A House GOP leader asked for Obamacare horror stories. Instead, she got love letters.

As we look ahead to Thursday night's presidential debate, I'm interested in the question of what candidates will be saying about their plans for Obamacare now that it's up and running and people are receiving subsidized health insurance plans. After all, it gets pretty difficult, politically speaking, to take something away from people that they already have. I'm reminded of what happened back in March when Cathy McMorris Rodgers, chair of the House GOP conference, took to Facebook to commemorate the fifth anniversary of the Affordable Care Act by asking to hear real-life horror stories from real people.

This week marks the 5th anniversary of #Obamacare being signed into law. Whether it's turned your tax filing into a nightmare, you're facing skyrocketing premiums, or your employer has reduced your work hours, I want to hear about it. 

Please share your story with me so that I can better understand the challenges you're facing: http://mcmorris.house.gov/your-story/

Instead she got this:

This is mostly just an object lesson in social media use. As many brands have discovered, opening yourself up to this kind of dialogue is basically an open invitation to get trolled.

But it also reveals something fundamental about the structure of the Affordable Care Act. Reasonable people can disagree about whether this law is, all things considered, a good idea. But one of the main things it does is raise taxes rather dramatically on a pretty small number of high-income people in order to give subsidized health insurance policies to a substantially larger number of low-income people. Indeed, this is one of the main things Republicans don't like about it!

But if you do a simple head count, you are almost certainly going to find more people getting discount insurance than people paying extra taxes.

Contributions are a key part of the future of Vox

Readers rely on Vox for clear, nuanced coverage that not only illuminates the issues, but poses solutions, too. And we rely on help from our readers: Advertising and grants cover the majority of our costs, but we count on contributions to help us close the gaps in our budget. In fact, we’re looking to reach 95,000 individual contributions before the end of the year. Will you make the next contribution right now? Our average gift is just $20 — and it goes a long way in helping us keep our work free. Vox is here to help everyone understand what’s shaping the world — not just the people who can afford to pay for a subscription. We believe that’s an important part of building a more equal society. Join that mission by making a contribution today.

One-Time Monthly Annual

$5/month

$10/month

$25/month

$50/month

Other

$

Yes, I'll give $5/month

Yes, I'll give $5/month

We accept credit card, Apple Pay, and Google Pay. You can also contribute via