https://www.cnn.com/2017/02/27/politics/trump-health-care-complicated

https://www.scribd.com/document/1041758712/The-DNC-Autopsy-of-2024-the-DNC-Didn-t-Want-You-To-See#from_embed

I understand that, but that has nothing to do with Obamacare. If Obamacare wasn’t passed those prices would have gone up exactly the same (actually more).

I’m not saying that costs didn’t increase. But those costs were increasing before Obamacare and stayed at a steady rate of increase after Obamacare. Yeah, the system sucks. Obamacare made it suck less for some people like my partner who survived childhood leukemia who can’t have a “pre-existing condition” held against them. More than 50 million people have been covered by the ACA since 2024 with more than 24 million currently enrolled as of 2025. Many of those are people making less than 150% of the federal poverty level.

And that’s your choice. But you could still go to the ER for stuff, get treated, and then refuse to pay. Which leaves the state holding the bill. Which is why everyone needs to pay something.

No, sorry, you don’t get to say your claims are well documented without providing evidence and then demand I provide evidence in the same sentence.

Also, realize that universal health insurance doesn’t equate to no private for-profit insurance companies or that there is a single-payer. For example Germany has a multi-payer model with both private nonprofit and public for-profit insurance options. IIRC Japan is privately owned nonprofit with single payer. And Italy is single payer with a sort of hybrid public/private delivery structure. Shit is complicated.

That’s one way to get rid of Ted Cruz.

I hope you are right that the right splits and fights amongst themselves. That would genuinely allow Democrats the space to move to the left.

I don’t care about out of pocket expenses when my premiums went from…

You have to care about out of pocket expenses. If you pay less in premiums but then more in out of pocket, the you aren’t really paying less, are you? You personally might have ended up paying more, but as a population people paid less.

You can just pay the fee for not having insurance (which hasn’t existed in 7 years) so you aren’t forced to buy from a for-profit company anyway.

The ACA, Romneycare and the heritage plan are all about not providing any safety for the citizens but ensuring the health insurance industry is taken care of at the expense of the citizens.

You are entitled to this opinion but it doesn’t make it fact.

Just because you don’t agree with what I am saying doesn’t mean I am deflecting. Bush wrecked things with No Child Left Behind and Obama fixed a lot of things with ESSA. Did he fix everything? No, because that’s not a realistic expectation. NCLB didn’t cause all the problems of the education system either. Expecting one bill to fix everything is absurd.

Biden rejoined the Paris Climate Agreement after Trump left it. Biden expanded the ACA, raising coverage and lowering prices, after Trump weakened it. Biden reversed Trump’s withdrawal from the WHO. Biden ended travel restriction enacted by Trump on Muslim countries. Hell, pretty much all of Biden’s presidency was undoing what the Republicans did.

If they didn’t compromise, being gay or trans would be illegal, abortion would be banned nationally, and only white Christian men would vote.

You are conflating the cost of healthcare with healthcare premiums.

“While health care costs have continued to increase since President Obama signed the Affordable Care Act into law in 2010, they’ve done so at a slower rate than in the years before the law was passed.”

https://econofact.org/factbrief/fact-check-have-healthcare-costs-risen-faster-since-the-affordable-care-act-was-passed

That’s the point I’ve been trying to drive home. Their methods are not working, continuing to go down that same path over and over and getting the same result isn’t “doing” something

I’m not ready to say that the methods aren’t working. Kilmar Abrego Garcia is back in the US a free man. Alligator Alcatraz is being closed. ICE hasn’t come close to their deportation goals and they were largely blocked from their operations in major cities. Virginia redistricting by the GOP was blocked, but California redistricting by Dems passed. All probably indicates that Republicans will lose control of the House in the midterms.

Yeah, it’s a new horror every day. But there is so much that has been stopped or mitigated. Between Iran and the economy, the right is losing power fast.

I know. I’m prepared, are you?

I don’t think anyone is prepared. Are you prepared for nukes landing on US cities? Are you prepared to kill your neighbor? Are you prepared to eat your pet? Do you know how to amputate a limb without anesthesia? Do you have a stockpile of seeds and antibiotics for when the supply lines collapse? What is your defense plan for drone bombs?

A second civil war would be worse than we can imagine. I want to do everything possible to avoid it.

You are mistaking Schumer for Graham. The idea of Schumer as a warmonger is just bizarre.

I know parties don’t come from nowhere. That is why I think it is far more likely that one or both of the parties would split rather than a third party comes in from the sidelines. The Green party? Come on, seriously. The Libertarian party is more popular and they are ridiculous.

The best to all of that is Democrats generally operate on good faith and Republicans don’t. It is easy to hold your ground if you don’t care who it hurts.

Imagine looking past Lindsay Graham or Pete Hegseth and settling on Church Schumer as the real bloodthirsty warmonger. Delusional.

First of all, the price increases of healthcare were rising at exactly the same rate before and after Obamacare so that has nothing to do with the rate increases. Second, there are all sorts of exemptions like if you make less than 150% of the federal poverty level or if the marketplace plan would cost more than 8% of your household income. That means unless you were making $120k a year (which would mean you could definitely afford $800 a month insurance) you would be exempted from the penalty. Basically, if you paid the penalty it’s because you fucked up.