Wait so now the ACA was a mess? I thought it was the greatest legislative achievement since LBJ. So confused on today's pro-status quo talking points.
Is health care better with the ACA? No, it's worse. The system was getting worse rapidly in 2008, which was Obama's pitch. The ACA made some parts of the system a little better, but didn't stop the rapid deterioration Obama said he'd address. So the system is much worse now.
In 2009 Obama noted how rising costs were destroying the health care system and had to be addressed. Then he proposed a health care reform bill that... didn't address them. Now the system is unsustainable, just as Obama said it would become. nytimes.com/2009/09/10/us/…
In 2008 insured family of four paid $15k/year for health care. Today it's $30k with no improvement in care. This is a massive tax, effectively going to hospital monopolists. This is what Obama said he wouldn't allow to happen with the ACA! He promised a $2500 cost reduction!
Basically the deal with the ACA was we'll slap a $15k a year charge onto 80% of Americans, reduce the quality of their care, and hand most of that money over to wealthy people, in return for 20-30 million people getting onto Medicaid. That was the trade-off. Worth it?
Clearly this is over-simplifying a bit, but this is the gist of the problem. The ACA was a giant wealth transfer to the rich, with a Medicaid expansion and some subsidies and mild regulations as the moral justification.
And subsidies, regulations, and Medicaid expansion saved a lot of lives! America is big! But that massive wealth transfer cost a lot of lives too. America is big!
I haven't even gotten into rural areas, where hospitals are shutting down and care is increasingly hard to get.
