A third confirmed case of Repealnesia strikes, this time in Arkansas...

Hat Tip To: 
David Ramsey

Boy, this syndrome of Republicans seemingly forgetting that repealing Obamacare would mean that hundreds of thousands of the very people they're hoping will vote for them would have their shiny new healthcare coverage torn away from them seems to be spreading fast. I'm calling it "repealnesia".

First it was Joni Ernst, who wants to castrate 100,000 or more of her fellow Iowans by cutting their healthcare coverage out from under them with no plan on how (or whether) to replace it.

Then it was Kentucky's Mitch McConnell, who popped his head out to play an Obamacare-ACA-kynect shell game last night.

Now there seems to be a serious case of Cottonmouth down in Arkansas:

Rep. Tom Cotton is running for U.S. Senate, advocating root-and-branch repeal of Obamacare as the key tenet of his platform, and he refuses to be honest about the impacts that policy change would have on Arkansans. For all of his big talk of principled stands and doing "the hard right over the easy wrong," he has shown himself afraid or unwilling to level with the people of Arkansas about the policy change he is advocating for. Cotton's explicit plan would repeal the private option, ending health insurance coverage for 200,000 Arkansans. He just won't admit it. 

...If McConnell's answer was nonsense, Cotton simply refused to answer at all. There was a remarkable moment in last night's debate when panelist Gwen Moritz asked the candidates this: 

If you are elected, what would you like to see happen to the ACA? And please include in your answer exactly what effect your proposal would have on the 200,000 Arkansans who are now insured by the Arkansas private option...

Emphasis mine. The question was specific and clear. Cotton's two-minute response did not say a single word about the private option, or what would happen to the 200,000 Arkansans who would lose their coverage. Nor did he say a single word about the 40,000 other Arkansans who are enrolled in plans they purchased on the Arkansas Health Insurance Marketplace, the exchange created by Obamacare (90 percent of whom receive Obamacare subsidies to lower the cost of their insurance). They too would lose their health insurance if Obamacare was repealed. 

Thankfully, treatment for repealnesia is covered by Obamacare.

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