Ten Things to Expect From This Week’s Repeal of Health Reform Debate

This is the week House Republicans will repeal the health reform law, The Patient Protection Affordable and Accountable Care Act.

What do I expect from the debate preceding the vote?

1) I expect Republicans to say the reform law is neither affordable nor accountable.

2) I expect Democrats to say reform law is both affordable and accountable.

3) I expect Republicans to argue the reform law has profound structural flaws that make it virtually unworkable.

4) I expect Democrats to argue repeal is symbolic, a waste of time since reform is the law of the land, and they hold the Senate and Presidential cards to block repeal.

5) I expect the debate to be measured, civil, and nonpartisan in tone but not in substance.

6) I expect Republicans to cite structural defects in the bill - the individual mandate, rising costs, loss of current plans and jobs, failure to address doctor shortages, Medicare cuts, financial burdens on the states, bureaucratic burdens on business, lack of tort reform, lack of portability, over-regulation, over-spending, and over-growth of government.

7) I expect Democrats to be more emotional, to stress the social and moral cruelties of not covering 34 million uninsured, patients with pre-existing illness, children, young people under 26 under their parent’s plans, Medicare recipients who fall into the Donut Hole, and those requiring subsidies to survive

8) I expect Republicans to showcase businesspersons and physicians who deplore various aspects of the law.

9) I expect Democrats to highlight heart-wrenching tales of woe among ordinary citizens who have been denied coverage or driven into bankruptcy by medical costs.

10) I expect this to be first of many debates over the next two years leading up to the 2012 presidential election.