In my opinion its because they are trying to have the best of both worlds. Obamacare, believe it or not, shafted a lot of people too.
As Village Idiot said, if you are going to do it, you have to really do it. It really is a disaster.
Could any American posters please explain to this Brit' why so many of your countrymen are hostile to Obamacare?
by nicolaou 93 Replies latest members politics
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Village Idiot
Universal Coverage
Yes. Everyone is covered automatically at birth.
No. About 30 million will still be uninsured in 2022 and tens of millions will remain underinsured.
Full Range of Benefits
Yes. Coverage for all medically necessary services.
No. Insurers continue to strip down policies and increase patients’ co-payments and deductibles.
Savings
Yes. Redirects $400 billion in administrative waste to care; no net increase in health spending.
No. Increases health spending by about $1.1 trillion over 10 years. Adds further layers of administrative bloat to our health system through the introduction of state-based exchanges.
Cost Control/Sustainability
Yes. Large-scale cost controls (negotiated fee schedule with physicians, bulk purchasing of drugs, hospital budgeting, capital planning, etc.) ensure that benefits are sustainable over the long term.
No. Preserves a fragmented system incapable of controlling costs. Gains in coverage are erased by rising out-of-pocket expenses, bureaucratic waste and profiteering by private insurers and Big Pharma.
Choice of Doctorand Hospital
Yes. Patients will be allowed free choice of their doctor and hospital.
No. Insurance companies continue to deny and limit care and to maintain restrictive networks.
Progressive Financing
Yes. Premiums and out-of-pocket costs are replaced with progressive income and wealth taxes. 95 percent of Americans will pay less for care than they do now.
No. Continues the unfair financing of health care whereby costs are disproportionately paid by middle- and lower-income Americans and those families facing acute or chronic illness.
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neverendingjourney
Obama could have pushed Single Payer but his character is too weak to stand up to the Republican elite. He thought he could compromise with them if he offered something like his plan. He was wrong; people would have preferred Single Payer
I agree with this. He almost didn't get it through after Scott Brown won in Massachusetts. It took Nancy Pelosi to ram it through the finish line.
Republicans would have opposed anything he put forward. His naivete those first two years is what in my opinion will prevent him from being viewed as one of the greats.
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freemindfade
If you cut through the political rhetoric on both the left and the right, it really is a huge failure. The American healthcare system is really "sick care" and is big business and big money. Republican or Democrat most of them are getting a piece of all that money. That is at the root of why this isn't working in America. The whole thing needs to be changed, Obamacare was a band-aid on a gunshot wound. ACO's and those concepts seem to be a lot better steps toward changing the culture or our healthcare system. As long as Healthcare is big business AND insurance is too, we are effed.
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Village Idiot
neverendingjourney
Republicans would have opposed anything he put forward. His naivete those first two years is what in my opinion will prevent him from being viewed as one of the greats.
Right on . Eight years and no progress. Off topic, since this is not an Obama thread, he should have first concentrated on a $15 minimum wage and won the hearts of many Americans. They would have more easily seen through the propagandistic bilge that Republicans would have made. Then, with that victory under his belt, he should have worked on passing Single Payer.
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Laika
I expect this program will be much more popular when it's gone!
he should have first concentrated on a $15 minimum wage and won the hearts of many Americans
Would this have worked? Didn't 20 million people get health care through the ACA? Surely many of those have voted for Trump or not at all, don't see why the same wouldn't have happened with a change in the minimum wage...
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Simon
The US healthcare system is no different to the US banking system - it's predatory and profit focused. As much money is taken out of the system as possible and coverage people should have is often denied - the equivalent of repossessing someone's home after contriving to give them a loan they can't afford.
While the UK, Canada and other counties have been able to marry public / private healthcare in one way or another (not without their own issues). The US lacks the political environment to come up with a fair and affordable system that can just work.
Even if such a system is proposed or even built, there are enough who will be determined to make it fail for purely ideological reasons. So nothing will ever change or succeed.
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Village Idiot
Would this have worked? Didn't 20 million people get health care through the ACA? Surely many of those have voted for Trump or not at all, don't see why the same wouldn't have happened with a change in the minimum wage...
The minimum wage maneuver would have been a strategic move to help expedite anything else that Obama would have desired.
As far as the numbers, there are still tens of millions who are not covered by ACA. I believe some of them are the unemployed.
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freemindfade
The US healthcare system is no different to the US banking system - it's predatory and profit focused.
that is the absolute truth sadly
And it's not a bipartisan thing where one party is guilty and the other isn't, they are both guilty of benefiting from that crap.
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Simon
And it's not a bipartisan thing where one party is guilty and the other isn't, they are both guilty of benefiting from that crap.
Yes, the reason Hillary was so opposed to releasing her transcripts was not that there was anything crushingly terrible in them per-se, but they show that she's not really the friend of the oppressed that she tries to make out. Like so many others, she profits from them and is paid by the bankers.
Trump does too, but doesn't bother to try and hide it so much.