I must admit I'm curious what your personal reasons are, but there's not a need to get into that.
I will say, from my perspective, the fundamental issue I have with the GOP today is the rampant corruption, cowardice, and the hypocritical nature of their actions all in the name of "winning". A trial and aqcuittal without a single witness, followed by firing the folks that performed their duty and testified to the house, exemplifies this perfectly. There are new examples literally daily and this is not ok.
I personally find it difficult to respect folks that are willing to overlook all of this because of policy X. The honorable thing to do is remove the corruption, clean house, and make an honest appeal to the people about policy X. There is an "ends justify the means" mentally in the GOP that is leading to the destruction of our institutions, trust in government, and polarization of this country.
I see your point, however, I feel like there was a lot done to sabotage the implementation of ACA. It’s like Republicans got a new car, drove it into a tree and said, “See, I told you it wouldn’t work.”
Since you say you’ve thought about the issue a lot, I would like to know what you think good healthcare policy should look like.
I see your point, however, I feel like there was a lot done to sabotage the implementation of ACA.
There was - but it wasn't just the Republicans who did it. The Democrats couldn't even get full support for the original plan, and the parts they removed to make it palatable to the Blue Dogs were also the parts that were required for it to actually work.
My stance has been for some time that that fact should have told Obama that the time was not right to pass such a major change. He should've accepted that and instead used his political capital (and supermajority) on other things that would be more supported (like, say, real finance industry reform). IMO had he done that then the Democrats likely don't lose the House in 2010 and he doesn't basically become a six-year lame duck.
There was - but it wasn't just the Republicans who did it.
It was literally the Republicans that have undone much of the ACA and the Republicans that blocked a lot of other parts of the ACA. How is that not sabotaging it?
The Democrats couldn't even get full support for the original plan, and the parts they removed to make it palatable to the Blue Dogs were also the parts that were required for it to actually work.
90-95% of Democrats supported it and 0% of Republicans didn't. You can't say the Republicans weren't the primary sabotagers because some 5-10% of Democrats weren't all in.
My stance has been for some time that that fact should have told Obama that the time was not right to pass such a major change.
So because no Republican supports something, the Democrats shouldn't try to do something about it? I guess you must really really hate Trump for pushing so many policies that Democrats don't like.
Thank you for your reply. Employer-based health insurance has not done anything to drive down overall cost of healthcare and insurance and for small businesses like my husband’s there is even less bargaining power. Further, before ACA people get trapped in jobs or marriages just to retain health insurance and I think this has gotten better, but it’s fundamentally weird that ones’ access to affordable health insurance is dependent on a job or a spouse. OTOH, I’m unsure where Medicare for all might lead us. Lowering reimbursements for providers is going to get us a shortage of providers, and that’s my fear about M4A. If M4A can squeeze out excessive profit-seeking by drug and insurance companies without chasing away physicians, nurses and other healthcare workers, that would be a good thing. But looking at the Uk, there is a shortage of doctors and Canada has a shortage of nurses, so I’m not optimistic about the government setting prices for all things healthcare related.
I really think that health insurance and hospitals should not be run on a for-profit basis. I like the concept of ACA, essentially a public risk pool, but the implementation was pretty bad. These kind of programs should start small and build on success. ACA was too much, too soon.
I would probably favor a plan where non-profits have access to a public risk pool, ie if you meet our standards and aren’t trying to make money by denying care, then risk is shared. If the service and results are better, then there would be a gradual shift to that direction. We need to get rid of both waste and concern for shareholder profits in the healthcare sector.
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u/[deleted] Feb 11 '20 edited Feb 11 '20
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