I found the editors of the Wall Street Journal’s demand that Democrats be held responsible for the flaws in the Affordable Care Act astonishing in its naïveté:
At every stage of the ObamaCare saga, liberals said not to worry. Sure, the law was unpopular when Democrats rammed it through Congress on a partisan vote in 2009-10, but voters would learn to love it once the subsidies started rolling. That didn’t happen, and in 2014 President Obama tried to buck up Democrats by saying that “five years from now†people will look back on the law as “a monumental achievement.†Two years later it’s worse.
Nothing could shake the liberal faith in their supposed landmark: Not the Healthcare.gov website fiasco of 2013, or the millions of individual health plans that were cancelled despite President Obama’s promise about keeping them. The left kept the faith as the entitlement subtracted from economic growth, hurt incomes and killed jobs. MIT economist Jonathan Gruber called the critics stupid, and Mr. Obama denigrates anyone who disagrees with him as illegitimate or politically motivated.
Now reality is confirming what the critics predicted. ObamaCare’s regulatory mix—benefit mandates, requiring insurers to sell coverage to all comers, and narrow ratings bands that limit how much premiums can vary by health status—was tried by several states in the 1980s and ’90s. Every one saw the same results that are now unspooling nationally: high and rising costs, low and declining enrollment, and less insurer and provider competition.
because of its flawed understanding of the political process.
I don’t agree with the opponents of the PPACA who’ve claimed for years that the law was a stalking horse for a fully socialized healthcare system. If only that were the case! I also don’t agree with the supporters of the law who claim that the law was the best that could have been passed because of the “60th senator problem” for the same reason. That’s just not how our system works.
I think the PPACA is what you pour out when you toss all of the slogans about healthcare reform on which the progressive caucus of the Congress have agreed, e.g. “guaranteed issue”, “community rating”, into a blender, seasoned with a soupçon of political reality. Whether it could work or not was irrelevant.
Meanwhile, the great thing about being a U. S. senator is that you never need to take responsibility for anything. There are always 99 other senators plus the president to blame. And you don’t have all of that pesky constituent service to worry about, as they have in the House. Since everyone in the state is notionally your constituent, there’s always plausible deniability. All you really need to worry about are raising money for your re-election campaign and not getting caught.
Would add to the recipe a garnish of sleight of hand. However, someone will take the fall, that poor soul Not Me of no fixed address.
Forgive me if I forget, but I believe the affordable care act ran to, what 2.100 pages? No one admits to have read the entire bill, certainly not the president. I guess I believe it was cobbled together from the wish lists of 51 Democratic senators, (none of whom has read the whole thing), Typed by legislative aides and cemented with a stapler the size of a freight train. When you write law that way, what do you expect? Perfection?
Remember the times, the democrats had just elected a fresh face, a black president who achieved the Nobel Peace Prize before he was even sworn in. Senate? Dem. majority. House?Dem majority.
Why would they even take time to THINK about The afforable care act ? They had POWER. Anyone remember Nancy Pelosi marching through the crowd with the clowtoonishly large gavel?
Rubbing it in to the Repubs, Healthcare is a serious issue, life and death, Pelosis’ theatre turned me against Dems right there.
For u Who don’t know me, I’m only commenting on this Glittering Eye because I like people who THINK, no, thats wrong, I like to think, and I like to be stimulated by those who can think.
I go off sometimes, moderater can block me at his will.
Back to the A F C A? Hopeless.
Want to know how to bring down health care costs?
My thought, cancel your health insurance, put the premiums into a healthcare savings account, forget what thats called. and then ACT like a consumer. Horrible thought, we all cannot afford top flight medical care.
Me I have C O P D, I have a G.P. a pulmonologist, a cardiologist, an ear, throat and nose guy. They all want me in twice a year.
Just don’t go to see them, save money.
When the shit hits the fan, and I choke, I have 2 calls 1> Wait to die, (we all do) 2> call 911 or drive me to the E. R., And then at that point deal with the financials. (won’t get bllod outta a turnip!)
It was modeled on Romneycare, which was working OK. Some of the internal glitches couldn’t get fixed because Kennedy died.
Steve
I think the differences between Massachusetts and the United States overall are substantial enough to suggest that a plan that works in Massachusetts might not be extendable to the entire country.
Referring back to another post, in Canada the system of healthcare insurance is administered state by state and originated that way. Why does expanding a system of healthcare insurance designed for a single state make sense as a national system in the much larger and more diverse United States? We’re not France.