Can we end this stupid fight? For five years the GOP refused to admit the need for affordable, universal health care, some because they were too dumb to understand its necessity, some because they were too callous to admit the need to spend money for this and some because Barak Obama proposed it and they hated him for beating the crap out of them in two elections.
Maybe they should have hated George Bush and Dick Cheney because it’s their legacy that caused them to lose the first one and maybe they should have hated the seven candidates in the clown show they called debates because that’s who caused them to lose the second one. It’s doubtful that Obama could have beaten a solid contender in either election but the GOP just couldn’t come up with one in either.
But back to the subject. The Right has wasted time, money and what little intellectual resources they possess, trying to tank this most necessary piece of legislation. The tried to vote it out almost 50 times and they all predicted over and over that it would fail. Not that the Democrats have been much help either. Many of them too cowardly to follow their consciences, shied away, fearing electoral problems, many of them still do, proving that they are not a whole hell of a lot better than the Republicans in their abandonment of their constituents for what they saw as their own benefit.
They all have been proved wrong. Despite a functionally inept opening, a duplicitous approach to selling it and poor planning the damn thing has struggled to a successful climax actually selling over the eight million, much more than what was needed to make it a success by the deadline and adding another six million or so via Medicare and the under 26 additions to already existing family plans. So almost twice as many people are now covered as originally planned and to add to its success a new poll shows that we are now down to the lowest number of uncovered Americans since 2007, down over 3% since last year to a still unacceptable 15% but finally moving in the right direction.
Even the GOP is now trying to pass legislation aimed at bolstering the plan instead of eliminating it. Course they still can’t keep from lying about it, denying that their latest voice passed piece in the House is not admitting that the ACA is here to stay but only a new way to eliminate it. They are truly pathetic.
The only serious objections to the plan, have been raised by a few thoughtful Republicans, who have questioned the plan’s long-term affordability. This is really the sticking point. Can the plan be made affordable, can we continue to lower rates or will they run, out of control until either the plan costs itself out of reality or becomes too expensive to continue?
The answer to this is, as many have maintained from the very beginning, a single payer system. The insurance companies that wrote a good part of the bill have conveniently written themselves into a large position in it and that position costs between 20% and 30% or more of total costs. Save that much by cutting out the insurance companies commissions and save even more by having a single mechanism handling everyone and you lower the cost of the system to a point where it truly becomes affordable and will be able to be maintained far into the future. Add savings that are even now being found in technology, those that can be made in drug costs and medical malpractice changes in the laws and we could see a truly functional and affordable plan that would seriously help the people of this country, something that our government has not accomplished since the inception of Medicare and Medicaid.
It’s not just time for the Right to understand that Obamacare is an accepted success, it’s time for them to admit it and help it to advance to the position that is necessary for it to become the successful asset of the country that it was designed to be. The nation needs this acceptence from the right. It’s time they stopped their petty political objections and got on the stick, for the sake of their own constituents and all the rest of us.