing to give a shit about, that they either don’t live to see the next election or stop being such fucking _morons_. In the words of Bill Hicks: “He’s a moron, he’s dead—good, we lost a moron, fuckin’ celebrate. Wow, I just felt the world get lighter. We lost a moron!” ---
**Author:** ![Euphonious\_Polemic](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/euphonious_polemic/32/3002_2.png) [@Euphonious\_Polemic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Euphonious_Polemic)\ **Post date:** [December 21, 2016, 6:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trump-supporters-who-need-the-aca-are-in-for-a-rude-surprise/775301/20 "2016-12-21T18:50:08Z")
My prediction is that the ACA will remain essentially the same, with some non-substantive window dressing thrown on. There will be a bill to re-name it “Trumpcare”. And the idiot Republican voters will cheer and cheer at this wonderful invention, that is exactly the same as “Obamacare”. Because they are gullible fools. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trump-supporters-who-need-the-aca-are-in-for-a-rude-surprise/775301.md?page=2)