THE BURNED OVER DISTRICT

The success of the Affordable Care Act was nowhere greater than in the district of Congresswoman Ilena Ros-Lehtinen of Miami. To a decent caring human being the upcoming repeal vote in Congress would be a difficult dilemma. For Ms. Ros-Lehtinen no such problem, repeal she must.

There are 96,300 people enrolled in the Florida district represented by Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, R-Miami, the highest number in the country, according to estimates by the Kaiser Family Foundation. Her district is followed closely by Rep. Carlos Curbelo, R-Miami, whose southwest Miami-Dade and Monroe County district has 92,500 enrolled in the insurance marketplaces created by the Affordable Care Act.

Rep. Frederica Wilson, D-Miami, who opposes rescinding the law, has the third-greatest number at 94,100, followed by Rep. Mario Diaz-Balart, R-Miami, whose Hialeah to Naples district has 83,300 enrolled.

“These numbers should give them pause," said Dr. Mona Mangat, Florida-based board chairman of Doctors for America.

"These are not just numbers, they're people," said Mangat, an allergist in St. Petersburg. "These are people whose lives have been saved or changed because of the Affordable Care Act."

But will the high take-up rates cause Ros-Lehtinen, Diaz-Balart and Curbello to reconsider their support for repeal?

Ros-Lehtinen acknowledged that many in her district are worried about losing what she called the “positive aspects” of President Barack Obama’s signature law, including keeping children on their parents’ insurance through 26 and covering pre-existing conditions.

But Ros-Lehtinen argued that Obamacare – which she has consistently voted to oppose – “has been in an unsustainable downward spiral” since it started. She said the program needs “extensive changes” to sustain it, including eliminating the individual and employer mandates, which Democrats argue are key to expanding care to people who can not afford insurance.

Ros-Lehtinen cited a plan authored by Rep. Pete Sessions, R-Texas, as a potential starting place.

But Democrats warn that Republicans, who have yet to coalesce around a replacement plan for Obamacare, are courting disaster in the insurance markets by looking to take apart the law. Democrats are planning a “Day of Action” on Saturday in various cities to mobilize grassroots opposition to the plan to roll back the act.

“While the Republicans may have an ideological opposition to the Affordable Care Act, they have to understand what it means in cost to their constituents’ cost in benefits, cost in quality of service, cost in access and cost in dollars,” said House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif. “We’re hoping that they will listen.”

Diaz-Balart, who has also voted repeatedly to repeal the law, said he has been listening to his constituents and hears mostly complaints: Costs are increasing and doctors are increasingly unwilling to accept people with Obamacare, he said.

Like good little Republican boot lickers all, they areparroting the lies about ACA knowing full well it is all bullshit. Their hope, and not too far fetched a hope, is that the people who voted for them will forget by the next election that these good Republicans were the ones who screwed thwm.