Heard enough complaints about Obamacare yet?  If republicans have so much trouble with Obamacare, then why don't they do something to make it better?  How can we be the richest nation in the world and get so much less for our healthcare dollars than any other country?

If you truly have a problem with Obamacare, then why not tell your republican lawmakers to get up off their asses and do something to give us the healthcare system we deserve?

If you truly have a problem with Obamacare, then why not tell your republican lawmakers to refuse some of those healthcare special interest lobbyists contributions and have them donate their contributions to improving our healthcare system?

We would not need Obamacare if lawmakers would have done the right thing decades ago! Duh!

-- Modified on 9/7/2016 2:59:17 PM

... and I am not enrolled in any program affiliated with Obamacare that I am aware of.

I am aware of three people in my life who have had their monthly medical payments drastically increased by Obamacare.

AND I know of two others who are definitely receiving benefits via Obamacare they would otherwise NOT be getting.

I wonder how easy it would be to get a truly accurate assessment based on a state by state comparison, and I believe you will find that Obamacare is working in some states, but not others.

As opposed to Michelle's lunch program which despite her genuinely good intentions, has been an unmitigated disaster because they didn't think about the added funding needed.

ok lemme end it here before i get further sidetracked.

Obamacare is better than what was there before, but not as good as it could have been.
The state of Health Care for the masses in the United States is nowhere as good as it could be.
The level of health care possible however, has never been greater. That is the key to the future.

I have a feeling that had we continued WITHOUT the ACA, your friends STILL would've seen their medical payments increase even MORE drastically. There is something happening in health care costs that defy the usual way the Supply & Demand Law generally works, as well as Ben's Better Mousetrap notion.

I don't claim to fully understand it myself, but it seems Lind of like this:

In order for us to supply something we must demand that somebody creates a demand. A pill for restless leg syndrome needs doctors to first start diagnosing that syndrome in more patients. Similar to the need for gluten-free bread. But with more advanced MRI equipment and patented emergency drug dispensers it gets complicated because of outright bilking of patients.

And if someone builds a better mousetrap, it reads, "Oh! There's a market for mousetraps! We have to build an even BETTER one, and since that costs R&D, we'd better hike the price of the not-so-good mousetraps to get the capital and drive away the market!"

In the light of ACA, we can clean up in the states that don't buy into that, and then we can "demand" (ask) a higher price in those that do. Never mind the price in other countries.

That sounds like mumbo-jumbo, and I admit I can't explain it more clearly or even understand it completely. So these are just impressions as to how what I can see strikes me.

It's like if we say there's a shortage of potatoes, and get cows put on the Endangered Species list, maybe we can up the price of steak and fries.

As long as some states can turn up their nose at it, the superior free enterprise model myth will continue. "ACA can't work because it doesn't let insurgence shysters to run roughshod, so I won't let it happen!" But it works.

You know what it reminds me of? In 2010 when SpaceX launched and retrieved Dragon successfully, one of our local Cingressmen came on the tube praising Elon Musk as having created a company so superior to NASA that it proved without a shadow of a doubt that private enterprise was the only solution to anything and all government endeavors were just a meaningless waste of time, energy, money and effort. He didn't bother to mention that SpaceX used the technologies developed by NASA to accomplish his launch and retrieval. This kind of desperate clinging to the privatization of everything from war to welfare is repeated over and over again, and of course the grumbling free-enterprise-only idiots deligh in sneering at the government which is the sum composorsiton of the rest of us. Since we the citizen taxpayers paid for the freeway system, and our workers and engineers built it, shouldn't the Republicand who refuse to pay taxes or honor the workers be barred from using the system? If some Republican wants to go somewhere he or she should have to build their own road to get there. Otherwise, we should have the right to make a citizen's arrest for trespassing when we spot them driving out streets and freeways or walking our sidewalks.

“      Repeal Obamacare” is effectively an attempt to legislate a Republican health care plan.  If Obamacare is repealed, then solely state law would regulate health insurance, as opposed to the Affordable Care Act’s dual enforcement structure where fed law provides the floor but states are still permitted to regulate many aspects of health insurance.  The Republicans have repeatedly to tried to do this but, of course, don’t have the votes to override a veto.

       It would be accurate to say the Republicans have not proposed a comprehensive FEDERAL law to replace the ACA – but since the prevailing righty view is “leave it to the states,” this is hardly a basis to criticize the Repubs.

       And there has never been a true “free enterprise” model as you suggest. All states heavily regulated health insurers before the ACA, particularly in the small group market where many states prohibited denying coverage for pre-existing conditions, or refusing to renew bc of the insured’s health problems. The ACA adopted many of these features but added much more consumer friendly but insurer burdensome regulation -including a cap on insurer profits.

       Aside from the GOP’s quixotic effort to repeal the ACA, some 114 bills have been introduced –many by Republicans- to regulate various aspects of health insurance. Most recently, Paul Ryan has provided the “broad  outline” of his own plan.

      So blaming the Repubs for inaction is off-base- they just have a fundamentally different view as to whether, or the extent to which, federal law as opposed to state law should control here – and lack the votes to change things

Like if a state doesn't want to provide any health care at all, that's fine? But what if I get hit by a bus while visiting that state?

And even a state that his conscientiously trying to set up something that resembles the ACA except that it has a white a republican name to it instead of a black Democrat, then there's an epidemic that attacks an overwhelming number of the residents of that state? Who rides to the rescue? Oh, yeah, the Fed. And like always the Republicans will be the first ones in line with their hats on hand.

So the way the law is now, everything is covered except the folk who don't follow the law--you guessed it, the Republicans--who's to say they'll follow state laws?

Sorry. Unconvinced. Republicans just can't get with the program because they don't give a shit about The United States of America.

If you get hit by a bus, the ER will screen and stabilize you regardless of whether you have health insurance, or whether you can pay.  But neither the Affordable Care Act nor state law have anything to do with this – this kind of ER treatment is required by a federal law that preceded the ACA.

      So frankly I can’t tell what point you are trying to make, since your examples go to health care rather than health insurance.

     But, as to health insurance, yes the Republican viewpoint is that health insurance should be primarily  regulated by the states with just a few federal laws, such as allowing the sale of health insurance across state lines and the expansion of health saving accounts. Mr. Ryan also would give a federal tax credit to everyone.

       Whether this is better policy is something on which reasonable minds can disagree. So I don’t think it is remotely accurate to say that the Republicans don’t care about the country bc they have a different view.  

      We don’t know yet whether the ACA is going to work. I’ve never understood how the math works for the ACA –the cost of the unlimited (above the deductible) coverage provided to the really sick by all ACA policies is bound to exceed the extra revenue generated by the healthy who are compelled to buy health insurance. Far too early to make a call as to whether the ACA will work, or which policy is better for the nation as a whole