Will the AHCA spur us on to get universal health care faster than we expected?

I wasn't expecting us to get to any form of universal healthcare in my lifetime (i.e., if I'm real lucky, another 30 years)

But the AHCA might change that.

What's become clear is that the Dems approach in 2009 to try and include insurers as an essential part, so as to get a buy-in from Republicans, (and even the insurers) was a fools errand. Most Republicans simply don't want any form of Federal intervention into the medical "marketplace" (in scare quotes because it is not a simple demand/supply market.) The Dem's reward for leaning right was to have to put up with 6 years of unrelenting attacks (most of them untruthful) against Obamacare, and mostly silence from the insurers.

Ezra Klein makes this point much better. So I encourage you to read his essay, if you haven't already.

What we see now is the utter desperation of the Republicans in trying to repeal the ACA - with the main intention of giving tax cuts to the least deserving among us. Destroying health care coverage for millions of people is just a happy side effect of that end. Americans are finally getting a clear distinction between the Dem and Rep approach to healthcare, and Dems in Washington realize they can go ahead with true reform by just forgetting about the Republicans completely.

I hope Ezra's right.


The ACA was designed to fail from the beginning by its architects and the plan is to lead to one payer. It's all working out splendidly.  Illegal executive orders put in place in the beginning that would pay for it long enough for people to depend on it and before the courts found them to be illegal. Lies about not costing the taxpayer one dime to convince the ill informed you can have your cake and eat it too. Now the ACA is collapsing under its own weight for all the reasons the right was against it and the left is still convincing people that the ACA is fine and the only reason the right doesn't like it is because Obama put it in place. 



since1997 said:

 Now the ACA is collapsing under its own weight for all the reasons the right was against it and the left is still convincing people that the ACA is fine and the only reason the right doesn't like it is because Obama put it in place. 

No, it's not collapsing under its own weight. It's collapsing (perhaps) under the sabotage of Donald Trump and his administration, which has decided to withhold the cost-sharing payments to hospitals.


Wow.

Every sentence is wrong. Sometimes multiple times.

Impressive display of right wing "thinking".

If you had managed to include Benghazi or privateemailserver it would have been perfect.


since1997 said:

The ACA was designed to fail from the beginning by its architects and the plan is to lead to one payer. It's all working out splendidly.  Illegal executive orders put in place in the beginning that would pay for it long enough for people to depend on it and before the courts found them to be illegal. Lies about not costing the taxpayer one dime to convince the ill informed you can have your cake and eat it too. Now the ACA is collapsing under its own weight for all the reasons the right was against it and the left is still convincing people that the ACA is fine and the only reason the right doesn't like it is because Obama put it in place. 



Also since1997: the Toyota Prius, designed to fail from the beginning by its architects and the plan is to lead to one Escalade next to me every time I try to look around at cross traffic. It's all working out splendidly.


DaveSchmidt said:

Also since1997: the Toyota Prius, designed to fail from the beginning by its architects and the plan is to lead to one Escalade next to me every time I try to look around at cross traffic. It's all working out splendidly.

 oh oh 



McConnell is so secretive! From the Onion:



since1997 said:

The ACA was designed to fail from the beginning by its architects and the plan is to lead to one payer. . 

And I have a left-wing friend who believes the purpose was to avoid single payer because Obama and the Dems are tools of the insurance industry. 

Everyone is entitled to his own paranoia.


Republican hold-outs will be lathered with lubricant by McConnell.  Paul Ryan will finally get his wish to pitch grandma over the cliff.


nytimes.com:  Medicaid Cuts May Force Retirees Out of Nursing Homes

Medicaid pays for most of the 1.4 million people in nursing homes. It covers 20 percent of all Americans and 40 percent of poor adults. On Thursday, Senate Republicans joined their House colleagues in proposing steep cuts to Medicaid, part of the effort to repeal the Affordable Care Act. Conservatives hope to roll back what they see as an expanding and costly entitlement. But little has been said about what would happen to older Americans in nursing homes if the cuts took effect.

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/0...






LOST said:



since1997 said:

The ACA was designed to fail from the beginning by its architects and the plan is to lead to one payer. . 

And I have a left-wing friend who believes the purpose was to avoid single payer because Obama and the Dems are tools of the insurance industry. 

Everyone is entitled to his own paranoia.

Not paranoid, but getting my information from Harry Reid. 

Reid said he thinks the country has to “work our way past” insurance-based health care during a Friday night appearance on Vegas PBS’ program “Nevada Week in Review.”

“What we’ve done with Obamacare is have a step in the right direction, but we’re far from having something that’s going to work forever,” Reid said.

When then asked by panelist Steve Sebelius whether he meant ultimately the country would have to have a health care system that abandoned insurance as the means of accessing it, Reid said: “Yes, yes. Absolutely, yes.”




LOST said:



since1997 said:

The ACA was designed to fail from the beginning by its architects and the plan is to lead to one payer. . 

And I have a left-wing friend who believes the purpose was to avoid single payer because Obama and the Dems are tools of the insurance industry. 

Everyone is entitled to his own paranoia.

is this really paranoia?  How many elected members of the House and Senate receive consistent support from the pharma or insurance industries?  How many are from states where pharma and insurance are among the biggest businesses?

Why do you think private insurance companies were a central part of the ACA process?  Why do you think there were no provisions in the law to keep the price of prescriptions under control?


To get back to the original question.  I don't think we're close to universal health care yet.  But the ACA certainly has changed the conversation over health insurance.  It wasn't that long ago that everyone assumed that people needed to have corporate jobs to afford insurance.  And it was assumed that if you had some sort of expensive to treat pre-existing condition, you were out of luck when it came to health insurance.  We couldn't conceive of any other possibility.  Now we know it's possible for most people to get health insurance.  It isn't necessarily affordable health care because co-pays and deductibles are still so high.  But no one has to worry under ACA that their early 20s kids would be without insurance in case of a calamity.  No one has to worry that if they have asthma or diabetes that they can't get a policy they can afford.  No one has to worry that if they lose their job they won't be able to get health insurance.  No one worries that a heart attack or cancer will bankrupt them.

Most people now expect that everyone can get health insurance and that the government will ensure that they do.  There's no retreating from that expectation.  How the Republicans expect to take those assurances away from millions of people and get away with it, I'm not sure.  I guess their plan is to blame the Democrats and the ACA, to count on their gerrymandered districts to keep them safe, and to count on GOP voters to continue to believe that voting for a Democrat is even worse than losing their health insurance.  It's a gamble, but so far this calculation has worded for them in election after election, so why not after repealing the ACA too?


And then there's this - which is another reason Trumpcare will fail miserably and more bigly:

There is one thing Republicans usually leave out of their indictment of Obamacare, though: Insurers might have been less likely to exit if more states had expanded Medicaid under Obamacare.

https://www.theatlantic.com/he...


shoshannah said:



since1997 said:

 Now the ACA is collapsing under its own weight for all the reasons the right was against it and the left is still convincing people that the ACA is fine and the only reason the right doesn't like it is because Obama put it in place. 

No, it's not collapsing under its own weight. It's collapsing (perhaps) under the sabotage of Donald Trump and his administration, which has decided to withhold the cost-sharing payments to hospitals.




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