Mandate enforcement aside, I imagine more insurers would be inclined to participate if the fate of the law wasn’t so consistently precarious. They probably don’t like the idea of investing in the promotion of the products and the hard costs of expanding networks and setting up contracts for things like mental health services when there is no guarantee that the law wont be repealed at any time.
Missed edit window and I wanted to add a rant.
Jeez, I wish this country would grow up already. Forget Canada and Europe, even countries like Russia, China and even the hellhole nemesis on our southern border,Mexico have some version of universal healthcare. Costa Rica and Egypt, too.
But I have the misfortune to live in a country where a too-large group of soulless ideologues have decided that any assistance the government gives to any individual is some sort of communistic income redistribution.
That and a NO, WE CAN’T attitude that claims UHC is financially an impossible goal for the US, despite the fact that countries like Hong Kong, Thailand, Israel, Tunisia as well as most every country in the developed world has managed to achieve this goal.
It’s going to be AMERICA LAST on this one. What a country!!
ACA/Obamacare forgot to mandate the participation of insurance companies. Companies can still withdraw from marketplaces.
Companies will participate A) if they can make a profit and B) if the rules, and regulations, were more clearly spelled out, and a whole lot less confusing.
Would you be in favor of such a mandate? No? Then an excellent alternative would be the public option that was originally proposed and which would have been available everywhere. Except that the troglodytes you support killed it. The idea, of course, is that it wasn’t the well-being of human beings that was important, it was the well-being of the insurance industry.
I agree with you that the rules are confusing as hell, but you need to understand why. Where I live, the rules are actually quite simple, and here they are:
Rule 1: If you need health care that your doctor deems medically necessary, then the public health care system pays for 100% of it, 100% of the time. The billing institution is paid 100% of the billed amount via direct funds transfer to their account from the public insurance plan. The patient never pays a dime.
Rule 2: There are no other rules.
I hold out some vague hope that even you might be able to understand this fundamental concept, but now that I recall climate change discussions with you, maybe not.
At least with climate change, there are complexities involved that can be above the head of the layman. Health care counter examples already exist, and have for decades, and all conservatives can do is sputter about how it OBVIOUSLY won’t work here because reasons and how it’s going to fail in those other countries any second now because reasons.
Reality has a liberal bias, indeed.
A small but encouraging glimmer of hope.
The Administration will continue the cost-sharing subsidies even though Congress disagrees. Now if they would enforce the mandate.
If things were different, things would be different.
(post shortened)
Wow, what a great system.
So let’s make them different, huh?
Like that, for instance.
This isn’t hard unless you *make *it hard.
(post shortened)
The Democrats created, and passed, ACA/Obamacare all by themselves. When they were majority party. The voters have corrected that.
If people have a problem not being able to keep their doctor, it’s the Democrats who are responsible. If people have a problem with rising plan costs, and increasing deductibles, it’s the Democrats who are responsible. If people have a problem with insurance companies abandoning some areas of the country, it’s the Democrats who are responsible. If people believe that “the patient never pays a dime”, well, those people are simply delusional.
The Republicans were unable to come up with something better. It’s their baby now.
So you don’t believe that the Republicans have any responsibility to the American people, even when they are in power? If things go poorly for the American people with regards to health care, do you believe that the Republicans bear no responsibility?
It’s the Party of Personal Responsibility.
Some other person is responsible.
Hahahaha. It seems some Democrats no longer want credit for ACA/Obamacare. Didn’t it turn out to be as wonderful as promised?
It’s still called Obamacare, and Obamacare is still the law of the land. Whether you like it, or not. Or whether Obama (wherever he’s hiding) likes it, or not.
The Republicans weren’t able to compromise on a working solution. But they tried. AFAIK, good government is based on an ability to find a working compromise.
The Democrats chose to stand on the sidelines, basically ignoring the complaints by their constituents to improve “Obamacare’s” flaws. Fuck you people - Obamacare is perfect - shut up and enjoy it.
As costs to the public continue to go up, and insurance companies abandon areas of the country, I’ll predict that the number of voters who turn out to vote in general elections will also go up.
The Democrats might be hoping that the voters won’t remember that it was only the Democrats who created, and passed, ACA/Obamacare.
Remember how you crowed that the GOP has the majority in both Houses? There should have been no problem “repealing and replacing” as they promised.
The Democrats weren’t needed.
There were plenty of Democrats who have said there were flaws that needed fixing yet the GOP stood in the way until it was their turn. And they promptly face-planted.
Couldn’t even get it to a vote.
And let’s not forget they had seven years to come up with a better plan.
The ACA is quite popular now. I’m sure Democrats would be happy to work with Republicans in making further improvements to the law. Unfortunately, Paul Ryan has stated that he opposes working with Democrats to try and improve the ACA.
doorhinge has had five years to make one intelligent comment. A time frame that, in retrospect, seems overly ambitious.
And yet we still have ACA, and it’s got majority popularity now too, and still growing. The party of Fuck Off still has nothing more to offer than that.
So what have you got besides whining?
Holy fuck, you really are as stupid as people here say, aren’t you?
Just to be clear, I have stated the fact that Republicans now control both houses of Congress. The voters have spoken. I have not said, “There should have been no problem “repealing and replacing” as they promised”. Better luck next time. 
Are you suggesting that elected Democrats lost their seats in Congress because the voters were sooooo happy with ACA/Obamacare? The Democrats could have created a better bill. The Democrats could have fixed the flaws while they had the majority.
Conservative, and Republican, voters elected representatives to represent them, and not necessarily the GOP. Those voters, and their elected representatives, seem to want ACA/Obamacare handled/corrected in different ways. The elected Republicans failed to reach a consensus on how to handle ACA/Obamacare. Apparently, more work needs to be done in order to reach an acceptable compromise. Are those voters so disappointed with their elected reps failed effort that they will replace them at the first opportunity?
Will Democrat voters be so enamored with the rising out of pocket costs, and reduced choice of providers associated with ACA/Obamacare that they will give majority control back to the Democrats in 2018? 2020? 2022? 2024?
The Democrat Party created ACA/Obamacare, and it was the Democrat Party who foisted it on the American consumer.
Why would the Democrats want to share the credit with anyone else?
If the leader of the Republican party is threatening to tank the program on purpose then, they don’t have to share it because it’s all theirs.