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.

To my Republican friends who keep pointing out examples where insurance is going up under Obamacare:

By golly, you’re right! If only we could get the free market out of this, and do a medicare-for-all plan like every other civilized country — oh, right! Keeping the insurance companies involved was your idea! Letting the market decide was what you wanted! Silly me.

Let’s leave aside the webpage problems which are real, do exist, and make Obama look kind of incompetent. Criticism of that is justified.

But many conservatives are complaining that some people are finding their rates increasing — and this has to be Obama’s fault!

First of all, remember that for the vast majority of Americans (around 80%), this isn’t affecting them at all because their employer provides the health care.

Second, Obamacare requires that basic medical care needs to be covered, and some people who had only purchased catastrophic care (that they never used) now have to purchase plans that cover more and yes, those plans do indeed cost more. The fact that you are getting more for your money doesn’t seem to matter to the critics, though. (These people may also be eligible for subsidies to help pay for this.)

Third, it turns out that some insurance companies are lying to their customers and forcing them to buy more expensive plans and blaming that on Obamacare. Shocked! Shocked I am to discover this!

Fourth, rates have been rising for health care for forty years. Apparently, according to the critics, Obamacare’s effect on rates reverberated through time and space.

Here’s the point I was trying to make, though: We wouldn’t be having these problems had not the conservatives insisted on a market-based health system in America. The original plan for medicare-for-all (“single payer”) cut out the insurance companies. We wouldn’t be having these issues had we done what every other civilized nation on Earth had done. We know medicare works. We already have the bureaucracy in place. It would have been so easy to switch to that.

But conservatives insisted (and I am including conservative Democrats in this) and so we ended up with this awful bill. It’s a Republican plan that the Republicans are now trying to deny, rewriting history to their liking. It used to be called Romneycare.

I’ll blame Harry Reid and his 60 vote thing in the Senate though. There were 50 votes for a medicare for all plan, but Obama and Reid thought if they compromised they’d get some Republican votes. And come on, it’s not like the GOP wanted medicare for all. They don’t even want medicare.

I still don’t like Obamacare but it’s better than what we had before, which was nothing.

My dream is that the GOP keeps imploding, the Democrats get to control the House and Senate, and we can do this the right way, like it should have been done way back when Teddy Roosevelt first proposed it.

The bottom line is that Republicans always want the market to decide, and Obama caved in on that. Prices are going up for some, just like they’ve been doing for years without a word of complaint from Republicans. The market is now deciding. Republicans should be thrilled.

Unless, of course, they’re all a bunch of hypocrites who would criticize Obama no matter what happened, and that could never be the case, could it?