I am a little tired with both the sophistry on the part of major Democratic party operatives, as well as a failure to communicate and make good proposals from Republicans. This is regarding the "repeal and replace" movement for the Affordable Care Act (ACA, Obamacare).
The Democrats have occupied, as is there wont, the presumptive moral high ground by saying that the Republicans are seeking to serve billionaires and millionaires. They also say that 20 million people could lose their healthcare.
There are several issues with the ACA but the biggest issue is that it is not working well in many markets, premiums have been driven up by 20 percent or more, and in about 2 percent of counties nationwide no plan is available. The insurers are losing money by providing an ACA plan.
The second most important issue is that the ACA is unfair because it divides people into three categories (1) those that lose or gain nothing, such as employees at private companies, (2) those that gain very substantially via subsidies, and (3) those that are forced to pay through the nose. Specifically, I have an engineer colleague who is paying $1800 a month for a bronze plan in Silicon Valley for himself and his wife. This amounts to an income transfer on a large scale, a little like Venezuela.
The third most important issue is that the individual and employer mandates that were the basis of the ACA are not being applied. For example, I have a friend in his 40s that pleas a hardship exemption. If he gets sick, he will of course be eligible for care.
The Democrats are trying to avoid these issues, which are facts not opinion, by proposing single payer health care. I'm sorry but there's a bug in the program you wrote so please don't ask me to pay for another one.
It's significant to note that Romney care, the system that was passed in Massachussetts did not have these problems. I personally would much prefer a state by state or province by province solution as was used in Canada.
I believe both parties, Republican and Democrat need to agree on the issues, and on what is needed in terms of generalized health care. It is Catholic doctrine that all should have access to health care but the means is a political problem.
I think we need to focus more on making individuals responsible for their own freedom, in their use and abuse of their bodies. I think physicians have to have a preventive rather than just a healing role. I think that solutions such as Health Savings Accounts are to be looked into. I think it is good to ask ourselves what we need to do to control the costs of health care, for example by having health insurance co-operatives. The HMOs were supposed to play this role but it does not seem to be working very well. I do think that in medicine money plays an inordinate role. My cousin once removed in Scotland is going to be a doctor and he will have a very good salary in a system that some eschew as "socialized medicine."
Let's stop arguing and try to be creative. I think the parties need to come together to address these issues in a non partisan way rather than play to their basis which is what is happening presently,.
