Obamacare: The GOP was for It, Before They Were Against It

The ACA uses a market-based approach and the private insurance industry to provide universal coverage, two staples of Republican health-care proposals since the 1970's. And it wouldn't surprise us if, once the system is fully implemented and Americans start telling the GOP that they like what they're getting and that the Tea Party's scare tactics weren't true, the Republican Party will start trying to take credit for the ACA. Which is fine. After all, the GOP was for it before they were against it.

(Governor Mitt Romney signs bipartisan health care reform in
Massachusetts, the model for the ACA - image from the Daily Beast)

Here's a brief time-line of that Republican support:

1970's: When Senator Ted Kennedy (D-Mass) was pushing for universal health care coverage that was administered through the federal government, President Richard Nixon and the GOP countered with proposals to utilize the private insurance industry, rather than the federal government.

The ACA uses private insurance carriers to provide health care policies to Americans and to handle their claims.

1980's: Senator Howard Baker (R-Tenn) was one of the primary proponents of utilizing the private sector as the means by which to provide health care coverage to all Americans. But the practical question of how best to pay for universal coverage still had to be resolved. Conservative think tanks realized that the insurance industry would need additional revenue in order to cover everyone who got sick. It was these conservative think tanks, including the Heritage Foundation, who came up with the idea of the individual mandate, whereby every American had to participate in the plan and, therefore, either had to buy an insurance policy or pay a fine.

That's why Mitt Romney's health plan for Massachusetts included this individual mandate and why the ACA does too.

1990's: When the Clinton administration was pushing for it's version of health care reform, Senator Bob Dole (R-Kan) was one of the leading Republicans to oppose their approach. His alternative? Utilize the private insurance industry with an individual mandate.

2000's: Governor Mitt Romney (R-Mass) supported and eventually signed a universal health care bill for the state of Massachusetts. A core component of this legislation was the individual mandate which, for some reason, the Governor tried to run away from during his 2012 presidential campaign.

So, beginning in the early years of the Obama administration, what caused the GOP to flip-flop and now say they're against the ACA, even though its core components are consistent with what they have been advocating for almost 40 years and that one of their own actually signed into law in Massachusetts? Some say it was just politics: the GOP didn't want to give the President a 'victory' that he could run on in 2012 and now they're stuck with that position. Some say it's because the GOP has been taken over by the far-right who doesn't care about the average American and who will throw massive amounts of money into primary challenges against any thoughtful Republican who doesn't tow the new party line.

There probably is a lot of truth to both schools of thought, but we'll just leave it at this: the ACA structure is basically a Republican approach, one that we hope the GOP eventually will try to take credit for. Which is only fair. After all, the GOP was for it before they were against it.