I'd like to preface this by first saying that after decades of destroying bank accounts, defrauding government and tax payers, disregarding the well being of patients and the advice of physicians, I think America has had enough of the for profit health insurance industry's version of health care. They're in business to make money from profit-over-life risk management where providing adequate health care is a risk to be mitigated. You can call it insurance, call it skyrocketing premiums, but don't call it health care.
Some say the Obama administration passed the most comprehensive health care legislation since Medicare and Medicaid. Some have quite a different story. For many, it boils down to their ability to see a doctor when they need to without going broke or bankrupt. I have personal knowledge on this issue.
ObamaCare was an attempt to slow the out of control costs of healthcare cost increases in America. Since insurance companies were calling the shots, President Obama's logical step was to engage them. In his pocket, if he could put it off, was a deal whereby every American would be required buy a health insurance policy if one wasn't provided by their employer. The biggest gift ever to the for profit health insurance industry. A deal they couldn't and wouldn't take because it would require minimum standards of healthcare for the masses. They couldn't take it because they couldn't do it profitably.
The Republicans saw this Affordable Care Act as an attempt of a government takeover of health care. They totally missed that it was really the for profit health insurance industry that would be doing the taking over. That mattered not to Republicans and sadly some Democrats. The Republican's disdain for Obama and his path of cautious optimism became quite obvious when their mouthpiece blurted out over national television that the Republican party's sole purpose going forward, would be to make Obama a one term president. They then began to obstruct in any manner possible, any advancements and implementation of Obama's health care legislation in every state in America. The thing is, there was so much in it, according to Nancy Pelosi, that "we won't know what's in it until we pass it." Now that little literary creation has become the Republican's theme, as they attempt to repeal and replace ObamaCare without killing anyone. By the way, the money they claim they will save will go to the rich as tax breaks.
ObamaCare relied on the expansion of the proven health care provisions of Medicare and Medicaid and expanded "health insurance markets". Insurance reneged. They couldn't create new or sustain existing markets, without losing profits because now they were actually required to provide a minimum standard of comprehensive health care. Something they should have already been doing. They are incapable of providing affordable, comprehensive healthcare, because it would put their profits at risk. Remember, the health insurance industry is really a risk management business.
So yes, in some places and in some instances ObamaCare has failed. Just ask states where Medicare and Medicaid were not expanded. Just ask the states where insurance companies failed to create new markets or sustain existing ones. It's could be seen by some as malfeasance, fraud and unfair business practices on the part of the insurance companies. Obama's legislation basically forced all uninsured Americans to buy private health insurance but health insurance still couldn't provide affordable, comprehensive health care. They want money for nothing. Sadly, there was plenty of wrongdoing and blame to go around. ObamaCare was far from perfect, but it was better that what America had. It provided more Americans access to insurance, and got rid of pre-existing conditions. But obstruction by Republicans and those receiving lobby money from the insurance industry, allowed insurance companies to close their markets and purposely engage in supply and demand manipulation of healthcare access and services. As premiums continued to rise, profits continued to rise and more Americans were getting insurance because of ObamaCare. But for many, the costs became too prohibitive. And worse, they were fined if they failed to purchase a private health insurance policy.
Nothing really changed. insurance premiums that began skyrocketing long before Obama was in office continue to skyrocket unabated. People are still not getting affordable health care and are still going broke trying. or just not trying at all. Tragically, Obama's misguided solution to lower health care costs was to trust the for profit health insurance industry when they were largely responsible for rising costs in the first place. President Obama was more successful helping the less fortunate receive critically needed health care than any President since LBJ. Tragically, and for whatever his reason, he dismissed the other path to healthcare for the masses, single payer, as pie in the sky. Obama was convinced by his advisers, members of Congress and industry lobbyists that it couldn't be done. They were wrong and there are many countries around the world that can prove they are wrong.
Single payer/universal health care/Medicare for all, a national healthcare system, was a good idea. It was a great idea. It was the best idea for a national health care system and it could be done, but would require the critical step of removing the for profit health insurance industry from the mix. We could have affordable health care for every American in every state, and yet we are here because the for profit health insurance industry has convinced our elected officials that health care can not be done any other way and they were believed. Republicans are wrong too and they'll go so far as to threatened a vote that will deny health care to millions of Americans because of a campaign promise and tax breaks for the rich to prove it. It is unconscionable.
There were some good things about ObamaCare. No preexisting conditions, kids stayed on parent's policies and some expanded actual health care in the Medicare/Medicaid expanded states. But in their zeal to repeal and replace ObamaCare, a campaign promise of a disgraced political party, they either failed to see, or don't care, that it will place millions of Americans in peril. Some may actually die and Congress, on both sides of the aisle, remain willfully blind to the only solution we have left. We can not allow healthcare in America to be created and provided to the masses in the form of 50, disparate states ideas of what health care should be for the sake of state's rights. There is economy of scale which no single state can provide and that a national health care system can provide. It will take the strength of conviction and a common sense of right and wrong and a goodly portion humanity, to break the chains that bind healthcare to the profit-over-life drivers of the for profit health insurance industry. Those drivers have no place in health care. They should never have control, or dictate the course of healthcare in America. The for profit health insurance industry and others like the pharmaceutical industry, are spending billions to ensure they remain in control and that our elected officials remain indifferent to facts, criticism and the plight of those needing actual health care.
Our Constitution guarantees Americans the right to life. That should include the healthcare required to sustain that life. Universal Health Care, Single Payer, Medicare for All, call it what you will, but it's the only solution we have left unless we want to keep getting killed by the for profit health insurance industry, their skyrocketing premiums, and their profit-over-life drivers that continue to be the scourge of healthcare in America.
