If it had been allowed to unfold and operate as it was intended by the Obama Administration, it would have been much more than just a baby step. People forget, I think, what an Herculean undertaking it is/will be to deconstruct this unholy mess that now employs literally millions of Americans just to support the damn behemoth.
The ACA contemplated all the difficulties and smoothed the way with the Medicaid expansion (which IIRC 23 Republican-led states rejected, much to the detriment of their citizens) and by allowing but restricting profits for health insurance companies as we eased toward a more single payer model of health care. It provided for the public option, which was a way to force health insurance companies to compete in the actual marketplace.
These were always intended as first steps only, but they were foiled even in getting that far. Obama got the limit on profits, but no public option – which was a very important part of getting the scheme to work.
Because of course, the health insurance industry swung into high gear to propagandize our citizens through fear (“death panels!” “you’ll never be able to see a doctor for the long waits!”) and fought the ACA at every turn. They’ve fought it tooth and nail ever since its passage and they are still fighting it. All those yummy guaranteed profits gone forever if they fail. Can’t have that!
Look for Republicans to fully gut it as soon as possible now that they control the House, Senate and presidency.
Every one of those outfits is using the wrong name. There’s only one name for them in the law that created them. Yes, nobody except the government actually calls them by the correct name.
The government is using the wrong name? Investor.gov is an official SEC government web site.
What about the IRS?
Better let them know too, those hucksters.
(Or, you know, maybe an individual retirement account is a legitimately accepted term for an account set up with an individual retirement arrangement… No, that couldn’t be true.)
My mother said that medicare was a first step, and the intention was always to cover everyone.
My mother also gave up on her PhD in management, because she chose as her PhD topic healthcare funding, and despaired of the US every finding a decent solution. She left the Sloan school ABD. (all but dissertation.)
And the reason there was no hope for the public option is that the health insurance industry is one of the most powerful lobby groups in Washington. The ACA that was eventually passed was pretty much written by the insurance lobby, who were willing to tolerate a certain amount of regulation for individual insurance in return for a new “marketplace” in which they could continue to gouge their hapless victims. But the public option would have been direct competition by a much more efficient unified system that was perilously close to single-payer, and there was no way they would ever tolerate a system that so blatantly exposed their horrific inefficiencies.
Since Miller closed down the source, I guess this is the place to discuss how @GailForce is a big old Sambo-caricaturing racist, and @Jasmine is a racist-screed-starting Karen who thinks she should have a word with the manager about your ranting.
Thanks. I read the original screed and the first few posts when it was new, then unfollowed the thread. I’ve been doing a lot more of that (un-following) recently.
There are two people in this world that I love more than the rest of this entire beleaguered planet, and they are my brother who basically became my father after our parents were killed and his wife, who is African American.
My rage is fueled by how hurt and betrayed she feels by those Black males who seem to have some kind of “Uncle Tom” belief that, if they pander to those who would oppress them, they will somehow garner favor and be part of the club.
She, her three brothers, and her mother were abandoned by their worthless father. She got married and her daughter was sexually abused by her chronically unemployed worthless first husband. She feels betrayed yet again on a much higher level. In her view and in the view of many other Black women, that 23% have betrayed them yet again.
“Hey, sister-in-law! I heard your pain, so I did something great with it. I ranted online about traitorous black men and called them Uncle Toms and–completely unrelated to the conversation–called your dad worthless. That’s a great thing for a white lady to do, right? It’s super helpful, right?”
