Republicans still facing crowds hostile to Obamacare in town halls, but in many instances it is quite the opposite.

"Wait, now you're FOR Obamacare?"

Courtesy of Think Progress: 

In Washington, D.C., Rep. Patrick McHenry (R-NC) issues countless press releases boasting about his votes to repeal the Affordable Care Act, insisting that his constituents in North Carolina are clamoring for relief from the law. But during a town hall in Swannanoa on Wednesday, voters confronted the five-term Congressman with an entirely different sentiment: they demanded to know why Republicans would take away the law’s protections for people with pre-existing conditions without offering any credible other alternative for reforming the health care system. One grieving mother, who spoke to reporters before the event, said that her son was denied insurance because of a pre-existing health condition and eventually died of colon cancer. 

These comments forced McHenry — who had repeatedly advocated for “full repeal” of Obamacare — to admit that he does support some of its most popular provisions: 

[Skip] Edwards and his wife, both 63, had health insurance until he lost his job during the recession and the East Asheville couple found themselves in financial trouble despite staying relatively healthy. 

Both had pre-existing conditions and were denied insurance, making them eligible for a state plan called Inclusive Health. 

“It cost us $1,300 bucks a month — extremely expensive,” Edwards said. “It taps us out every month. But at our age and health, we’ve got to have it.” 

McHenry, 37, has repeatedly voted against the Affordable Care Act, choosing to either defund, repeal or delay it. In defending his position, he said he did agree with some aspects of the act, including ending discrimination against pre-existing conditions and extending the age a children can stay on their parents’ health insurance. [...] 

Edwards and others wondered why McHenry would vote against a plan they feel is better than nothing at all. He said he would not vote for something he feels is bad policy.

Some in the crowd had very personal, and painful, stories to share:  



Several North Carolinians attended a town hall held by Rep. Patrick McHenry (R-N.C.) in Swannanoa to confront McHenry about Obamacare on Wednesday, including a mother grieving the death of her son. 

During a live interview with WLOS-TV reporter Kimberly King before the event, Leslie Boyd, of Asheville, said her son might still be alive had the health care law's protections for people with pre-existing medical conditions been in place sooner. 

"My son had a pre-existing condition, a birth defect," Boyd said, holding a framed photo of her dead son. "And without that birth defect he probably would have been able to get insurance. But that birth defect prevented him from getting insurance and without it he could not get the care he needed. And so he got colon cancer and they caught it after it had already spread, so he died." 

The Affordable Care Act prohibits the health insurance industry from discriminating against the sick starting in 2014.

But don't fool yourself into thinking the tide of public opinion concerning the Affordable Care Act has turned completely, because it hasn't.

But in some states the Republican leaders may actually help to turn up the heat and change public opinion in a heartbeat. This courtesy of Think Progress: 

Officials in Texas and five other GOP-led states are refusing to oversee even Obamacare’s most basic — and popular — consumer protections and insurance market reforms. That includes the law’s ban on denying coverage or charging more because of a pre-existing condition and discriminating against women on the basis of gender. The decision could present major hurdles to Americans who buy health insurance through federally-run marketplaces in the Lone Star State, Arizona, Alabama, Missouri, Oklahoma, and Wyoming.

Yeah I have a feeling that once the people in these states start seeing the benefits of Obamacare occurring in other states while THEY are still forced to pay high premiums or have insurance companies reject them due to preexisting conditions, that there will be a revolt the likes of which the GOP has never seen before.

And that will be a good thing for 2014, in my most humble opinion.