Healthcare costs inflated at over 300% since the 1980's and the quasi-regulated system we had before was completely broken. The government could not afford to keep pitching in 5-6% of GDP annually on top of consumers throwing in 9-10% annually towards healthcare. I've heard all these Republicans say that everything was great except the trial lawyers, but our ability to get insane amounts of coverage subsidized by the government and making millions out of government regulatory arbitrageurs like physicans, hospitals and surgery centers. Everyone needs to get called out on the colossal failure that is healthcare in America. Its been great the last decade as most people get the best treatment in the world and the government subsidizes the difference...that is unsustainable and creative thinkers are needed to disrupt the norm and change every facet of the system of healthcare in the US.
No politician was happy with the status quo. Both sides introduced bills to solve the problem. You are arguing with nobody. What Republican politician was happy with the previous state of the healthcare industry? 5 million people just received cancellations of their health insurance and only one party tried to stop it. They took a political beating for it too. No, the blame is not equal. That's an Obama supporter trying to do some mental gymnastics to justify his bad decisions. The failures of Obamacare go squarely on Obama and Obama supporters shoulders. Live with it and learn from your mistakes.
Firstoff I am not an Obama supporter, i'm saying the Republicans didn't say a damn thing when George Bush encacted the Medicare Prescription Drug Benefit. They don't stand for anything except their own power just like the Democrats. The quasi-regulated systems are garbage in any area. Healthcare prices have inflated by 300%, Education prices have inflated by even more! Both these are quasi-regulated agencies. I'm a free market believer, but even a single payor system is better than this quasi-regulated garbage that we have where the only one's that win are overpaid doctors, surgical facilities and others that leech off of the fact that no one knows what they pay for healthcare. If they had to pay cash for a procedure, prices would drop in a heartbeat. That will never happen in this country at this rate so might as well have the government run it all in a crappy way and end up like European healthcare and those with money can go elsewhere to pay cash for high quality services.
The last time Democrats had full control of government, they attempted to deal with this problem (HillaryCare) and failed. Republicans controlled all branches of government for 6 years from 2000-2006 and did nothing at all. Democrats came back to power and immediately tried to deal with this problem again. Let's stop pretending the modern GOP has ever been serious about dealing with healthcare - the only time they've proposed anything is when they knew it couldn't pass. And their proposals have been crap that didn't address any of the issues anyway (affordability, accessibility, long-term cost curve).
Of course people were satisfied. The problem is that the US government was subsidizing the healthcare of the entire nation. Regulations limited the supply of physicians, increasing their pay and facilities made fortunes off of the government. Just go to the Ghetto and you'll see that there is a dental clinic on every corner. Why? Because the CHIP Program under medicaid pays up to $1200 a year for all children and these dentists charge the max on every kid whether needed or not. The government was spending 6% of US GDP to subsidize medicine in this country. That is far from capitalist and in any way bringing price down and quality up to the consumer. Which is what true entrepreneurs do, which you should know as Commodore stood for Cornelius Vanderbilt who first profited from breaking a government monopoly on boats in the Hudson and brought down prices to consumers. Eating at Ruth's Chris for McDonalds prices because the government is paying the difference is not sustainable.
The GOP's big backers of the medical corporations, physicians groups and pharma was happy to have the government subsidize their wallets. Just as the Dem's will allow the Trial Lawyers to viciously inflate prices or allow government subsidized coverage to big labor's workers. Either way someone is sucking dollars out of the government when they shouldn't be involved with healthcare anyway.
I don't agree with Obamacare, all I am saying here is the Republicans held firm with the status quo which was bankrupting this country and got on the bandwagon with Medicare Prescription Programs. They're finally up in arms when the democrats create their (albeit severely flawed in my opinion) solution and then finally putting up alternatives. Both parties suck. The system in place is just a failure as everyone is just running for election all the time and focused on short-term measures and no one gives a damn about anything beyond the next election cycle. Short-term incentives = Failed systems.
That must have been 80% of the people who had health care. Also, they probably never had a health crisis to see what actually happened when they needed to use it.
ACA is not the best idea for fixing health care in this country. That's for sure. Three better options were single payer and a public option. Republicans and a few weak minded Democrats killed those ideas. Both of them would have been better than what we have now. But the ACA is better than what we had during the Republican controlled days of our nation's recent history. Contrary to what Doc Tal has said, the Republicans don't really offer any realistic alternatives. The Republicans aren't offering any fixes at all. They do want the status quo or something that is even more in favor of insurance companies, and more exclusionary in it's practice.
Having the government run 15% of the economy is not a way to a beneficial or efficient product. Look at any industry that had little regulation and lots of competition and prices came down and service and quality rose. The automobile industry, the smartphone industry and the restaurant industry...in all three consumers have the ability to choose where they spend their money so the quality and cost continue to strive for better. Wall Street votes mainly democrat, because many industries benefit from government decisions and the inefficiencies they can profit off of. But I actually think a Singe Payer system would be better than quasi-regulated systems frought with goofy inefficiencies. Then it would lead to more normalized but much lower quality healthcare and a system like in Europe that if you don't respond to certain therapy's then no more testing for you. People then could go to high quality cash only places for special services that were outside the system if they could afford it.
All 3 of the examples you mentioned are very heavily regulated. Automobile have regulations on safety, gas mileage, emissions, etc. Restaurants have regulations on health standards, food quality, how many restrooms they require, liquor license etc. Smart phone companies have actual app regulations and licensing dealing with all sorts of operating systems intellectual properties etc. Though I think smart phones probably have the least amount of regulations of the three. Also in terms of health care, govt. run Medicare has a higher customer satisfaction rate than the insurance companies that are subject the to the competitive market.
