The effects of a repeal of ACA

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It’s worth asking why Republicans are lying about this, why they can’t give a clear explanation as to what their bill does, why they’re jamming the legislation through a secretive, rushed process that even their own members are criticizing. Because there is a reason. And it is damning.

In 2009, Democrats had an easy answer to what the Affordable Care Act was meant to do: They wanted to cover more people and cut costs. They could give that answer because it was a basically popular position, and because it’s what their bill actually did, or at least tried to do. In 2017, Republicans have a similarly easy answer for their bill: They want to cover fewer people and use the savings to fund tax cuts for the wealthy. That is what their legislation does. But they can’t give that answer because it’s a horribly unpopular position.

Democrats always believed the Affordable Care Act would be popular. They believed that even when polls said it wasn’t popular. They were certain that when Americans understood what was in the law — when they saw it would cover tens of millions of people, and regulate away the worst abuses of the insurance industry, and let children stay on their parents’ plans, and use Medicare to pilot a host of cost-control experiments — they would come around.

This basic belief carried through the more than year-long process behind the bill. It’s why Democrats held dozens of hearings, and released draft after draft of their legislation. It’s why, when the bill was in danger, President Obama invited congressional leadership to the Blair House for a multi-hour televised debate over the bill. He was certain he had the better of the argument, and that if the American people could just hear it, Democrats would win.

By contrast, Republicans have concluded the public will hate their bill if they know what’s in it, and so they are doing everything in their power to keep it a secret and move on from it as fast as possible.

The real reason Republicans can’t answer simple questions about their health care bill - Vox