You can play this game all you want Thom, and yes Republicans are for austerity on the local level even more than many Democrats are, but the bottom line is it is the Democrats who were our only hope for a national health care system and Obama scapegoated Joe Liberman as he openly decried the publlic option and Democrats campaigned again…
You can play this game all you want Thom, and yes Republicans are for austerity on the local level even more than many Democrats are, but the bottom line is it is the Democrats who were our only hope for a national health care system and Obama scapegoated Joe Liberman as he openly decried the publlic option and Democrats campaigned against Medicare for All (and continue to do so). Since the implementation of the Affordable Care Act we have seen the uninsured and underinsured skyrocket to over 80 million Americans, 20% of Americans in collections for medical debt, less than 50% of physicians now in private practice, an estimated 100,000 deaths per year due to lack of access to medical care, 400,000 deaths per year due to medical errors, and a 200% rise in the use of nurse practitioners and physicians assistants as first line encounters with patients. I could go on, and yes Republicans are partially to blame on the local level, but if Democrats and their media would not have been lying against Medicare for All over the past eight years (Biden and Hillary Clinton included) we might be in a different place. I will add that president Obama did not exactly use his bully pulpit for anything apart from what the health care lobby would allow him to put in the conservative health care plan that he passed which put for profit conglomerates squarely in charge of our collective well-being.
I too was disappointed when the public option was shut down. But I think, at the time, they felt that was the only way to get anything through. I agree with you though--some kind of universal healthcare needs to be implemented.
One thing I've learned about the ACA since 2020, is that it included enabling language that has since created new efforts to privatize Medicare. Under Trump the effort was abbreviated as DCE. Since Biden was elected, the protests against DCE resulted in a revised version called REACH: https://nwcitizen.com/entry/medicare-direct-contracting-scam-renamed-aco-reach
You can play this game all you want Thom, and yes Republicans are for austerity on the local level even more than many Democrats are, but the bottom line is it is the Democrats who were our only hope for a national health care system and Obama scapegoated Joe Liberman as he openly decried the publlic option and Democrats campaigned against Medicare for All (and continue to do so). Since the implementation of the Affordable Care Act we have seen the uninsured and underinsured skyrocket to over 80 million Americans, 20% of Americans in collections for medical debt, less than 50% of physicians now in private practice, an estimated 100,000 deaths per year due to lack of access to medical care, 400,000 deaths per year due to medical errors, and a 200% rise in the use of nurse practitioners and physicians assistants as first line encounters with patients. I could go on, and yes Republicans are partially to blame on the local level, but if Democrats and their media would not have been lying against Medicare for All over the past eight years (Biden and Hillary Clinton included) we might be in a different place. I will add that president Obama did not exactly use his bully pulpit for anything apart from what the health care lobby would allow him to put in the conservative health care plan that he passed which put for profit conglomerates squarely in charge of our collective well-being.
I too was disappointed when the public option was shut down. But I think, at the time, they felt that was the only way to get anything through. I agree with you though--some kind of universal healthcare needs to be implemented.
One thing I've learned about the ACA since 2020, is that it included enabling language that has since created new efforts to privatize Medicare. Under Trump the effort was abbreviated as DCE. Since Biden was elected, the protests against DCE resulted in a revised version called REACH: https://nwcitizen.com/entry/medicare-direct-contracting-scam-renamed-aco-reach