Conservative commentator Charles Krauthammer said the lasting effect of Obamacare, even if it does implode as Republicans predict, is that it may have led the public to embrace the idea of government-run universal healthcare.
In a column published Thursday night, Krauthammer said the GOP, having failed to “repeal and replace” Obamacare, could make the attempt again in the coming months, but said people may reject the attempt because they’ve been conditioned to see healthcare as an entitlement.
“A broad national consensus is developing that health care is indeed a right,” he wrote. “This is historically new. And it carries immense implications for the future. It suggests that we may be heading inexorably to a government-run, single-payer system. It’s what Barack Obama once admitted he would have preferred but didn’t think the country was ready for. It may be ready now.”
President Trump campaigned on securing low-cost coverage for everyone, and congressional Republicans have grappled with how to repeal the current healthcare law without voters losing their insurance.
The House GOP’s effort to change the law this month failed when a majority of the House Freedom Caucus’s 30 members said they would not support it because it didn’t do enough to repeal Obamacare.
