Latest on the Republicans' war against health care

Americans pay more than twice what the UK does for health care:

Half the country votes for a political party who purposefully makes the government not work for them. They actually think that a free market is the best model for a product that people can literally not live without. They simply don't understand when markets work and when they don't.

Precisely. California played around with a free market for electricity and people had their rates skyrocket, with Enron leading the way. They quickly changed back to a government controlled market. As far as I know, utility prices are government controlled across the US, and for good reason. Imagine electricity companies being able to charge whatever they wanted during extremes of heat and cold. The same applies to health care, and even more so. There is simply no incentive for health care providers to lower their costs because people will pay whatever they charge.

"Socialism is a range of economic and social systems characterised by social ownership and democratic control of the means of production . . ."
Socialism - WikipediaIt is socialism, by its very definition. Sadly, insults is all you have.

The problem Republicans are facing is that their effort to repeal the ACA was never about helping Americans get affordable health care. It has always been about politics, an effort to block Obama at every turn and remove any trace of his legacy. I think they are coming to realize that messing with Medicaid impacts a lot of their supporters.

You are correct that you don't understand a lot about the economic side of things. Obamacare did not set prices for health insurance. That would be the health insurance companies. What Obamacare did was provide subsidies so that people never paid above a certain percentage of their income on premiums. Without Obamacare, they would have been paying more for the same insurance. They are far worse. Republicans want to allow insurance companies to sell bad insurance to healthy people so that their premiums are lower. These plans will hardly cover anything, so it is a bit laughable to call it insurance to begin with. What this does is take healthy people out of the risk pools and leaves a much higher percentage of sick people. This will cause premiums to skyrocket. On top of that, they want to take away some of those subsidies so not only will premiums skyrocket for sick people but they will be getting less assistance as well.That doesn't even get to their plan to gut Medicaid which is the largest health care provider in the country.

I have to agree with Bernie on this one. Medicare for everyone is the best current solution. For people under 55 it could cover less and have people make up the difference with privately purchased supplemental insurance. For those 55 and older it could cover almost everything.Health care costs are not going to go down until patients band together. As of now, there is simply no incentive for health care providers to lower costs. One of the largest not for profit (lol) hospitals where I live is on a huge spending binge on new facilities because their charter does not allow them to carry over profits from year to year. Even the non-profits can't figure out that maybe they should lower what they charge instead of building brand new shiny buildings every 6 months.One of the main reasons that every other 1st world nation pays half of what the US does is that the government regulates the price. That is really the only way it is going to work in the US as well. Health care is a complete free market failure.

First off, current eligibility for Medicare is 65 (with a few exceptions), so I would like to see that go down to 55. This would cover a lot more people with chronic conditions.I would also like to see a "watered down" version of Medicare that is available to everyone under 55. All citizens and legal residents with a work visa would be eligible. This would be more along the lines of a catastrophic health insurance that wouldn't have caps, would have a high deductible but cover almost all expenses above that deductible, and would also cover preventative care such as colonoscopies (which I think is one of the best programs in the ACA). This would leave room for supplementary insurance that would cover the high deductible and possibly other benefits (dental, eye) not covered in the watered down Medicare for all version.Perhaps this is a terrible idea, but it seems workable, at least to me. What we can't have is a hard working father who gets sick and has to choose between bankrupting his family or getting life saving medical treatments. That is just immoral.

Agreed. They should at least be pitching a bill that would fix the ACA as it stands now. Once that is done, they could start pitching something like a public option for health insurance, which was supposed to be part of the original ACA.

They have now shown that they can't agree on a plan for a replacement which completely undercuts the idea that they can repeal now and replace later. It is like a little kid who overturns his bicycle even when the training wheels are on, and then expecting him to ride perfectly when the training wheels are removed.You also have to look at what measures Republicans can even agree on within their own caucus. Do they have 50 votes for massive cutbacks in Medicaid, reduction in subsidies for insurance premiums, removal of protections for pre-existing conditions, subsidies for insurance companies, or requirements for coverage? I don't think they do.I think they know that the "conservative" approach will boot people off of insurance, especially those that need it the most.

The same thought struck me as well. Trump might as well claim that he isn't going to protect Americans from ISIS because Obama caused all of that mess, and that he won't own it if Americans are killed by ISIS. It's the same logic. Trump has also tried the same thing with the economy, claiming that he inherited a "mess" (even though he didn't).If there were a Trump Dictionary you wouldn't find the word "accountability" anywhere in it.

The sad thing is that Trump apparently doesn't know what health insurance is, or how it works:"So pre-existing conditions are a tough deal. Because you are basically saying from the moment the insurance, you’re 21 years old, you start working and you’re paying $12 a year for insurance, and by the time you’re 70, you get a nice plan. Here’s something where you walk up and say, I want my insurance. It’s a very tough deal, but it is something that we’re doing a good job of."
Does Donald Trump Know What Health Insurance Is?: An Investigation | Vanity FairTrump thinks health insurance costs 12 bucks a year, and that you cash it in like life insurance. No joke.

It is out of touch with their own rhetoric. They claim that they have to repeal Obamacare because it is failing, as defined by the lack of providers in many areas. Their solution? Get rid of regulations, mandates, and subsidies that prop up those markets which only ensures that they will fail. Their solution is to make it worse. Trump has yet to figure out that making deals to enrich himself is not the same as making deals that improve the lives of Americans.

If memory serves, this was going to be McCain's last term anyway. The Furor may regret saying that McCain was not a war hero.