Did the McCain Dissenting Vote Save the GOP?

While his no vote on the senate healthcare bill ruined the Republican attempts to repeal the Affordable Care Act, it may have saved their chances of maintaining congressional majorities in the mid-term elections.

Obamacare protesters in 2009. (Source: townhall.com)
Obamacare protesters in 2009. (Source: townhall.com)

In a highly dramatized moment, on July 28, 2017, John McCain gave a deliberate thumbs down and ended the nearly eight year quest for Congressional Republicans to repeal Obamacare. It was a wincing blow to the GOP who has made Obamacare one of their rallying cries for the better part of a decade. On that note, it is also worth noting that McCain was not alone, with Senators Susan Collins of Maine and Lisa Murkowski of Alaska expectedly voting against the bill.

In my opinion, this was a good move for the American healthcare system. The so-called “skinny” repeal bill would have still left sixteen million less people with insurance in ten years. The Obamacare debates and town halls which took place throughout 2009 were some of the most divisive moments in recent American history. Turnout at these events was unbelievable for a largely uninvolved public.

These events led to a “shellacking” in the 2010 midterm elections as then-President Obama described it. A common joke among liberals is the protester holding a sign stating, “Keep Government out of my Medicare”. To be honest it still makes me laugh a bit, but I feel it serves as a sign of the broader misunderstanding of the American healthcare system.

This broad misunderstanding of healthcare creates and inherent resistance to change. It is scary, the possibility that you may need to change doctors, or will somehow receive less adequate care. In an already extraordinarily polarized moment, had one of the GOP healthcare bills passed, they could have been in for a shellacking come 2018. With his thumbs down John McCain may have saved the GOP hold on congress in 2018.

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