Paul Revere by Cyrus Dallin, North End, Boston

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Saturday, March 5, 2016

Thanks Obama!






11 comments:

Les Carpenter said...

The biggest positive in the ACA, elimination of the pre-existing condition nightmare.

But it sure ain't affordable, unless your poor. And the deductibles are large for the least expensive policies.

And, the ACA was a gold mine for insurance companies.


Shaw Kenawe said...



The ACA has a lot to like and a lot to hate, including what you've pointed out.

The tragedy of this is that had the GOP worked WITH Obama's team instead of against it, some of these awful parts could have been worked out. The GOP was interested only in obstructing anything to do with universal health care -- even the one the Heritage Foundation and Massachusetts Republican Governor Romney approved of.

If the ACA doesn't work for middle class and other groups, and if it is a gold mine for insurance companies, look to our broken system to find why that is so.

Does anyone living in the real world believe Trump will do better? Do people believe his bullying will get Congress to do his bidding? That his rhetoric will magically heal the country when he's insulted great swathes of the American population?

The TGOP must take a good portion of the blame for the parts of the ACA that are unacceptable. This is what happens when a political party is interested only in vendettas and revenge instead of governing.

Dave Miller said...

Les... regarding the pre-existing condition rules...

The simple fact that the GOP never moved on that despite years of opportunity to do so, shows us they never had any desire to help the American people with health care.

Never once was this ever moved forward, or offered as an option, until the Dems made it law.

Dervish Sanders said...

But it sure ain't affordable, unless you're poor... And, the ACA was a gold mine for insurance companies.

Ask any poor person, and I'm positive they'll tell you how freaking awesome it is! As for the Insurance Companies, a president Bernie Sanders' single-payer system would phase them out. #FeelTheBern.

Anonymous said...

The ACA was a boom for insurance companies. They now have consumers forced to buy from them. Before he was elected Obama was for single payer. After the election Obama said it wasn't viable to go to single payer because we already had a system in place which would be to difficult to simple throw out. Of course, that's exactly what we needed to do, throw out the existing health insurance scam procedure.

Shaw Kenawe said...

Even in a fully Democratic controlled Congress, they knew that they'd never get the votes to do it in 2009. A lot of Congressional Democrats lost their seats in 2010 with the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act as a major issue (along with TARP); if they had gone for single payer, it would've been a worse electoral shellacking.

The President and the Executive Branch have no power to make laws. That's Congress' job. The best that the Executive Branch can do is set specific regulations within the parameters of passed law. The President has a tremendous amount of influence as the de facto head of his/her respective political party, but s/he can't "enact" anything.

The biggest lobbyist in the country is the health insurance industry (over 2.7 billion for pharmaceuticals alone and 4 of the top 20 are from healthcare, way more then even big oil). While the president may have wanted single payer you have virtually no chance of getting it through congress which is lining its pockets in gold thanks to the insurance companies.

Anonymous said...

By that reasoning Shaw neither HRC, or Bernie have any chance of getting anything they want passed, so why waste a vote?
I'll give Obama the benefit of the doubt that he is a smart guy. Then I have to assume he knew what you just stated. So he lied to get those votes that wanted single payer. Remember, in the Fall of 2007 polls showed 75% of the voters wanted the government to step in and eliminate private insurance companies from health insurance.

Shaw Kenawe said...


Anonymous @ 6:15, my friend. How naive are you?

Over 90% of the American people wanted background checks on gun sales after Sandy Hook, and the Republican majority in Congress defeated that.

What universe do you live in? The Tea Party has voted against everything President Obama has been for.

Have you not been paying attention?

Les Carpenter said...

Poor folks are subsidized Dervish. But you knew that already. In MA if your poor or underemployed you get Mass Health. If your poor it's near free. From there it's on a sliding scale. The ACA is similar.

Keep feeling the Bern.

anymouse said...

I'm all in for single-payer or Medicare for all, but even with it's many flaws, the ACA is a start. I find it funny that Repubs are now all coming up with their own 'plans' when they had years and years to come up with something and the only thing they ever came up with was 'you get sick and you're poor - hurry and die.' Of course, they're all doubling down on giving even more business to the crooked insurance industry but, bless their hearts - at least they're finally admitting that health care is a problem in this country. They do always seem to run about 50 years late to the party, though, don't they? :)

Shaw Kenawe said...

BlueBull, yes, the Goops are always lagging behind progressive ideas. They've been patting themselves on their backs for having had a more diverse slate of candidates: two men with a Latino heritage, an African-American doctor, a former CEO female, and a Vulgar Talking Yam.

Except for the V.T.Y., what totally escapes their dear little hearts is that the Democratic Party trail-blazed all of that years ago, and the Goops are just now catching up. They're always playing catch-up and don't even understand it.