But Republicans, who have tried for years to stop the government from expanding health care coverage, will not wait passively for a disaster to happen.
My experience as President Barack Obama’s administrator of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services should serve as a warning. From Day 1, Republicans did what they could to weaken the Affordable Care Act. While we worked to make it easier for eligible people to apply for Medicaid, Republicans favored rules that made enrollment harder. They cut budgets for implementing Obamacare provisions, like modernized data systems.
. . .
Unfortunately, it’s unlikely that any of these fixes will happen anytime under Republicans, who have already staked their reputation on the prediction that Obamacare will soon “explode.” It is hard to imagine that they won’t try their best to make that dire prediction a reality.
Will they succeed? Probably not. The law does too much good for too many people for doctrine to override evidence. But the Affordable Care Act’s opponents have been undermining it for years, and we, its defenders, drop our guard at our peril.
