General Discussion
In reply to the discussion: My turn to get on my high horse about ACA [View all]MADem
(135,425 posts)People -- particularly those who benefitted from a state program, like people who lived in my home state of MASSACHUSETTS or Howard Dean's VERMONT, where health care benefits have been --for a much longer time-- very generous to citizens, were less attuned to the troubles of others living in shitty, mean states where there was no coverage, where if you had a pre-existing condition, a disease or chronic illness, you were given the Hearty Eff You and told to get out your wallet...or die.
Those poor people in those "mean states" (which, many of them, didn't have much if any state income tax, funny how that works) without a well stuffed wallet had to do without, or to rely on the emergency room, followed by the game of Dodge-The-Bill-Collector, which resulted in the Bankruptcy Sweepstakes/Farewell House and Valuables game, before the ACA kicked in for everyone.
I can't imagine how daunting it would be to face such a serious disease without health insurance--hell even WITH health insurance, realizing that the clock is ticking towards that "lifetime cap" (No More Soup For YOU--SPEND or DIE!!!) has got to be stressful as hell.
I also think that there's a misperception that the ACA would--right out of the gate--rumble along with the reasonable efficiency of Commonwealth Care or the Vermont program, and it would do so no matter what state one lived in. We've learned that some states are "nicer" about ACA than others; some are actively helping it to succeed, while others are being shitty, nasty and digging in their heels, trying to make it fail.
What people forget is that it took a bit of squeaking, squawking and missteps to get the MA program where it is today. Nothing that is so vast and ambitious as finding a way to cover a large number of people within the confines of many existing mechanisms is easy. There are going to be screw - ups. But that's not a reason to say awww, to hell with it, Single Payer Or NOTHING, damnit!!! We have to make the effort, to push forward, to fix problems as they crop up, and to keep striving for an even better system. The way to get a better system is to show how much this one helps people, while also demonstrating how single payer will help even more folks.
The road to Single Payer runs through the ACA.
Wish I could rec your thread more than once!