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Originally Posted by nfotiu
Health care arguments get so illogical that I don't how it could ever get to a good place. There were significant amount of people in her same place who voted against Hillary because they hated that Obamacare forced them to buy health insurance.
The big problem is that 75% of American's have decent enough health insurance (either through their employer, Medicare or Medicaid), where they could end up with a couple thousand in medical bills as a worst case scenario. There's the 25-30% who have to fend for themselves for insurance that are in the crappiest spot. Obamacare helped a lot of those people out, but it also alienated a lot of those people. Most of those people were people who (foolishly, IMO) thought that it was worth the risk to either go with no insurance or very high deductible insurance and now health insurance cost them more.
The political challenge is how do you sell the public on helping the 25% of people who negotiate their own insurance, when that 25% of people even is split on how they should be helped. The contingency plan for a lot of people (whether they consciously recognize it or not) is if something happens, they go to the ER who can't refuse them, and bankrupt their bills. And apparently a lot of people want that right to continue to be able to do that.
I don't know how you'd say it in a politically correct way, but someone needs to stand up and say if you don't agree with an individual mandate, and you have the means to insurance, and you don't have cash to put up front, then you don't get to go to the ER when something bad happens.
If republicans were true to what they believed in, they would agree that having a free ER safety net is not taking personal responsibility.
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Unfortunately that 25% is constantly shifting. It's not the same people at all times and the reality is that percentage is actually larger if you were to open up the time frame from this specific moment in time to the last couple of years.
Someone loses a job and can't afford continuation coverage. They develop or get diagnosed with something when not covered. They get a job and can afford to pay at the same level they were, but all of a sudden they have a pre-existing condition when not under active coverage. The price goes up and they can no longer afford the same level of coverage.
And that's sort of what happens to many people...a steady erosion of coverage effectiveness through little, if any, fault of their own. No amount of tax credits or HSA accounts is going to fix that. Only one thing fixes that but they are so scared of doing it in case they piss off their friends in the insurance game.
At some point the selfishness has to end and people are going to say to themselves "you know what? It DOES matter that my next door neighbour has access to the care they need. It's better for society" Now Americans are about 70 years behind on this realization but it's coming. The younger generation skew to this belief significantly and I can't help but think the backslide to outright stupidity the GOP is going to pass might just be the kick in the ass a bunch of the population needs to understand what the actual solution is.
It won't be a perfect solution...it never is but it will be a much better place to start from.