The HealthCare Discussion Is Better Off Without Obama Or Romney [Op-Ed]

You might find that the healthcare debate has gotten a little confusing since the Supreme Court’s passage of the Affordable Care Act. What could have been a meaningful conversation has basically devolved into a high-stakes semantics game. ACA is a “tax”. No, technically it’s a “penalty”. Oh, it is a “tax”. No it’s not. Then what is it? For goodness’ sake, we’re at the point where even both Barack Obama and Mitt Romney are in full agreement about what the ACA is.

What?!

“Since Gov. Romney signed health care reform here in Massachusetts, more private companies are offering health care to their employees, fewer people are getting primary care in an expensive emergency room setting, and hundreds of thousands of our friends and neighbors have access to care,” said Gov. Deval Patrick, a Democrat and co-chairman of Obama’s re-election committee.

That’s Mitt Romney’s legacy in Massachusetts. It’s not enough to say that passed similar reforms in Massachusetts. The ACA was based on those reforms, they’re in the same hereditary line. The ACA is Romney’s grandchild. He’s damned if he do, damned if he don’t when it comes to the healthcare conversation. Anything he says opens him up to scrutiny from somewhere, so his rep’s recent declaration that the ACA is not a tax keeps Romney in philosophically safe territory at the risk of alienating his own base.

Then there’s the left and Obama’s administration. Let me sum it up real quick: ACA is not a tax, it’s not a tax, it’s not a tax, it’s not a tax, CRAP. The Supreme Court just said it’s a tax. Well, we disagree (even though we got what we want). It’s not a tax, it’s a “penalty.” It’s a strange political reality when a “penalty” sounds preferable to a “tax”.

Election season is nigh, and all we have are two candidates that can’t talk about one of the biggest issues in our nation right now.

What’s done is done. I don’t understand why Republicans are pressuring Mitt Romney to take a hypocritical stance on healthcare and I don’t understand why the Obama administration is still trying to defend and redefine the ACA in light of SCOTUS’s decision. If this is the only game we’re going to play come election season, I’ll just watch TVLand instead.