= new reply since forum marked as read
Last edited Sun Mar 3, 2019, 06:39 PM - Edit history (1)
of course they are trying to delay cuts in profits also. But they know the ACA should be built on, not trashed.
It's amazing for a first stage, an impregnable fortress the Republicans couldn't keep from working for those they didn't knock off, and it'd work far better than "reasonable" if it hadn't undergone every possible sabotage the Republicans could attack it with. AND if we were now 2 years into the next stage of development, as we should be. Considering the Repubs wouldn't allow even one tweak after the roll-out, the ACA turned out to be extremely well written with the cooperation of all the industries that have to work with it. No wonder they want to keep it and build on it, rather than throw all the cards in the air and start again.
The intense interconnectedness that makes it work well, that "entrenched," was a huge part of why the Republicans were unable to just repeal it. It's woven into the systems of every involved industry, and vice versa. Just for instance, there are a pack of laws governing thousands of new high standards and procedures, and there are people at many levels who monitor them. The same for special computer programs and so on. It took years to develop and train everyone.
There's, insidiously, something more to this continued attempt to destroy the ACA than replacing it with the better that Trump promised. Republicans on the right, and sadly a few of the dissidents on the left, want national healthcare but are insist on erasing Obama's legacy. They hate our first black president's having credit for their national healthcare.
So others really need to realize where a very large part of the demand for trash & replace of the ACA is really coming from. It literally couldn't have grown this big without the anti-Obamacare energy of those who'd prefer to destroy it before they'd allow it to continue without "repeal."
No matter what happens, though, the next upgrade to our national healthcare system will be an incremental advance on Obamacare, even if his name is erased as much as possible from it. But shouldn't we refuse them that victory and of course refuse to make this next increment hugely unnecessarily messy? All these industries think so.
I'm actually pretty sure that most of our senatorial presidential candidates who've endorsed a new name intend just that -- to USE the energy of this bipartisan demand to wrap a new name and big, enabled changes around a huge core of Obamacare. They're too sensible for anything else. But our Democrats have to actually get to that point to avoid the very unnecessary massive disruption too many are insisting on creating through destruction right now.
Btw, I spoke of Obama because his name's on it, but the ACA is one of the greatest life achievements, for some the greatest, of many of our Democrats in office, including Nancy Pelosi. Nancy is the single person most responsible for keeping it from passing in a weak, watered-down form. She fought like the powerhouse she is for every provision. She was going to retire in 2016 but stayed in congress mainly to protect the ACA. She'll sacrifice the name of Obama's ACA if needed, but don't imagine she's just going to trash Obamacare itself. It will live on as part of whatever comes next.
This is from that article:
The lobbyists’ message is simple: The Affordable Care Act is working reasonably well and should be improved, not repealed by Republicans or replaced by Democrats with a big new public program.
And this is Speaker Boehner showing a printed-out copy of the Obama administration's ACA as reason why it SHOULDN'T be passed.
