TX19: Arrington wants to keep the part of Obamacare that ensures financial failure

Robert Pratt

Dr. Merrill Matthews, of the Institute for Policy Innovation, wrote in Forbes back in 2012: “Several Republicans reportedly want to retain certain provisions in ObamaCare, not because those provisions are good policy, but because they’re popular.  But if Republicans adopt the popularity standard, they will have to impose coercive government mandates that will drive up the cost of health insurance — just as they accuse President Obama and the Democrats of doing.”

“One of the ObamaCare provisions seen as worthy of retention is the requirement that health insurers accept any applicant regardless of health status, known as “guaranteed issue,” Matthews wrote.

And here we are four years later after the full insurance marketplace catastrophe is known and we find Jodey Arrington in lock-step with those moderates who want to keep parts of Obamacare.

Arrington told KCBD: “There is not a lot in Obamacare that I think is worth keeping. Pre-existing conditions, people that have pre-existing conditions, that is one element that I think we need to preserve.” Really! Arrington thinks some of Obamacare should be preserved and the part he want to keep is the worst part of Obamacare – the part that drives up rates by causing adverse selection!

Dr. Matthews wrote back in 2012 that “the better solution — and one that most Republicans and many Democrats support — is a state-based high-risk pool.  Thirty-five states had already established such pools… when ObamaCare was passed.” But not Arrington, he says we should keep the guaranteed issue as implemented in Obamacare.

Glen Robertson, by the way, told KCBD: “I am a proponent of killing every word of Obamacare. It is failed policy.”