Paula Hawks finally admits her full support of Obamacare, wants to prop up program.

Pat Powers

I was skimming articles today, and came across a notation of Paula Hawks continuing her drumbeat in favor of Obamacare’s expansion in South Dakota. But what I wasn’t expecting was a full throated endorsement of the failing program, as well as proposing pricing changes to keep it afloat on a national level.

Here’s what the Dem’s sacrificial lamb for Congress has to say, as she clearly and definitively underlines her support of Obamacare:

I'm running. But just ignore me on the controversial bills.

On another health issue, Hawks supports Medicaid expansion. In South Dakota, such a move would impact not only 15,000 Native Americans but also 35,000 non-Natives, she said.

“It would help all of us,” she said. “It would maintain good health. People would go to work, maintain households and not go to the ER.”

In other issues:

• Hawks supports the Affordable Care Act, or “Obamacare,” but would favor “tweaking” the program’s cost. She opposes any effort to privatize the Veterans Affairs health care programs.

Read that here.

Hawks supports the Affordable Care Act, or “Obamacare” is the first time we’re really hearing this as a definitive policy statement, as she’s been pretty quiet about her position on it. In fact, one columnist thought she came off as against it in her  positioning for the electorate, commenting that she’d slammed it. 

I had to go back and look, as while she’d previously been in favor of Obamacare’s expansion at the state level through Medicaid expansion, I didn’t think she’d been very forthright on her position on the much maligned social medicine program at the national level that is currently imploding before our eyes.

In fact, if you look at her issues page, she doesn’t address Obamacare or the “Affordable Care Act” at all, leaving it completely vague, if unaddressed on her campaign website. That’s by design, as Obamacare still is a contentious and unpopular issue in the majority Republican state of South Dakota.

But her statement on August 17th in the Yankton Daily Press left no doubt as to where she stands on the issue. And her comments about “tweaking” Obamacare costs belies the fact that the only way to accomplish this is through increased government intervention; whether it is through forcing companies to assume a greater loss on the product, or putting millions upon millions more in taxpayer dollars into the program.

It’s good that Paula Hawks has finally unmasked herself as the Obamacare loving ultra-liberal that she is. South Dakota voters should be forearmed with that before voting starts in the Congressional race.

21 thoughts on “Paula Hawks finally admits her full support of Obamacare, wants to prop up program.”

  1. Is she that stupid that she believes that when people don’t have skin in the game they will avoid going to the ER when they sneeze? If you don’t have to pay, you don’t care what the cost (generally speaking-there are actually those who understand that just because it’s free doesn’t mean you abuse it). It’s like that idiot Berned-out Sanders and not Hillary (not named after Sir Edmund) wanting to give away free college tuition. If you don’t have to put any money into it, a lot (and I mean a lot) of times you will have people going to college for a four (or six or eight) year party because it’s not their money. The stupidity of it is that these same college kids who may actually have to work and pay taxes someday will support another generation free-loading from those who are working. There is no foresight; it’s all looking at the here and the now without any concern for the future.

  2. Obamacare needs a tweak and Democrats are poised to fix it. But that’s no problem (as our beloved Millennials say). Liberals love new things and we love to make changes to keep our machinery running optimally.
    ~Some questions have risen:
    Will this years premium increases to those earning more than 400% of poverty be a one-off adjustment? If so, future increases should be smaller. If they scare off buyers or cause middle class customers to drop coverage there might be more big hikes down the line.
    ~ Is Obamacare working properly anywhere? Yes. In CA three quarters of insurers made a good profit, this year and many new companies have joined the marketplace. Some states however are suffering from a bit of self-sabotage. Insurance sellers are asking for much higher rate increases in states that irrationally declined to expand Medicaid just to spite Obama. These states have narrowed competition and opened the door to the price gouging Obamacare was designed to halt.
    But, overall Obamacare is a national law and needs to work everywhere, despite obstructionist opposition. And it doesn’t, yet.
    ~ Many of us who helped author, pass and implement ACA are saying, “Told ‘ya so.” Passing Obamacare without a public option (a government fall back policy for anyone who’s premiums become too darned expensive) was a risk and we knew some tweaking would become necessary.
    ~ Perhaps limiting enrollment periods which allow free riders to buy coverage after they become ill. Perhaps high risk pools with special policies for the seriously sick. Perhaps extending the risk corridors until the inevitable leveling off has occurred.
    Of course, getting a congress to agree on a public health plan, bigger subsidies or an extension of the backstops is nearly impossible as long as Republican’s are in control. So, until that changes our best hope lies with young uninsured Americans realizing that buying the safety net of health insurance is a better choice than paying the ever increasing penalties for being a free rider. If enrollment increases in 2017 our concern will have been for naught. If enrollment stagnates we Democrats will just have to roll up our sleeves and initiate the debate about how best to tweak it.

  3. Amazing a family dropped by an insurance company, because of a heart condition.Obama care took care of this and all you sooth sayers can do is run this down.Lets see your plan you have none.

  4. Amazing; my son had good insurance and his plan was canceled because of Obamacare. Had to find new insurance, at much higher cost, much higher premium, much higher deductible. Where is the promise that his costs would decrease by $2,500 annually per family? Where is the promise that he could keep his insurance if he liked it, and he did? Where is the promise that a person could keep their doctor if they liked him/her? Amazing, all were lies designed to get this monstrosity passed (by hook and crook by the way, and bribes). There are still many uninsured. Obamacare was built on lies and no amount of “tweaking” is going to fix that.

    1. We’ll get it tweaked, Springer and you’ll still be unhappy. Some voters have a positive bias and some have a negative bias. We on the positive slant do what’s right for the majority and those who complain are going to complain no matter what.

      1. What’s right for the majority??? Let’s see. I do not think it was a majority of the people in the US who lacked insurance; I think the majority had some type of insurance or other coverage. So in order to give a small minority coverage, you think it was all right to totally screw up the health insurance coverage, plans, costs, etc for the majority of the people? And some of that uninsured group are still uninsured. So just what did Obama and his minions accomplish with this federal takeover of the health insurance in the US? Not what they promised, but I think what they intended all along — eventual path to single payer system. How has that worked for the Native Americans? For the veterans? Yeah, you are on the positive slant all right.

        1. The majority, in fact everyone had an insurance policy that the company could refuse to renew yearly if you got cancer, MS, diabetes etc. This wasn’t insurance at all. It was a ticket to medical bankruptcy for anyone who needed serious coverage. Once you were denied renewal you couldn’t get a policy anywhere having pre existing conditions. Your new policy, if you live in a state that didn’t obstruct the progress, isn’t screwed up. USA now has the lowest uninsured rate in history. That’s what we accomplished. Natives in states that expanded Medicaid got a lot. Vets have the VA, which is always fighting Republicans who cut their funding. We don’t judge progress by what Springer likes because Springer is continually contrary and chronically complaining.

          1. I had two grandfathers that fought in WWII. Both thought the VA was terrible, they decided to go private sector.

            Do not even start with me on the additional costs that Obamacare has added for business.

              1. Thanks Porter. I do enjoy reading your comments and I do respect your opinion. As an old friend of mine use to say, he was a FDR Democrat, whether you agree with a person or not, that person has every right to speak their opinion.

  5. It may enlighten Hawks to have discussions with people of SoDak about Obamacare. She may find it has been devastating to many and not to mention all the lies that were told. Expanding Medicaid will cause us even more problems and justification to raise taxes. It is starting not to surprise me how far some people are just out of touch with the majority of South Dakotans.

    2. Harry Reid also admitted it. http://watchdog.org/111675/harry-reid-obamacare/

      “He just sees the Affordable Care Act as the first step to a fully government-run health care system…During an appearance on a Las Vegas PBS program in August, Reid said he sees a national single-payer health system as the natural next step for health care in America. Reid said the nation had to “work its way past” insurance-based health care, according to a recap provided by the Las Vegas Sun newspaper. ‘What we’ve done with Obamacare is have a step in the right direction, but we’re far from having something that’s going to work forever’, Reid said.”

      So yes, Obamacare was designed to fail.

  7. Might not lose the election but her messaging reminds me of the Varilek campaign. They did do some damage to Noem.

  8. Even if the Democats win the WH and Senate, I would only expect cosmetic changes to be made to Obamacare unless the crony capitalists who control D.C. want specific changes made.

Comments are closed.