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{"id":887,"date":"2013-08-24T10:11:00","date_gmt":"2013-08-24T10:11:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/admin.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/2013\/08\/obamacare-fixes-and-saving-face.html"},"modified":"2013-08-24T10:11:00","modified_gmt":"2013-08-24T10:11:00","slug":"obamacare-fixes-and-saving-face","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/2013\/08\/obamacare-fixes-and-saving-face.html","title":{"rendered":"ObamaCare fixes and “saving face”?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

Let\u2019s start with the position that ObamaCare is a disaster in multiple ways, and in a perfect world Congress would repeal and replace (yes, with VoucherCare)<\/a> and Obama would sign the bill before him.<\/p>\n

But this won\u2019t happen.\u00a0 Are you kidding?\u00a0 To imagine that Obama would sign a law repealing the legislation unofficially named after him is delusional.\u00a0 <\/p>\n

So I\u2019m thinking through the question:\u00a0 is there a \u201cmend it, don\u2019t end it\u201d version of ObamaCare that would repair enough of the bill\u2019s flaws for the GOP to be willing to put their name on it, but preserve enough core elements that the Democrats would be able to enact fixes and still \u201csave face\u201d by imagining that it\u2019s only minor changes that surely would have been the product of a conference anyway?<\/p>\n

The key problem that even the Democrats are recognizing are the discontinuities<\/a>.\u00a0 How could they be fixed? Dump the employer mandate.\u00a0 Don\u2019t cut off subsidies arbitrarily.\u00a0 Dump the individual mandate (replace it with a penalty? \u2014 if you get sick without insurance, your deductible is $20,000, for instance).<\/p>\n

Are there things that Republicans would change, under a \u201chalf a loaf is better than none\u201d approach?\u00a0(Trying to think this through\u00a0more comprehensively is on the to-do list).\u00a0 \u00a0Because going for the full loaf repeatedly isn\u2019t doing anything productive.<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"