Wealthy Republicans have a long history of supporting universal health care via the private sector, from President Richard M. Nixon to Mitt Romney, the Heritage Foundation and Sen. Bob Dole. But in recent years, the modern-day GOP has been more interested in playing partisan politics and promoting racial animosity than the health and wellbeing of its fellow Americans.
In the early 1970s, President Nixon opposed Sen. Ted Kennedy’s proposal of a single payer system but proposed an alternative: universal health care via the private sector. What Nixon had in mind (and what Kennedy agreed to as a compromise) was comparable to the Affordable Care Act of 2010, aka Obamacare, but with more generous, comprehensive provisions. In fact, President Barack Obama even consulted none other than Stuart Altman (Nixon’s consultant on health care reform) when the ACA was being crafted many years later.
Nixoncare, unfortunately, was derailed by the Watergate scandal in 1974, among other things. But elements of Nixoncare subsequently resurfaced in the ideas of the Heritage Foundation, Sen. Bob Dole and Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney.
In 2010, those Republican ideas finally became a reality when Democrats passed the ACA. Obamacare was a watered down version of Nixoncare, and the corrupt crony capitalists of the health insurance industry played much too heavy a role in crafting the legislation. President Obama, truth be told, was to the right of Richard Nixon on health care (and way to the right of what Sen. Kennedy had in mind in the early 1970s). But then, progress is incremental. Flaws and all, Obamacare was an improvement over the horror we had before. Obamacare didn’t go far enough; it decreased the suffering but certainly didn’t eliminate it.
By violently opposing the ACA, modern-day Republicans are, in effect, violently opposing the ideas of Richard Nixon, the Heritage Foundation and Gov. Romney (who contradicted himself by opposing Obamacare, which was Romneycare on a national scale). But never underestimate the power that racial resentment can have in the United States.
In 2008, the U.S. elected its first Black president. Many white folks, myself included, voted for Obama not once but twice. And having an African-American president for eight years, even a very centrist and middle-of-the-road one such as Barack Obama, was deeply, deeply troubling to the far-right wingnuts, social cleansers and neo-Confederates who now dominate the Republican Party and comprise the Tea Party. Richard Nixon and Barry Goldwater, both considered hardcore arch-conservatives in their day, would be way too moderate for this crowd. So, Republicans successfully whipped their low-information voters into a frenzy by claiming, “That there Kenyan Marxist Muslim voodoo witch doctor who ain’t even a U.S. citizen wants to take away your wonderful health care, kill your puppies and drown Granny in the bathtub.”
Trumpcare proposals are not about helping Americans. They are about revenge and giving the middle finger to Barack Obama and his eight years as president.
As sick and twisted as it is, there are plenty of right-wing white Republican voters who are 55 years old, make 19 or 20 grand a year and suffer from diabetes yet applaud Trumpcare bills that could kill them. Literally. But the Culture War, identity politics and racial animosity is more important to them than their own health. Medical bankruptcy or a diabetic foot amputation that could have been prevented is, to them, a small price to pay for the Culture War. Such is the long and tortured racial, economic and social history of the United States, which will continue to lag behind Switzerland, France, Australia, Sweden, Portugal, Spain, the Republic of Ireland and a long list of other developed countries when it comes to life expectancy.
So, to summarize: yes, Republicans have a long history of understanding the need for affordable health care. Their ideas were even embraced by Democrats when they passed the ACA in 2010. But for the current version of the GOP, racial resentment and the Culture War trump (so to speak) the need for affordable health care and saving Americans from unnecessary pain, death, bankruptcy and suffering.
