GOP's Search For Obamacare Horror Tales Backfires

On the hunt for anti-Obamacare horror stories, Florida Governor Rick Scott went to a local senior’s center to collect tales of how the Affordable Care Act had robbed older Florida residents of their health care. The plan backfired, as almost everyone he talked to liked Obamacare, was satisfied with their health insurance, and hadn’t experienced any significant cuts to their Medicare coverage. Whoops.

Scott, who is in serious danger of losing his reelection campaign to Republican-turned-Democrat Charlie Crist, held a roundtable discussion with 20 seniors at the Volen Center Tuesday. After proclaiming that “the Medicare Advantage programs are being cut to pay for Obamacare,” Scott solicited the opinions of the Floridians around him, apparently expecting that the participants would be in agreement with him. They weren’t.

“I’m completely satisfied,” said 92-year-old Harvey Eisen. One attendee said that he was “very happy” with his coverage; another reported having “no problems” in the post-Obamacare era, and a woman and her husband both told the governor that they were “very pleased” with their Medicare payments.

When Scott asked the group directly if they’d seen seen physicians opting out of Medicare after the Affordable Care Act become law, the result was “a chorus of ‘no’s’,” in the words of the Florida Sun-Sentinal.

Importantly, some members of the group pointed out that, even “if, as you say,” some people’s Medicare payments were getting cut, they’d understand.

“We have to be careful not to just rely on the fact that we’re seniors and have an entitlement to certain things,” Ruthlyn Rubin, 66, said. “I think we have to spread it around. This is the United States of America. It’s not the United States of Senior Citizens.”

The whole experience is reminiscent of a similar failed effort by Senator Ted Cruz. In April, Cruz asked his Facebook followers if they were better off under Obamacare than they were before. The overwhelming majority said that yes, they were. Both that and Scott’s failed initiatives demonstrate the extent to which the GOP is committed to not only to repeal Obamacare, but to convince themselves that law is robbing people of health care — a claim that, with each passing day, becomes less and less credible.