Is it failure of big government or failure of the marketplace?

[kentuck]

Republicans are calling the ACA a failure. They say that big government can do nothing right. They tend to forget about Civil Rights Act, Social Security, or putting a man on the Moon.

Yesterday, President Obama admitted to the Wall St Journal that the ACA was created and modeled for the competition of the marketplace. In fact, it was modeled after the plan created by the conservative Heritage Foundation.

Is it fair to blame the so-called "failure" on big government? Or is it that the marketplace has never been fair or equitable and there will always be "losers" in any marketplace solutions?

[Johonny]

1. Instead of the government agency programming a website you contract it out in the "free" market

When the company does a bad job you blame the government because the free market would have done it better. But the free market made the website. When you set up rules for insurance and private insurance companies cancel your policy because it doesn't conform to rules people blame the government. Who can save the situation says the Republican but the private insurance companies that are (and have been for ever) cancelling policies.This is how Republicans think. The ACA sets up rules and regulation on how health insurance is going to be handled in the country. It sets up a series of market exchanges to control the flow of insurance and to try and get more people into programs aimed at insuring them. It is supposed to build more trust in the market place and thus increase market place participation. If the government does this it is WRONG. But of course companies set up their own exchanges from time to time to self regulate, increase access and trust in the market. For example there is this thing called the New York Stock Exchange. Do Republicans want to shutdown all the stock exchanges in the US because it is some sort of alien socialist thing? No. Basically as usual conservatives don't know what they even like to offer any constructive criticism of their own programs they thought of.

[deutsey]

2. I was marginally involved with the pilot-testing of the exchanges

The whole thing seemed unnecessarily convoluted to me and I couldn't see how a market-driven model could work.

I thought at the time maybe I was missing something or that it was too complex for me to understand.

I figured I was just a dumb editor...

[cilla4progress]

4. Convoluted - the word of the hour

That's what I was jsut thinking; the whole damn thing is just too complex and confusing to understand.

Whenever one is trying to put a square peg into a round hole, this is what happens.

In fact, I contend, you can tell in development when you are swimming against the current and the model won't work.

It's awfully clear, in hindsight.

Medicare for all would have been so much better, and simpler. I do hold Obama accountable for trusting the industry and taking single payer off the table from the get-go.

[kentuck]

6. I am still having difficulty...

...with a market-driven "government" program.

[randome]

3. No entity on Earth wastes more money or swims in greater bureaucracy than a large corporation.

It is a lie to contend that private enterprise is always more efficient. A lie promoted by those who have never worked for a large corporation.

ACA's problems -not failures- are the result of trying to get a massive health care renovation done 'on the cheap'.

Which leads, as it always does, to the failure of Republicans to do anything more than pay lip service to the needs of American citizens.
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[Laelth]

5. +1. n/t

-Laelth