Electoral Letters of Bismarck and Reprisal Amidst Health Care Reconstruction

In 1883 Chancellor Otto von Bismarck of Germany instituted the first national health insurance scheme, which would soon be followed by workplace accident insurance (workman's comp), unemployment insurance, and finally old age and disability insurance (social security) to put into place the first modern welfare state social insurance system which was eventually copied with success throughout the industrialized world.

Now Brad DeLong invokes his legacy in anticipation of Obamacare's likely success in wealthy, successful, highly educated blue states where The Powers That Be will actually try to make it work in contrast with its questionable nearterm future in struggling, dependent, low-educated red states where rejectionist, provincial governance (whose preferred legacies of propertarian statism seem to "range" from slavery to libertarianism) may lead to a slow motion electoral time lapse Wile E. Coyote moment for those "at fault":

In the Democratic-controlled “blue” states, where 60% of the US population lives – and which account for 70% of national income and 80% of its wealth – implementation of the ACA is likely to be like that of RomneyCare in Massachusetts: a somewhat bumpy ride, but a clear success that nobody will wish to repeal after the fact. But no one knows what will happen in the “red states,” where the Republican political infrastructure is digging in its heels.

What will doctors and hospital administrators in Phoenix, Kansas City, Houston, and Atlanta do after they talk to their colleagues in Los Angeles, Seattle, Minneapolis, Chicago, Baltimore, and New York, where state governments and political structures are trying to make ACA implementation a success? Will they compare and contrast the conditions under which they are working? Which candidates will they support with donations and votes in the 2014 and 2016 elections? What will nurses and patients denied the benefits of the ACA do?

America’s partisan heat is about to be turned up over the next several election cycles, as the blame game begins. Bismarck would know who is at fault.