Why this renewed assault? “Obamacare Sucks!!!” declared the former and possibly future president. For those offended by the language, these are Trump’s own words, and I think I owe it to my readers to report what he actually said, not sanitize it. Trump also promised to provide “MUCH BETTER HEALTHCARE” without offering any specifics.
So let’s discuss substance here. Does Obamacare, in fact, suck? And can we believe Trump’s promise to offer something much better?
Obamacare does suck. It's a shitty half measure that leaves thousands to die from lack of health insurance every year and costs us a ton of money that goes straight to middle men that provide no health care.
It's better than what we had before. But we need universal healthcare.
The GOP has been talking 'repeal and replace' the ACA since the day it was passed. Over a decade and they are still trying to come up with a better plan.
They aren't trying to replace. They're trying to kill. If it has Obama's name anywhere near it (or anything Democrats do), they want it to die. Including Obama himself.
Just like Social Security, they were worried about having the problem of a good example of yet another government service that people like. It doesn't matter if it is overwhelmingly popular, they want to kill it.
They may pretend that they think that. Some small few may even think that they think that. But they don't actually think that.
The easiest way to see what people believe is to observe their actions.
Republicans are absolutely fine with handing out big juicy government contracts to a select few contractors, for example, instead of letting the market decide.
Republicans are absolutely fine with banning books from libraries instead of letting the market decide.
Republicans are absolutely fine with starting a trade war with China, instead of letting the market decide.
Republicans are absolutely fine with banning women's access to medical care, instead of letting the market decide.
Republicans are absolutely fine with interfering with the free market and giving tons of cash to large corporations.
No, Republicans do not think free market is better by definition. They simply lie and say that when the alternative is to admit that their policy is rooted in bigotry.
Which they can't, because it's already the most conservative plan that had any chance of working. It doesn't even work well, it just had some kind of chance.
Apparently, Obama himself told Trump that he, Obama, would not call Trump out if he decided to label it 'Trumpcare.' All Donnie had to do was change a few lines in the ACA and then declare victory! He could have plastered his face all over the site and made plenty of his voters happy. No one hates Trump's voters more than Trump.
Trump, and Republicans in general, love destroying anything Obama did or cares about.
Remember though that Trump often says things just because they make his crowds cheer. Also, although he had almost 5 years he never even managed to release an outline of a plan, though I do think they are preparing much more for a second term.
Donald Trump has an inferiority complex to Obama and I'd wager its emboldened by his racism. This was kind of a big feature of his presidency, he showed the desire and capacity to un-obama everything he could.
Same reason he wants a 1980s style trade war against Japan. He doesn't think much about issues, so once he decides a soundbite is a good one, he'll use it for decades.
This is why "compromise" is a shit strategy when dealing with Republicans, even if it works.
We got a more conservative plan than what Mitt Romeny had drawn up, and now we've got "moderate" Dems who agree with Republicans that it went too far.
If Mitt Romeny had won, we'd unironically be in a better position with healthcare. Because Republicans would have seen the boost from Romney doing it, and wouldnt blindly oppose anything better.
And even the "moderate" Dems would have to support improvements, because they're always just to the left of Republicans. But never further to the right
But since Obama was president at the time, it might be decades till we get something better.
Problem is here than Romney did NOT draw up "Romneycare" and even vetoed eight sections of the bill, even though all of those vetoes were eventually overridden by the Legislature.
Because he never gave us a health care plan and knowing Obama did it (using a blueprint from his other enemy, Mitt Romney) makes his pee-pee feel small.
Cuz Obama is a Blah and also made fun of little donnie at the correspondent's dinner and he haz a sad about that ever since. Also explains why little donnie is a birther, too.
The ACA does suck, but it sucks less than pre-existing conditions
Trumps record with NAFTA is probably a good template. Made the deal sweeter for tech bro companies and as part of the deal settled on very narrow improvement in labor standards because canada insisted on it.
We can probably expect he would rename the ACA into like trumpcare or something and add some boondoggles for insurers. Maybe dismantle medicare.
it would have to come from republicans who are absolutely bent on dismantling medicare and social security. I don't think the incentives line up, but its a fun thought
He just need two more weeks. Just two more. He needed two more weeks 6 years ago, but now I really pinkey swear guys, just two more weeks and we'll have the best damn Trumpdoesntcare health plan ever!
Like everything, he dislikes Obama a lot. He needs to blow up something kind of good. Then, "replace" it with something better that is always 2 weeks out from sharing. I'm pretty sure it'll be called "Trump Cares, He Really Doesn't Care"
… no dog, female or otherwise, would ever consent to go near him. (Except maybe to piss on his sock,). Dogs hate him. Which is how you know he’s among the worst humanity has to offer.
Thursday’s report on consumer spending showed the Federal Reserve’s preferred measure of underlying inflation getting close to its 2 percent target.)
Nonetheless, over the past few days, Trump has declared that if he returns to the White House, he’ll once again seek to do away with the Affordable Care Act, the reform that has produced a significant decline in the number of Americans without health insurance.
The main point in Obamacare’s favor is simply the fact that the number of uninsured Americans fell sharply after the law went into effect.
We’re still well short of the more or less universal coverage provided by every other advanced country, and the health insurance some Americans have remains inadequate, but the gap has narrowed a lot.
Before Obamacare, Americans with preexisting medical conditions who weren’t lucky enough to get coverage through their employers were in dire straits: Insurers either wouldn’t cover them at all or would charge exorbitant premiums.
is tricky, in part because the law, while offering extensive subsidies, also included many measures aimed at reducing health costs.
The original article contains 880 words, the summary contains 176 words. Saved 80%. I'm a bot and I'm open source!
Republicans have very successfully poisoned the discussion on this topic. Maybe it will help if I start by saying I don't think private healthcare should exist in any way, shape, or form; I think all healthcare should be public including vision and dental.
Yes, Obamacare is pretty bad. Just like Romneycare in which the ACA is modeled after, it fucks over every single person in poverty. Studies also show that it caused premiums and OOP costs to rise significantly for people that already had coverage when it passed. The fallout of the ACA passing did also have a lot of short term problems, most of them caused by republicans that supported the bill right up until Obama signed it.
Edit: updated to make it clear when and who was affected by rising costs.
Studies also show that it caused premiums and OOP costs to rise significantly.
Sources, please? Everything I've seen says that Obamacare successfully reduced the rise of premiums and costs. The double digit yearly increases in premiums from before the act have disappeared.
anything would be better healthcare. other than the 1 piece of legislation forcing insurance companies to insure sick people, 'obamacare' is a love letter to insurance companies.
Conservatives have been poisoning the well on healthcare longer than you've been alive.
Frame Canada: Wendell Potter spent decades scaring Americans. About Canada. He worked for the health insurance industry, and he knew that if Americans understood Canadian-style health care, they might.... like it. So he helped deploy an industry playbook for protecting the health insurance agency. https://www.npr.org/2020/10/19/925354134/frame-canada
Yep. Ronnie Raygun put out propaganda on LP, no less, before many of us were born, calling it "socialized medicine". What's that comrade? You want healthcare? Whadaya, a commie? Dying without healthcare is for red-blooded Muricans, because something something FREEEEEDOM (cue the end of Braveheart).
While I agree with you I'm many ways, the fact is my kid with lifelong genetic disorder has had two major surgeries paid for by marketplace insurance with no trouble at all and without pages and pages of medical history we used to have to fill out every time we changed jobs or renewed, which insurance company's could and often did use not only to avoid paying for pre existing things, but also to try to deny any claim or even kick people off insurance for filling out the form wrong.
That one piece was hard won and worth a lot in my opinion, and I don't trust Trump to mess with it. The guy is gonna be bankrupt, why does anyone think he'll be doing anything other than selling the country for cash?
I think it's a lot like FDR when he wanted universal healthcare.
Moderate Dems and Republicans united despite Dems holding the majority, and forced Social Security to just be for the elderly and those with seriously debilitating health issues.
With the promise to FDR that it would be expanded later into universal healthcare.
Literally the same thing that happened with Obamacare.
Lots of people dont like waiting 3 generations to see that kind of incremental improvement though. Especially when there's no logical reason not to just give it to everyone
We could go back to not insuring people for pre-existing conditions. Obamacare isn't the be all end all of healthcare, and it could certainly be better, but it's not getting better under Trump.
If it was up to insurance companies, they'd classify "being born" as a pre-existing condition. That parameter is just there to protect their assets from the "greedy" sick people who file claims, and they'll push that line of what is and isn't covered as far back as they can. Don't give them the line to move.
Insurance is not healthcare. But we live in late stage capitalism, and without insurance there is no access to healthcare at all. Obamacare took care of some of the more egregious problems we were dealing with, but it was clearly not the final solution.
So who thinks that Trump, or indeed any Republican can be trusted to come up with anything better?
So who thinks that Trump, or indeed any Republican can be trusted to come up with anything better?
Is there any criticism of the corporate wing of the party that won't be immediately met with a veiled (or not so veiled) accusation that the person doing the criticism is a Trump supporter?