I hate to, but have to admit that there’s a lot about Obamacare I don’t like. However, it is a step in the right direction. It’s a shame that, because Republicans have forced so many cuts in the number of government employees, the design and implementation of the website had to be outsourced to corporate contractors. What we’re really seeing is a failure of the too poorly regulated free market to deliver goods and services as promised. However I agree with the best solution, the one Paul Krugman suggests.
The good news about HealthCare.gov, the portal to Obamacare’s health exchange, is that the administration is no longer minimizing its problems. That’s the first step toward fixing the mess — and it will get fixed, although it’s anyone’s guess whether the new promise of a smoothly functioning system by the end of November will be met. We know, after all, that Obamacare is workable, since many states that chose to run their own exchanges are doing quite well.
But while we wait for the geeks to do their stuff, let’s ask a related question: Why did this thing have to be so complicated in the first place?
It’s true that the Affordable Care Act isn’t as complex as opponents make it out to be. Basically, it requires that insurance companies offer the same policies to everyone; it requires that each individual then buy one of these policies (the individual mandate); and it offers subsidies, depending on income, to keep insurance affordable.
Still, there’s a lot for people to go through. Not only do they have to choose insurers and plans, they have to submit a lot of personal information so the government can determine the size of their subsidies. And the software has to integrate all this information, getting it to all the relevant parties — which isn’t happening yet on the federal site.
Imagine, now, a much simpler system in which the government just pays your major medical expenses. In this hypothetical system you wouldn’t have to shop for insurance, nor would you have to provide lots of personal details. The government would be your insurer, and you’d be covered automatically by virtue of being an American.
Of course, we don’t have to imagine such a system, because it already exists. It’s called Medicare, it covers all Americans 65 and older, and it’s enormously popular. So why didn’t we just extend that system to cover everyone?… [emphasis added]
Inserted from <NY Times>
Click through for the rest, please.
The answer, of course, is that Medicare for all could never have survived the Republican filibuster preventing its passage. Even during the few brief days that Democrats had a super-majority in the Senate, a very small number of DINOs took payola from Big Insurance and goose-stepped with the Republicans. Medicare for all remains the best solution, and we’ll get there eventually. In the meantime, Obamacare, with all the website problems, is a big improvement over RepubliCare, which offers only the RepubliCare Death Benefit. If you cannot pay, you get to die for free.
16 Responses to “The Best ObamaCare Solution”
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Isn't the Right trying to change Medicare and Social Security into something that looks just like Obama Care?
Yes, Howard, they are thirsting to get their greedy little paws on it and make vouchers for us to give their friends.
I don't think so. ObamaCare has lots of protection for medical consumers. Republicans want to turn Mrdicare into something with protection only for Insurance company vultures.
H.R. 676 – Single Payer Medicare for all Americans is the answer… 😀
Exactly, Richard.
Single-payer Medicare for all was the answer but one that would not have survivied the RepubliCanTs in office. It would have been Fake Filiblusters Forever.
Exactly, Patty.
Thanks TC. Shouldn't they stop filibustering – I mean officially ban it, since they can't be trusted to behave like responsible adults?
Pat, Harry Reid has had the chance several times but he doesn't follow through. Instead he makes these gentlemen's agreements with McTurtle, which McTurtle just turns around and ignores. That is why, or at least one reason why TC calls him the "Nevada Leg-Hound". It will interesting to see if, now that he has had a test drive of the "Obama Balls", whether Reid can deal effectively with the filibuster.
What Lynn said. Typically, Leg Hound Harry humps a few GOP legs begging for votes, whines, rolls over, and plays dead. Weating his Obvamaballs is something new.
H.R. 676 is why I voted for Kucinich in the Primaries in 2008. He would've made the RepubliCONs explain why they HATE sick, disabled, & elderly Americans!
"Republicans have forced so many cuts in the number of government employees, the design and implementation of the website had to be outsourced to corporate contractors." Maybe, or maybe CONgre$$ is again stealing money under the table! I know they employ some of the Best Techs in the country at FRIT – THEY could've been "borrowed" for this & it would've been done Right the first time – they've had 3 years to get this done! Third party middle-men are part of the Problem Already – so why hire MORE to fix it?????
I supported Kucinich in 2004, right up until he said that, given his choice of Vice Presidential candidates, he would chose that evil, racist, misogynist gnome, Ron Paul. There is no recovery from that.
There is considerable evidence that hackers have tried to taker the site down, but no evidence that they have succeeded. This id a case of corporations cutting quality to maximize profit.
Republicanus/Teabaggers don't give a rat's ass about anybody except themselves and the 1%. Heaven forbid that the US should have a government "for, of and by the people." That would be too much like the Repubublicanus/Teabaggers actually cared about anything other than power and greed.
Exactly, Lynn.
The ACA is not perfect, no new bill or act is ever exactly right when it is enacted. I am not happy about all of it ,either, but my nephew who has Krohns disease can now stay on his parents insurance until he is 26 and can't be denied insurance due to a pre existing condition. That's a good thing. We will never have Medicare for all in my lifetime. The Republicans are after it all ready and the President has indicated more than once that he would consider cuts to it, something that makes me VERY unhappy with him.
I wish the administration would have just openly said that the system was messed up and they knew it and were working on it. The Repubs would have had much less ammunition to aim at the act now if they had only done that.
Edie, be unhappy if he cuts Medicare. Obama, the negotiator, will "consider" anything because he uses it to show that Republicans will consider nothing.