Whassup in Okie town? How can it be..that people in Oklahoma want the ACA....just as long as you don't call it ObamaCare...too funny!~
For the second time in two weeks, Oklahomans have made President Donald Trump look bad. First there was the sparsely attended Tulsa rally. Now Sooner State voters have opted to expand Medicaid under the Affordable Care Act.
There’s an immediate, narrow problem for the White House, and a broader, more strategic one. In the short term, the very tight “yes” vote imperils a plan to turn Medicaid funding into a block grant from the federal government to states, using Oklahoma as a pilot.
In a deeper sense, though, the vote is a warning sign for Trump, because it shows how he’s at odds with even many conservative voters on health care. Last week, the Trump administration asked the Supreme Court (again) to throw out the Affordable Care Act. Meanwhile, voters in a state so red that the president chose it for his big comeback rally have voted to adopt an expansion of coverage under the law—the fifth time voters in a Republican-governed state have done so, and the fourth in the past two years.
It’s not entirely shocking that amid a pandemic and a massive unemployment crisis, voters would rather have more health coverage than less. And while Obamacare remains unpopular among conservative voters—three-quarters of Republicans had an unfavorable view of the law in the Kaiser Family Foundation’s most recent tracking poll—the actual components of the law, especially requiring insurers to cover people with preexisting conditions, have always been popular.
For the second time in two weeks, Oklahomans have made President Donald Trump look bad. First there was the sparsely attended Tulsa rally. Now Sooner State voters have opted to expand Medicaid under the Affordable Care Act.
There’s an immediate, narrow problem for the White House, and a broader, more strategic one. In the short term, the very tight “yes” vote imperils a plan to turn Medicaid funding into a block grant from the federal government to states, using Oklahoma as a pilot.
In a deeper sense, though, the vote is a warning sign for Trump, because it shows how he’s at odds with even many conservative voters on health care. Last week, the Trump administration asked the Supreme Court (again) to throw out the Affordable Care Act. Meanwhile, voters in a state so red that the president chose it for his big comeback rally have voted to adopt an expansion of coverage under the law—the fifth time voters in a Republican-governed state have done so, and the fourth in the past two years.
It’s not entirely shocking that amid a pandemic and a massive unemployment crisis, voters would rather have more health coverage than less. And while Obamacare remains unpopular among conservative voters—three-quarters of Republicans had an unfavorable view of the law in the Kaiser Family Foundation’s most recent tracking poll—the actual components of the law, especially requiring insurers to cover people with preexisting conditions, have always been popular.
