Republicans are waging war on health care—but the people they’re hurting most are their own voters. That’s not hyperbole.
“More Than Half of [Affordable Care Act] Marketplace Enrollees Live in Republican Congressional Districts,” reads the headline at health policy outlet KFF—and even that undersells it. You hear “more than half” and think 51%, maybe 52%. In reality, it’s 57%. That’s not a slim majority.
And it gets even more striking.
“At least 10% of the population in all congressional districts in Florida, Georgia, Mississippi, and South Carolina are enrolled in the ACA Marketplaces,” KFF writes.
Those are all states that went for President Donald Trump last year. Florida alone has 28 House districts. And Texas and Utah almost qualify, with all but three House districts between them having 10% or greater ACA enrollment.
Meanwhile, not one state that Democratic nominee Kamala Harris won has a single district where more than 10% of residents are enrolled in the ACA marketplace, aka Obamacare.
The South is especially dependent on the ACA marketplace since many Republican-led states in the region have refused to expand Medicaid, forcing millions of their own residents onto ACA plans. It’s no wonder even MAGA Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia has broken with her party’s hatred of expanded ACA subsidies.
Yet the GOP keeps swinging a sledgehammer at the very people keeping them in office.
It’s uncanny how precisely Trump and his party manage to harm their base. And it’s part of the eternal irony of American politics: Democrats fight for programs that disproportionately help voters in red states. From rural broadband to farm subsidies and rural education, liberals are once again sharing the wealth generated by blue states like California and New York—the same states that red America loves to demonize.
They set out to own the libs, but they’re owning themselves.
Democrats are fighting to protect those subsidies, even though many of its beneficiaries will vote Republican again. They’re doing it because it’s the right fight, morally and economically.
But it’s also maddening. At this point, I don’t care about them anymore. They voted to hurt the people and causes I care about. They can live with the higher premiums they voted for.