One side sucks at setting up websites, the other wants you to die bankrupt

Bob Cesca makes some excellent points about where things stand on health reform, beyond the hyperbolic rhetoric regarding a glitchy website.

Here’s what’s happening on the other side of the aisle:

–Contrary to news reports, nearly 1.5 million people have applied and been processed for an ACA insurance policy during the month of October. 500,000 have selected a plan. The Republicans who want to de-fund or entirely repeal the law would effectively cancel all of those policies, as well as millions of new policies purchased in the coming months.

–Along those lines, if the Republicans repeal or de-fund the law, 40 million Americans, including yours truly, will be prevented from receiving health insurance. This dwarfs the comparatively few cancellations due to Obamacare.

–In fact, many Republicans were so obsessively hell-bent on pre-emptively canceling 40 million policies that they went so far as to shut down the government and risk defaulting on the debt to accomplish this goal.

–Meanwhile, 26 Republican governors have decided to reject the expansion of Medicaid, preventing eight million Americans, who exist between 100 percent and 133 percent of the federal poverty level, from receiving health insurance. It’s worth noting that the Medicaid expansion would cost those Republican-governed states nothing in the near term. Zero. In some states, the expansion would actually “see small net budget savings,” according to the Kaiser Family Foundation. Here are the governors responsible for blocking millions from receiving health insurance:

Alabama – Governor Robert Bentley, Republican
Alaska – Governor Sean Parnell, Republican
Florida – Governor Rick Scott, Republican
Georgia – Governor Nathan Deal, Republican
Idaho – Governor Butch Otter, Republican
Indiana – Governor Mike Pence, Republican
Kansas – Governor Sam Brownback, Republican
Louisiana – Governor Bobby Jindal, Republican
Maine – Governor Paul LePage, Republican
Mississippi – Governor Phil Bryant, Republican
Montana – Governor Steve Bullock, Democrat (GOP legislature blocked expansion.)
Nebraska – Governor Dave Heineman, Republican
North Carolina – Governor Pat McCrory, Republican
Oklahoma – Governor Mary Fallin, Republican
Pennsylvania – Governor Tom Corbitt, Republican
South Carolina – Governor Nikki Haley, Republican
South Dakota – Governor Dennis Daugaard, Republican
Tennessee – Governor Bill Haslam, Republican
Texas – Governor Rick Perry, Republican
Utah – Governor Gary Herbert, Republican
Virginia – Governor Bob McDonnell, Republican
Wisconsin – Governor Scott Walker, Republican
Wyoming – Governor Matt Mead, Republican

Together, this rogues gallery of governors is actively blocking health insurance for eight million Americans.

-And finally, if we revert to the old system via the repeal of the ACA, the health insurance industry will surely go back to engaging in rescission: canceling policies for dubious reasons, oftentimes while people are receiving or about to receive life-saving treatment.

So let's all keep a glitchy website in perspective here.