General Discussion
In reply to the discussion: Skinner on the ACA [View all]A Simple Game
(9,214 posts)It is truly sad that this is the single most important piece of social legislation in your lifetime.
Many including myself want something better but know that starting over is not an option. The ACA is better than what we had but, as is true with most legislation these days, still very poorly done. We also know that "fixing" legislation after the fact doesn't usually work out that well.
Sadly it was never meant to be better than its present form and that was obvious from the beginning when single payer was taken off the table and advocates for it were even arrested. Then there were the deals with the pharmaceutical companies, etc. Most people are realists and understand that deals have to be made but President Obama's negotiating skills don't seem to be one of his stronger points. This is the well that most people's disappointment springs from. The Supreme Court decision on Medicaid expansion also was a serious blow to the ACA. Who could have thought that so many would turn down free money?
Repeal is not an option and we have to hope that this is a starting point and that our politicians are serious about fixing the problems but only a fool would have much hope for this path to single payer. The best hope lies in states like Vermont getting single payer and showing the rest of the Country just what is the best way to administer health care. But sadly as a Country we haven't seemed to be able to learn from other countries so I expect the changes state by state to be a slow process. Personally much of my disappointment with the law lies in the fact that the "fixing" will be a very slow process, one in which I don't expect to live to see much progress.
Although there may be a few short-sighted enough to want to start over, to accuse members of wanting the ACA to fail after it is passed into law suggests you don't understand their reasoning. No one is anti ACA, but many, I know most and hopefully including you, are for a better ACA. We all, I suspect even you, know the system still needs a lot of fixing. Saying those that want single payer, also wanted by a majority in the US, of wanting the law to fail makes little sense to me and is not constructive. Instead of belittling those with valid concerns, could you help come up with some constructive solutions? Solving problems like this is what could really put this website on the map, not the petty bickering which seems to be what we as a whole have fallen into doing lately.