Obamacare is like a woman with an abusive boyfriend who stays with him with the explanation that he doesn’t hit her as much as the old boyfriend.

I hate being saddled with having to defend Obamacare, because I really don’t like much of it.  However, I find myself doing so because the attacks on it are often just so damned stupid, wrong, and outright lies (Death panels?  Babies aren’t covered?  Seriously, people really believe this crap?)

Some criticisms are from reasonable people who are upset that the website isn’t as good as it should be (a legitimate complaint). Some are upset that their rates are going up (which they did before Obamacare too, if anyone cares to remember — the key now is that you can shop around and apply for subsidies to help pay for it). And some are complaining that their weak-ass plan that was a rip off is no longer being provided to them, without realizing that this is a good thing.

Many on right criticize Obamacare because it’s “socialism.”  Those on the left criticize it because it isn’t socialism.

The fact is that there are parts of Obamacare that just about everyone likes, whether they’ll admit it or not.  No more “pre-existing conditions” keeping people from getting insurance.  No more kicking kids off insurance when they get sick.  Limitations on how much insurance companies can spend on things unrelated to health care.

The part almost everyone hates is the mandate requiring people to buy insurance.

Liberals have always been against that.  After all, that idea is a Republican idea, meant to keep the insurance companies happy and in business.  It was previously called “Romneycare” and before that it was in the Republican platform.  This is why it is so frustrating to argue with conservatives who promoted the idea and were all for it until Obama did it.  Suddenly it was a terrible idea and “socialism.”

We liberals wanted a single-payer medicare-for-all plan like every other advanced country in the world.  Insurance companies (that provide no health care themselves) would be out of the picture, so we’d save a ton of money that way.   We’d spread the costs over every single American, thus reducing the costs to individuals (that’s how insurance works, you know).  Health care would be treated like a public service in the same way we provide police protection, fire protection and education, without regard for whether you can pay for it yourself or not.   Best yet, we already have the bureaucracy in place with medicare.  No need for a fancy website that breaks down, no need to set up new regulations and policies.

So when you see those polls saying most people do not support Obamacare, remember that those numbers include people like me, who don’t support it because we want something better, not because we want to get rid of it completely.

Fox News reported this terrible fact recently after Cornelius Kelly found that his new insurance through Obamacare covered all of his children except for his baby!

Kelly, a failed Tea Party candidate for the New York State Legislature, did what anyone in that situation would do: he contacted the insurance company, checked over his application paperwork, and did some research as to why this would be.

Ha ha! Just kidding. You might have missed the part where I said he was a Tea Party candidate. Instead, he went straight to The New York Post (owned by Fox News) to report this terrible aspect of Obamacare. (Apparently, of the tens of thousands who have so far signed up for Obamacare, not one had babies and therefore this loophole was previously unknown. That was me being sarcastic.)

Fox, being the ever-vigilant heroes of journalism that they are (Oop! Sorry, almost threw up in my mouth there), reported the story. After all, since they are “fair and balanced” there is no need for investigation. They report — you decide. (They never claim their reporting is accurate or true. That’s for us to decide.)

Turns out ol’ Cornelius’ baby wasn’t covered because — I know, this will be hard to imagine — he forgot to put the baby on the form. Completely forgot. Named his other kids, forgot the baby.

He got some great publicity out of it, but he didn’t do much to help the image of the “stupid party.”

With the official view of the Republican party that providing health care for people is a Terrible Thing That Must Be Stopped, it’s nice to see that there are some Republican politicians who are saying that there may be some good things in the law.

Jack Kingston, A Republican politician running for the Senate from Georgia, stated recently that he believes in working with the other party, compromising, and recognizing that there are good and bad parts of Obamacare.

In other words, he just killed his chance of getting the nomination from the GOP, where you must oppose Obama even if he speaks out for puppies, sunshine, and apple pie.

“A lot of conservatives say, ‘Nah, let’s just step back and let this thing fall to pieces on its own.’ But I don’t think that’s always the responsible thing to do,” he said. “I think we need to be looking for things that improve healthcare overall for all of us. And if there is something in Obamacare, we need to know about it.”

He pointed out that he had received letters from people telling him about how Obamacare helped them keep their special needs children on insurance, and he said this is something we should be encouraging. We can fix the law without getting rid of it completely.

Mind you, this guy had consistently voted to repeal Obamacare and thoroughly supported the government cry-baby shutdown over it, so why is he now saying these things? Did he see the light?

I think he was visited by three ghosts one night …

Most Americans aren’t dumb, despite what certain news organizations and political parties want to believe.

For instance, most Americans understand that the problems with a website don’t have anything to do with the program the website was set up for, and they realize that the website problems are not permanent.

Just about the same amount of people support Obamacare from a month ago as do now.  The website fiasco has hurt Obama in the polls — because it makes him look incompetent — but it hasn’t hurt Obamacare.  (Obama is still ranked much higher in the polls than Congress, but that’s not saying a lot.)

A new CBS poll shows that 58% of Americans say they oppose Obamacare, which is about what it was before.  As has been pointed out many many times (but which Republicans never seem to tell you), that 58% includes 14% who oppose Obamacare because it doesn’t go far enough.  People like me, who think we need a medicare-for-all plan and that the problems with Obamacare are directly related to the fact that we’re still treating health care as a profit-making product in America instead of as a service.

That means 54% — a majority — think Obamacare is fine or want it expanded even further.   A majority has consistently wanted some sort of national health care policy. That has never changed.

So when Republicans scream that most Americans don’t like Obamacare, they are fooling themselves, because that 14% will never support them no matter what.   A majority support it.  A majority voted against their candidate who ran against it.  And that hasn’t changed in three years.

As you know, prior to Obamacare, rates were escalating greatly, people were denied coverage for pre-existing conditions, children were denied care, insured could be kicked off if they reached their limit, and health care costs was one of the main reasons for bankruptcy and foreclosures.

Obamacare has had some tremendous problems in its roll out, though, and has come under a lot of criticism even as it addressed these problems.

Let’s now look at what the Republicans are offering as an alternative.

Oh.  Right.

Yes, the rollout initially went terrible because the website wasn’t ready. I’m not going to defend Obama over that, and even he apologized for “fumbling.” But let’s look at a few facts to place this in perspective.

1. The website isn’t Obamacare. It just allows you to compare prices and apply for subsidies. So you don’t have to use the website. You can get health care coverage in many other ways.

2. Not a lot of people have signed up through the website, but a lot of people are using other means, such as their own state’s website or their insurance broker.

3. To compare the numbers to Romneycare, the sign up is actually doing better. With Romneycare, everyone waited till the last minute and didn’t jump in and sign up during the first few months. (What? Americans procrastinate? Shocking!)

4. States with Democratic governors that actively promoted their own web page signs ups and encouraged people had good signup numbers. States with Republican governors that did everything they could to defeat Obamacare and make it as difficult as possible for their people to get health care had lower numbers. Who could have predicted that?

5. One of the problems the Obamacare website had may be related to massive hacking on the part of those trying to make it fail. A tool called “Destroy Obamacare” has been circulating which encourages hackers, and the site has been attacked at least sixteen times in the past month according to ABC News.

6. Republicans are concentrating on inadequate, scam plans that are being cancelled because they don’t provide enough coverage under the new law. Well, duh. That was the point of the law, after all — to give everyone real health care and not be ripped off by the insurance companies.

7. Republicans are also pointing out how some people’s rates are going up (the people who had scam policies in the first place). Where were they when everyone’s rates were going up prior to Obamacare? Why should anyone pay attention to these hypocrites?

8. The site is now running very smoothly and there are no major problems. Obama’s promise to have it running well by the end of November has already been met.

And in conclusion, just let me say to those Republicans who are using everything they can to knock down Obamacare and prevent it from being successful, remember: This was your plan. We wanted a single-payer medicare-for-all plan that saves money, already has a bureaucracy in place and has run smoothly for fifty years.