If the big insurance companies want to get out of health insurance that should make it easy to transition to a public option...

But that's not "Obamacare". Obamacare was and is a joke.You want single payer health for all, I can possibly get behind that (maybe) but Obamacare is just as stupid as stupid could be, Trying to fix it is a joke, scrap it and start over with either a real plan or with single payer but let's be clear, Obamacare doesn't work, never really did and it's only getting worse.

freeman3 wrote:If the big insurance companies want to get out of health insurance that should make it easy to transition to a public option...

When they want to get out even though they had input, it shows how bad the system is.

A public option designed by Hillary "no corruption" Clinton--what could go wrong?

If you want to get rich, just be a friend of Bill and Hill! After all, what's good for the Clintons is good for America.

We have to go public option for all; health care takes up too of our GDP and is becoming a hinderance to our national competitiveness. We got to put a cap on health care increases and public option is the only way to do it. The old system was immoral with not covering 45 million and putting middle-class people into bankruptcy when they could not pay their medical bills when they got really sick. The Republicans have no plan. This Republican-lite plan that is Obamacare was needed to transition. We'll get to a rational plan, eventually.

freeman3 wrote:We have to go public option for all; health care takes up too of our GDP and is becoming a hinderance to our national competitiveness. We got to put a cap on health care increases and public option is the only way to do it. The old system was immoral with not covering 45 million and putting middle-class people into bankruptcy when they could not pay their medical bills when they got really sick. The Republicans have no plan. This Republican-lite plan that is Obamacare was needed to transition. We'll get to a rational plan, eventually.

The Democrats had no plan. They blew smoke and forced it into the lungs of America. If you think Democrats have any political capital on this issue, you're not paying attention. The ACA has never been popular, so how do you suppose the brainiacs who gave that to us will be able to say, "Okay, trust us. This time we really know what we're doing--and we're not lying"?

They'll have to have GOP support.

tom

But that's not "Obamacare". Obamacare was and is a joke.You want single payer health for all, I can possibly get behind that (maybe) but Obamacare is just as stupid as stupid could be, Trying to fix it is a joke, scrap it and start over with either a real plan or with single payer but let's be clear, Obamacare doesn't work, never really did and it's only getting worse

The only thing worse would be what the ACA replaced.
Inflation:

Per capita health care costs have been rising at just under 3 percent a year over the last four years, but that’s less than half the average annual growth in the preceding eight years. Economists say the recession is the biggest reason for the dip — though many also credit the ACA for a bit of the decline

.
Uninsured rate

The U.S. uninsurance rate fell to 9.1 percent last year, according to data released Tuesday by the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
It was the first time the percentage of people without some form of health coverage has gone into single digits, and a 2.4 percentage point drop from 2014.
The number of people uninsured in 2015 was 28.6 million, which was 7.4 million fewer than 2014, according to the CDC.
Since 2011, when the uninsured rate stood at 15.1 percent, that rate has fallen 6 full percentage points, according to the CDC's National Health Interview Survey.

Elimination of no value insurance with minimum standards. - things like
- life time and annual cap limits
- exclusion policies
- denial of coverage due to preconditions.

The truth is that the ACA is pretty crappy. But its also true that what was before was worse on the metrics noted.
But Medicare for all would actually improve all of the above too.

Yet Democrats are quite pleased and proud of this crappy plan? And it was pushed through after Obama had his huge majority at that.
Simply because it's better than what it replaced (and that is a bit of a stretch to say the least) doesn't make it good and does not warrant praise of any sort now does it? Yet this is a crowning achievement, a "crappy" plan that is simply better than what we had before. Yes, The Democrats should be proud, the electorate should continue to elect these amazing politicians they are so proud of?

Here's the really stupid part: Democrats expect Republicans to help them fix a flawed law they had nothing to do with AND is unpopular.

Good luck with that.

and we can't scrap it to start anew, that's off the table as far as Dems go (making a single payer system all the harder to accomplish) the Democrats have put themselves in a bad position, they have made it clear this is their plan and while they agree it has some faults, they will not accept scrapping this mess and starting over even if it's something better. It's pretty much off limits.
That's a horrible stance that allows little room for real improvement.

Doctor Fate wrote:Here's the really stupid part: Democrats expect Republicans to help them fix a flawed law they had nothing to do with AND is unpopular.

Good luck with that.

Another way of saying that is that Republicans are more interested in their partisan political gains than fixing a bad law even though it would help people to do so. (I'm not exonerating Democrats.) Republicans can't say this is YOUR mess, you fix it. Because no matter the cause it is OUR mess.

I'm not a fan of the ACA. But it is very hard to just gut an entire law that's been on the books for 6 years. Businesses have to plan accordingly and there has to be some orderly transition. This is almost 20% of our economy that we are talking about here.

Saw this interesting poll from Gallup from April . The poll found only 22% of Americans favor getting rid of the ACA and not replacing it with a federally-funded system. 58% of Ameticans favor replacing it with a federally-funded system. If 4/5 out of Americans oppose going back to the old system that's pretty strong opposition to going backwards. The ACA may not be very popular but the Republican do-nothing plan is far more unpopular. The ACA did what it needed it to do which was transition to a federally--funded program.

http://www.gallup.com/poll/191504/major ... ystem.aspx

Republicans are not going to get political advantage from 22% support on an issue. RJ points out that they should not do so (for the good of the country), but it is not even clear it would help them politically. Meanwhile, unless and until we get a better system passed we should work together to make the ACA better.

Ray Jay wrote:

Doctor Fate wrote:Here's the really stupid part: Democrats expect Republicans to help them fix a flawed law they had nothing to do with AND is unpopular.

Good luck with that.

Another way of saying that is that Republicans are more interested in their partisan political gains than fixing a bad law even though it would help people to do so. (I'm not exonerating Democrats.) Republicans can't say this is YOUR mess, you fix it. Because no matter the cause it is OUR mess.

I'm not a fan of the ACA. But it is very hard to just gut an entire law that's been on the books for 6 years. Businesses have to plan accordingly and there has to be some orderly transition. This is almost 20% of our economy that we are talking about here.

Not at all.

Yes, there has to be an orderly transition. That will be part of the replacement.

Now, if the Republicans say, "We will help you fix the ACA," what happens?

Conservatives revolt.

Conservative moderates think, "The Republicans really have no core."

Liberal moderates have heart palpitations and are convinced happy days are here again.

Liberals rub their hands together in glee because they are in charge.

It would be a political disaster for Republicans to do that. Again, the law is NOT popular. If they want to ensure we have one-party rule for decades, Republicans should volunteer to fix the ACA.

There will be elements of the ACA that survive. Some are stupid (like staying on your parents' plan until you're 26. Where else in society are you not a responsible adult until you're 26?). Some are necessary (like pre-existing conditions).

freeman3 wrote:Saw this interesting poll from Gallup from April . The poll found only 22% of Americans favor getting rid of the ACA and not replacing it with a federally-funded system. 58% of Ameticans favor replacing it with a federally-funded system. If 4/5 out of Americans oppose going back to the old system that's pretty strong opposition to going backwards. The ACA may not be very popular but the Republican do-nothing plan is far more unpopular. The ACA did what it needed it to do which was transition to a federally--funded program.

http://www.gallup.com/poll/191504/major ... ystem.aspx

Republicans are not going to get political advantage from 22% support on an issue. RJ points out that they should not do so (for the good of the country), but it is not even clear it would help them politically. Meanwhile, unless and until we get a better system passed we should work together to make the ACA better.

That survey is a crock. There were only three choices:

Replacing the ACA with a federally funded healthcare program providing insurance for all Americans 58 37 5
Repealing the Affordable Care Act 51 45 3
Keeping the Affordable Care Act in place 48 49 2

No one is suggesting merely repealing it.The RealClearPolitics average still has it underwater by 9 points. http://www.realclearpolitics.com/epolls ... -1130.html

This is the Republican plan. It sucks...

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/pow ... e-unclear/

We had four main issues that had to be fixed prior to the ACA: (1) people with pre-existing conditions not being able to get affordable health coverage, (2) people 50-65 not being able to get affordable affordable coverage , (3) people with low to moderate incomes (and not able to get on Medicaid) not being able to afford coverage, and (4) people with severe health problems whose health coverage was not sufficient going bankrupt because they could not pay medical bills. The ACA fixed those issues, albeit with a somewhat cumbersome system. Any replacement plan should too.

freeman3 wrote:This is the Republican plan. It sucks...

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/pow ... e-unclear/

We had four main issues that had to be fixed prior to the ACA: (1) people with pre-existing conditions not being able to get affordable health coverage, (2) people 50-65 not being able to get affordable affordable coverage , (3) people with low to moderate incomes (and not able to get on Medicaid) not being able to afford coverage, and (4) people with severe health problems whose health coverage was not sufficient going bankrupt because they could not pay medical bills. The ACA fixed those issues, albeit with a somewhat cumbersome system. Any replacement plan should too.

The ACA forces people to over-insure. The ACA is bloated and wasteful. In other words, it's just as brilliant as Nancy Pelosi.

Any GOP fix will cover your list.

Of course, "affordable" is in the eye of the beholder. The "Affordable Care Act" is not affordable.