(Split) The ACA, and Healthcare in America

[C.J.Woolf]

How do you see that as great?

The existing heath insurance system (or lack thereof) was unsustainable. Single-payer is the best way to go, but special interests invested in the old system block a direct to move to single-payer. It will have to be incremental.

Its merits and demerits aside, the ACA was a huge political achievement. Health care reform had been blocked since the 1930s, and Obama didn't have much of a margin in Congress to work with in 2009. It took some deft maneuvering to get it passed.

[Makers!*]

How do you see that as great?

Well, my uncle was a Marine. He's been a republican most his life, worked his butt off building cell phone towers across the country—6 days a week sometimes, 12 hours a day. Right now he's helping put in massive satellite dishes in Florida. No need saying, it's boiling temperatures. He lives out hotel rooms and pays all his money to his fat, perpetually unemployed wife, who spends all her time posting anti-Obama memes over Facebook and criticizing welfare recipients. In addition, to minding her equally fat, equally unpleasant mother whom she moved into my uncle’s home.

You might say he could have made a better choice in the marital department. And considering his back is completely shot at 54, he contracted Hep c from dirty shots he received in the Marine Corp, and he always shunned unions (because the GOP would never approve) perhaps he could have chosen better career paths too. He can hardly afford his medical bills!

His type built America. They worked the railroads, they fought our wars, and they built the great monuments, with thousands dying in the process. For the first time, they have the opportunity to afford what’s been owed to them all along. The tragedy is that he’s been convinced these entitlement programs, specifically tailored to his needs, are apart of some left-wing conspiracy. And for what reason… so the rich can get richer…so they can continue to afford to dominate the media and policy with their toxic views, which have turned the working class on themselves? The entire system from my perspective is a work of pure evil and pure genius.

The ACA is for Americans. The average hard working, marginalized American, no matter how hard the right may try to fold them into their scheme.

[floid]

Its merits and demerits aside, the ACA was a huge political achievement. Health care reform had been blocked since the 1930s, and Obama didn't have much of a margin in Congress to work with in 2009. It took some deft maneuvering to get it passed.

Nudging a humongous petrified mountain of elephant excrement an inch to the left is no task for a shrinking violet.

[C.J.Woolf]

Nudging a humongous petrified mountain of elephant excrement and inch to the left is no task for a shrinking violet.

Yep. And it's probably worth it because, as the elephants who made that mountain of excrement know well, it's only the first inch.

[starla]

I think the ACA is the Don't ask don't tell of healthcare. One side thinks it's an atrocity, the other thinks its a copout and doesn't go far enough. Don't ask don't tell turned out to be a brilliant long term strategy, but nobody seemed to recognize that at the time.

[skip]

Single-payer is the best way to go, but special interests invested in the old system block a direct to move to single-payer.

Have you ever been solely dependent on the U.S. government for your health care?

[C.J.Woolf]

Have you ever been solely dependent on the U.S. government for your health care?

My father was a career Army officer, so I was covered by Uncle Sam until age 22.

I can see you're suspicious of the government bureaucracy, but at least it ostensibly serves citizens. A private insurance company serves its stockholders. Lots of perverse incentives there. Americans go bankrupt from medical bills. This does not happen in other civilized countries because it's barbaric. The system (not just healthcare financing) tends to push financial risk down to individuals who can ill afford it. Financial risk is a cause of chronic stress, and chronic stress kills. It's all barbaric.

The ACA is a civilized act.

[starla]

Have you ever been solely dependent on the U.S. government for your health care?

Questions make for lousy arguments. It makes it seem like you're trying to deflect attention from the fact that your opinions are backed up by nothing.

[skip]

My father was a career Army officer, so I was covered by Uncle Sam until age 22

Did you have a lot of health issues before you were 22?

Questions make for lousy arguments. It makes it seem like you're trying to deflect attention from the fact that your opinions are backed up by nothing.

Er... what? I am trying to better understand C.J. Woolf's point of view. How would you try to do that without asking questions?

[C.J.Woolf]

Did you have a lot of health issues before you were 22?

Nope. Still don't, really. I've been disgustingly healthy. A health insurance expert once quipped, "In the US there are two kinds of people: those who hate their health insurance, and those who haven't tried to use it." Mrs. Woolf hasn't been so lucky; she's been jacked around a lot by her job-related private insurer.

BTW, I see a split in this thread's future.