Congressman Andy Barr at Lexington, KY Town Hall Obamacare v ACHA

Notes on KY 6th District Congressman Andy Barr Town Hall in Beeler Auditorium, Lafayette High School, Lexington, KY 4/24/17

I have been thinking about this meeting since I left it about 90 minutes ago.  The questions in my mind are why was it so raucous and is there any way it could have been different?  I will try to be as unbiased as I can, given that I was among the raucous.  The stated reason of having the town hall was to explain why he supports the American Health Care Act (ACHA) to replace current provisions of the American Care Act (ACA), known as Obamacare.  I suppose for as many as 2/3 the participants that would be reason enough to be raucous.  I am by no means justifying the noise.  However, there is something almost racist in the call for to repeal the ACA.  It appears that, if they could, Republican Leadership, symbolized by Senator McConnell, would erase “Barack Obama” from the list of presidents or give any credence to the overarching victory of enacting health care for Americans.  So it appears the Republican Leadership wants to steal Obama’s plum by reducing it's effect and giving ACA the H. 

Second, in his responses, Congressman Barr was unable to assure people that their concerns would be met to their satisfaction.  He repeatedly referred to the glowing but unsubstantiated remark in his presentation.  He was unable to answer or simply ignored calls for “Yes” or “No”.  He repeatedly said he is our Representative and is seeking our best interest and referred to the presented benefits of the ACHA which are no better than the so called “promises” of ACA that have not yet been met.  I call it hand waving or “smoke and mirrors”.  These are not criticisms just observations of why there might have been noise.  In short, I’d say he didn’t listen, he is tied to the ACHA as it was when it didn’t get to a vote and he desperately wants to be supported in that by his constituents.  The ones in Beeler Auditorium couldn’t do that. At one point he said “I don’t have to do this [town hall].

Apparently it hurts when a lot of people don’t appreciate the hard work he has done trying to meet the needs of Republican Leadership and his interpretation of the majority opinion of the 6th district as shown in the last election.  I'd say he genuinely sees himself as working with Democrats to find a compromise.  He says that is not like it was when the ACA was passed.  Dems just did it, he asserted. I just wonder how it was that Republicans didn't participate, their choice?  Maybe I could ask former Congressman Ben Chandler, ah that's past this is now.  I appreciate he believes that he is working across the aisle.

As a result House Republicans have brought forward a plan that attempts to mollify some Democrats while not giving in completely to the more conservative Republican members.  As a result Rep Barr is doing his best to sell it at home.  In his presentation he decried the shortcomings experienced thus far with ACA and lauded the presumed benefits of the ACHA.  Unfortunately, there was no acknowledgement of presumed less attractive aspects of the ACHA nor acknowledgment of the benefits of the ACA.  Nor was he able to address key questions head on with a guarantee that certain desired benefits experienced under ACA would remain under ACHA.  In fact the only thing the ACHC does is guarantee health care policies would be accessible, not that anyone would be able or willing to buy them.

From my point of view the advantages of the ACA are partially immediate and largely long term.  There are several forces that will have beneficial effects over a long term.  One complaint is the rising cost of policies under ACA.  We must recognize that we have injected many, but not yet all, uninsured into the insured category.  Since these people are likely to have untreated chronic conditions, it makes sense that claims would be higher among this class.  The Insurance industry provided low rates based on standard population data and the expectation of many healthy people joining the insurance pool.  Hence the rates had to climb to make it profitable for the Insurance Companies.  Economists would call this a market driven correction.

Such market fluctuations will taper off and, long term, premiums should drop as people become healthier in general.  But for health care coverage, as more become insured and the population becomes healthier, we may be expect a steady decline in dollars spent, reduced need per capita for emergency room use, insurance payments reducing loss to medical suppliers leading to lower overhead costs in those institutions and, finally, even steady or reduced premiums or even lower health costs.  These are just the more obvious to me as a casual observer.   That is if, as Andy might say, we let the market work.

There are other issues not addressed by the ACHA, such as the myth that we are not all interconnected.  When a young healthy person stays out of the insurance pool, those who are in it are left holding the health care system up at a higher cost so it is ready to care for him/her when he needs it.  We often ignore this aspect of our national society.  Repeated references to letting the states do it make me wonder if I could wind up in a third world hospital while traveling across the great USA.  Ah well, I guess this isn’t a simple question - this health care business - maybe I should leave it to the overworked and under staffed politician I didn’t vote for.  He doesn’t seem interested in hearing objections.  He just needs to make his boss happy.  Wait a minute aren’t I one of his bosses?  Hmmm, he doesn’t seem to think so.

Oh and I’ll just mention his ineffective attempt to color himself as Henry Clay.  His red face was more akin to Georgia clay.