Here’s the Democrats’ Playbook for the Upcoming Health Care Fight

Donald Trump’s victory earlier this month has even his skeptics cautiously optimistic that his presidency could yield at least a few positive policy results. As Republicans formulate their dream repeal-and-replace bill to President Obama’s signature health care reform law, Democrats are also bracing for the upcoming Obamacare fight.

There are already trial balloons floating throughout progressive social media and left-wing outlets, testing and re-testing effective counters to Republicans’ efforts to repeal the law and replace it with patient-centered reforms. They know that Obama’s legacy is tied to Obamacare, and many of their Democratic friends and allies lost their positions throughout every level of government as retribution for their support for it.

Here’s how they’ll try to fight the GOP’s plans to repeal and replace Obamacare:

Admit that the law is flawed, but that it’s more logical and humane to just repair it instead of fully repealing it.

Before the law passed, Democrats assured an angry public it would take some time to see the full benefits of the law. From the disastrous rollout of healthcare.gov to the unilateral delays for mandate implementation by the Obama administration, the American people saw pretty clearly that the law was a mess.

Suddenly, Democrats began arguing that there were small errors in the legislative text that needed to be addressed. They promised that the law itself was not defective, lambasting Republicans who dared to criticize Obamacare as heartless cronies who hated the sick.

Every element of the law is broken (yes, even the bit about pre-existing conditions; there are better solutions than what Obamacare prescribes). And as it stands, the program is in a total financial collapse. Insurers are fleeing the marketplace or suing the federal government. Families are seeing their premiums quadruple or are losing access to their physicians.

Simply put: there is no way to “fix” the law. It must be scrapped entirely. Any liberal pleas to make mere minor adjustments demonstrate just how out of touch they are — or just how much they’d lie to the American people. At some point, it’s time for honesty.

Instruct media and commentators to inform the public that full benefits of Obamacare have not been realized, while insisting skyrocketing premiums were normal “growing pains” associated with the law’s implementation.

This is one of my favorite bits about the Democrats’ strategy because it, like the aforementioned “fixable fallacy,” is an approach they continue to use without any success, and yet they persist in it.

By the way, the message coordination on this is stunning. Every single time an insurer announces it is leaving the Obamacare exchanges or shutting down operations in certain states, the news reports include so-called health care “experts,” all of whom just so happen to be left-leaning, who promise that these changes are normal fluctuations in the marketplace (insurance rates are always going up, they cry). And when that doesn’t work, they urge the public to have patience as the law shakes out a bit more.

Just one problem: insurers, employers, physicians and policyholders had four years since the beginning of the debate on Obamacare to its implementation to get adjusted to the new rules, regulations, mandates and taxes. And we’re now three years past that point!

Now, their argument is — and will likely continue to be — that Americans should wait just a little while longer and then they’ll really love Obamacare. At some point, Democrats will have to acknowledge that there is overwhelming evidence, both quantitative and qualitative, about how this law is totally unworkable and totally destructive.

Americans are feeling it, which is why the law remains wildly unpopular. If public opinion hasn’t shifted in favor of the law six years after it passed, it likely never will. But, that won’t stop the Democrats from begging the American people not to believe their “lying eyes.”

Blame private citizens, center-right media companies, job creators and bigotry for the law’s unpopularity.

Look out Koch Brothers, because you’re about to be blamed for Americans hating Obamacare! Employers, big and small, you’re heartless jerks, too. You, too, Fox News, Drudge Report, Rush Limbaugh and probably anyone who has ever vocalized the tiniest amount of skepticism about the law’s efficacy or solvency. And by the way, if you oppose Obamacare, it’s probably because you’re coming from “a place of privilege” (whatever that means).

This is a favorite trick of the Left. They impugn the motivations and character of individuals affiliated with their ideological opposition. And as Obamacare falls apart, look for Democratic lawmakers and talking heads to blame virtually everyone but themselves for the law’s failure. If only we loved it as much as they did, they’ll argue, the law would have had a chance of succeeding.

Trot out potential “victims” of Obamacare repeal, while ignoring how they’d benefit from actual patient-centered reforms.

The Democrats are going to make America look like a Third World country if Republicans appear to have momentum to repeal and replace Obamacare. They’ll suddenly trot out indigent elderly patients, impoverished children and, of course, young professionals struggling to make ends meet.

What they won’t tell you, however, is how their program is limiting options for the very people they swear they serve. For the poor, working poor, working class and middle class in America, Medicaid has become their only choice, as private health care has become too expensive. For young professionals, purchasing insurance has become so costly that many are opting to pay a tax penalty instead of purchasing insurance that covers more than what they need.

Democrats insist they’re the only party with ideas to improve health care, and without their prized legislation in place, millions of Americans will die. The truth, however, is that conservative solutions are rooted in patient-centered ideas that lower costs, improve access, enrich the quality of care and move the country’s health care system onto a more stable, sustainable path.

But, of course, they won’t mention that.

Scare seniors into believing Republicans want to privatize Medicare.

It’s already happening. Prominent liberal commentators are screaming that Speaker of the House Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) wants to end Medicare and move all seniors to the scary dangers of the free-market world of insurance.

Well that’s not true, (as though Sen. Marco Rubio and others arguing they wouldn’t yank the Medicare from underneath their own parents wasn’t convincing enough). There are a bevy of GOP plans to address the mounting entitlement crisis — a crisis that is equally as dire as it is ignored by Democrats.

Democrats tried the “Paul Ryan pushes Granny off the cliff” ad in 2012, but exit polling showed Ryan’s role as Gov. Mitt Romney’s vice presidential pick had no negative effect on the ticket.

Democrats seem likely to overplay this hand once again. Republicans have both 2010 and 2012 as plenty of proof that these attacks don’t work. Instead, if the GOP comes prepared with a reasonable solution to solve the retirement spending crisis, liberals will look totally unserious and unable to handle the significant fiscal challenges that lay ahead.

Finally, if all else fails, beg to bail out the insurance companies instead.

This is the absolute last place where the Democrats want to find themselves. After spending two decades admonishing the insurance companies (in between bribing them to support Obamacare), they might appeal to the American people to support bailing out insurers that have faced record losses due to their participation in the law.

With profits tumbling and market access diminishing for insurance companies, many planned to receive subsidies from the federal government to recoup their losses. Thanks to clever maneuvering by Rubio, the Department of Health and Human Services is prohibited from sending them bailout checks.

Now, insurance companies are suing the Obama Administration, explaining that they were promised a low risk scenario by the White House in the event that Obamacare’s individual mandate did not attract enough healthy, paying customers to cover the number of risky patients the law required they cover.

After demonizing insurance companies since HillaryCare in the early 1990s, Democrats find themselves in the peculiar position of telling the American people that in order to keep the industry afloat, the government will need to use their taxpayer money to send insurers hundreds of millions of dollars to make up for lost profits. Hardly a compelling argument.

Once they’ve exhausted all of these options — and, indeed, they’ve already begun to do so — they’ll resort to complaining Republicans have no ideas of their own to address the country’s health care needs. Too bad for them, there are dozens of proposals, all of which would do far more good and far less harm than Obamacare has already done.

Their sweeping electoral losses this November seemed to shock Democrats, in part because they chose to ignore the Obamacare crisis that was developing across America, leaving many people with less money and fewer benefits than before it passed. Their reliance upon these old arguments demonstrates just how out of touch they are with the people they’re meant to serve.

Ellen Carmichael is a senior writer for Opportunity Lives. Follow her on Twitter @ellencarmichael.