Ice Man wrote:moorhosj wrote: Pre-existing conditions is the perfect example, no politician will come out against it, it is here to stay, but Democrats have paid a heavy political price for being "right".
Bill Clinton spent his 1992 political capital on health care, with nothing to show for it and a big Republican victory in the '94 midterms. Barack Obama spent his 2008 political capital on health care, getting the ACA passed, but leading to a big Republican victory in 2010. History suggests that Democrats benefit from talking about health care, but pay a heavy price when attempting to put their words into actions.
Well, like every other policy issue in America, everything is so mangled between the profit-margins of various industries and lobbyists, it's hard to convince the confused American what's best for them.
Most people have come around to acknowledging that Pizza Hut, Popeyes, and McDonalds aren't good for you, but they've also doubled down that they don't care. And the rest have grown convinced that if it's "organic" or vegan, it's healthy (when really it's still sugary or starchy). Fact is the average American food and drink has a high back-door cost (health care), and IMO it's fairly apparent that they want to keep that burden on American citizens and the current medical/pharma/insurance entanglement, while also exploiting much of the developing world with their Kraft, Nestle and Coca Cola food banks.
Fixing US health care is a 2-fold process that won't happen. The economy runs on people's poor health. It really does.
Navigating pre-existing conditions without another plan in place is pure talk and nonsense. Republicans would just shift the definition of 'pre-existing condition,' and insurance companies would create a new term for chronic symptoms; something more clever, that would separate the healthy (who aren't a medical-cost burden) and the unhealthy, who are a burden. They just need to think-tank up a new term, one that congers more fear about your dangerous neighbor's tax bill.
We could vote Bernie Sanders in, AOC could become Speaker of the House in some weird accident, and I bet you with a slim majority, a Democratic Senate
still wouldn't pass an ideal health care plan. For poor communities in the United States, the fanciest store fronts in the neighborhood are dialysis care centers. And they're subsidized by taxes. We're already paying for the costs of this health care, but the point is that food and medical corporations want no part of that bill. They want tax payers and American individuals paying it.
We the tax payers and American patients are already getting hosed left and right by these back-door costs. Politicians are just trying as hard as possible to hide their gigantic back-door pay-cuts and industry mistresses.
ACA was the feasible idea. The mandate on insurance is such a funny thing to worry about, considering the premise that US health care is totally unaffordable if uninsured. I don't get why we aren't allowed to drive cars without insurance, but owning guns, selling Hostess cakes and soft drinks, all this **** is celebrated and made as cheap as possible.
If Biden can squeeze in some form of a public option and expand the tax-credits, and meanwhile push back the food and pharm lobbyists, it'd be a win. The fact that it was so hard for the Trump/McConnell tandem to "repeal" the ACA, and basically had to keep appointing judges and take it courts to mangle it down, means the bill wasn't so bad after all. Of course there were a lot of bad compromises and things didn't work out as hoped, but I'd love if the Biden admin was able to get back some leverage.
It's hard though, because 71m feel attacked when you suggest TGI Friday's is anti-American.
