Republicans are horrible people.

Shorter GOP: "Our new health care plan: don't get sick."

Well, this is what voters voted for. Or perhaps more accurately, this is what the non-voters and third-party voters essentially said they don't give a shit about.

Everyone should know by now that this is exactly what Trump and the republicans have always wanted to do. And they still got elected. So, the majority of this country is perfectly fine with this.

Elections have consequences. Everyone knew if the republicans and Trump won, the ACA was toast.

@4: No doubt they're taking solace in not having to compromise their principals by voting for a candidate that "didn't inspire them." That doesn't do us adults any good, but maybe they'll learn their lesson by November of 2020.

@6: Rep. Alan Grayson called it 8 years ago. The Republican healthcare plan is: Don't get sick. If you do, die quickly.

Republicans are suuuper into the stuff that Jesus guy said, you guys. And in the Gospel of Prosperity, Jesus said "Take from the sick, give to the rich." Also, in Two Corinthians, he said "I got mine so fuck you."

Who cares about that! The new coolest distraction is wire tapping. C'mon everyone, talk about wire tapping!

#1 In my mid 50s, pre ACA, the only health insurance I could get charged $800 a month for my individual policy.

$800 a month, and when I got really ill, wouldnt cover another $500 a month in treatments I needed.

When it was rsised to $1,000 a month, I took the gamble of using the rest of my savings to pay out of pocket for the treatments I needed and dropped the useless insurance.

I remained uncovered until the ACA, and there's a hospital that had to eat an ambulence ride and emergency room treatment because of that.

If the ACAgoes away, look forward to $1,000 a month premiums older folks.

With inflation and all, Im talking about folks in their 40s.

And hospitals that fold from nonpayment.

That is, if you can get insurance at all: a year before the ACA I had a friend die, basically of a pre existing condition.

Couldnt get insurance, didnt get treatment in time. Died at 40, a single mother leaving behind an adopted orphaned daughter.

But the Koch brothers will get their tax break, so theres that.

@7

Oh, yea, they'll learn their lesson just like centrist lovers will learn theirs. Because the best thing to do in four years is to double down on the same people who cost us this last election. Clinton 2020 and 8 years of Trump.

People who voted for Trump like simple, simplistic answers and explanations. e.g. "If it wasn't for those damn , then we'd all be happy."

So if you find yourself saying things like "If it wasn't for those damn , then we'd all be happy," congratulations, you think just like Trumpsters and can rejoice in his victory.

There were plenty of clusterfucks during the 2016 election. A lot of crazy things had to happen to get us here, and here we are. Griping about one factor out of hundreds of events and decisions is just plain stupid.

Ya know somewhere down in the basement of the capital where the records are kept there is a health care plan that could save the Republicans. All they need to do is pull it out of the file cabinet dust it off change the title page and they'd be good to go with a health care replacement plan. Just stamp a big red Republican "R" on it and never mention her name.

@ 13 (Machiavelli was framed):

Yes, it's called HR 676, "Expanded and Improved Medicare for All," and it would be the biggest kick in the teeth the Republicans could possibly give to Obama, Hillary, and the Democrats.

How many Republicans does it take to screw in a lightbulb?

Republicans don't screw lightbulbs. Republicans only screw the poor.

Can we start using #Republicare ? Time to put them on the hook for this shit stew.

Single Payer is the only option short of medical tourism or marrying a Canadian.

If you are calling your representatives (and I hope some of you are), be sure to ask for Single Payer, not just "save the ACA"

@18 hoping for single payer out of a GOP administration is like expecting benevolence from Pol Pot

@ 19 (The CHZA):

Hoping for single-payer out of a GOP or Democratic administration is like expecting benevolence from Wall Street.

There; fixed that for you.

Your health care system just baffles me. I read though that everybody, left and right, is pissed off about it. Ryan, the mutant, must eventually hear something. And why is Sessions still standing? Didn't he lie to the government.
Sludge, sludge and more sludge.

Just a reminder: Obama had a filibuster-proof Democratic majority in Congress for six months. He had campaigned on national single-payer but once in office he backed a scheme spawned by the Heritage Foundation, piloted by Mitt Romney, and tweaked by a revolving-door Senate aide from Wellpoint (Liz Fowler) -- a scheme that wasn't universal, that wasn't egalitarian, that didn't guarantee actual care, that didn't protect patients from destitution or bankruptcy, that didn't lower medical fees and prices through monopsonistic bargaining, and that actually increased administrative featherbedding. It was the institutionalization and subsidization of the status quo ante with just enough rough edges rounded off to serve as a successful Big Health divide-and-conquer strategy ... and healthcare in the US is still an extortion racket yielding around a trillion dollars a year in pure skim.

We now know that Obama and the DLC/DNC/congressional Democratic Party are some of the most two-faced politicians in history, but it didn't have to be this way. If Obama had risen to the occasion and used the bully pulpit to get Expanded and Improved Medicare for All passed, like Johnson got Medicare and Medicaid passed, it would be untouchable. Instead, we have a gaggle of healthcare Uncle Toms defending a healthcare Jim Crow and thinking they are Martin Luther King, Jr.

Every Democratic politician I've spoken with one-on-one thinks single-payer is great, especially when they want your vote or your money. I'll bet if you spoke one-one-one with every Democrat in Congress (or in the state legislature), a solid majority would tell you that they think it is the best solution but that "everyone else" is against it. Well, unless you're a Big Health lobbyist or packager, in which case they'd tell you straight out that you can count on them to strangle single-payer in the crib. Like Obama and the Democrats did in 2009-2010.

So keep backing the "lesser of evils," guys. I'm sure that next time, they won't snatch the football away at the last minute when you're sprinting forward to kick a conversion. And if they do, it won't be their fault. It will be because everyone else forced them to do it. Simply put, allowing you to score is just politically infeasible.

this should be known as "Don Trump Care" ,or shortened to "Don T care"

@22- " If Obama had risen to the occasion and used the bully pulpit to get Expanded and Improved Medicare for All passed, like Johnson got Medicare and Medicaid passed, it would be untouchable."

I don't think that was possible, for the reasons you describe in the rest of your post.

But I have been bitterly disappointed with Obama for not even trying. He set the bar for initial negotiations too low and thus we got an ACA that sucked for a lot of people. My aunt with a chronic condition was helped by it, I got required to get a health insurance plan with deductibles too high for me to use my health insurance. And that mediocrity cost the Democratic Party the midterm elections.

So I voted Hillary Clinton in the general election because I could see that more of the same was better than what Trump and the GOP were offering, but I didn't like it. And people are way more inclined to show up to vote if they like who and what they are voting for. So if the Democratic Party wants to win any more elections (and you get more lobbyist perks if you win guys) they better start showing up with a real convincing case that they have are really gonna change some shit.

We are in a mess. Unfortunately and generally, American voters are easily fooled into being "one issue voters." This has especially been a problem ever since the anti-abortion (AKA Pro-Life) movement was created to whip up the conservative religious GOP base in order to get them to uncaringly vote for politicians who really were just pushing big corporations'/businesses' economic agendas. Church pastors bought into this cynical plan to get Americans to vote against their political, economic, and social interests because those votes were focused on saving "unborn babies." See Samantha Bee "Full Frontal" The Religious Right: How the Pro-Life movement got started on YouTube:
* Part One: https://youtu.be/-OX3b_r3mf4
* Part Two: https://youtu.be/pPsderlzd6c

Fast forward to the present...

We now have a huge block of American voters who have been led to believe all the happy-horse-s**t that the GOP politicians and DT have told them, no matter evidence to the contrary. It would be hilarious if our health, environment, economy, reputation, the welfare of our most vulnerable citizens, and our nation's "soul" weren't being put at risk by a president who has become the puppet of Steve Bannon, a corporate shill, and a possible Russian puppet. Those who voted for DT closed their eyes to the facts that "illegal immigration" from south of our border is decreasing and, in fact, more of those "illegals" are moving back to their countries than are coming here illegally! By voting for DT, they effectively chose to believe DT and scapegoat Muslims as the enemy of our country. It is human nature for people to believe erroneous information that reinforces/supports their beliefs than to accept facts that conflict with those beliefs. Somewhere along the Way, many conservative Christian voters have come to believe that Christianity is under attack (thanx to Fox News!) by non-Christians and they are willing to believe that Muslims were a danger to them rather than accept that 90% of all US domestic terrorism has been committed by non-Muslims (http://www.globalresearch.ca/non-muslims…
It's lazy thinking at its worst!

Also, hilarious if it weren't so frightening is the almost post-Brexit-vote-like buyers remorse so many people are having because they are realizing that the ACA/Obamacare is better than nothing or than what the GOP is trying to shove down their throats.

Many former Obama voters voted for DT. They wanted to "send a message" to the Dems that they didn't get the magical Utopia that they imagined from an Obama presidency. Never mind that POTUS doesn't equal King or Dictator and is partnered with Judicial and Legislative branches of government and that the GOP in Congress promised to block EACH AND EVERY piece of legislation and judicial nominee that was submitted by Obama. They were "mad as hell and weren't going to take it anymore!"

We are about to take a "time machine" back to the time before there were safety nets for the poor, laws to protect our water and air, worker safety laws, and more. So thank you to the Bernie, third party voters, independents who either stayed home or voted for DT and our current Congress. I want to especially thank those in Kentucky who continue to vote for Mitch McConnell and those in Wisconsin who continue to vote for Paul Ryan.

To those who stayed home on Election Day, voted for 3rd Party nominees, wrote in Bernie's name, or voted for DT: I hope you are happy. Unfortunately those of us who voted for HRC have to live with your egregious error in judgment.

@22 - Ugh, no. Obama did NOT have a filibuster-proof majority for six months.

He had it for two months and it included Blue Dog Democrats who refused to go along with a sensible plan that might have deprived insurance companies of profits.

Al Franken wasn't sworn in as a Senator until June 30, 2009 because Norm Coleman dragged his heels and refused to concede and demanded recounts until the MN Supreme Court finally told him to STFU. So there were only 59 Senators during that period. And meanwhile, Ted Kennedy was very sick, wasn't at the Senate a lot, and ended up dying on August 24, less than two months after Franken was sworn in. A Democrat was temporarily appointed to replace Kennedy a month later (Sept 24) but then Scott Brown took the seat in a special election. There probably weren't many days with 60 Democrats present. In fact, to be specific because Wikipedia breaks it down BY DAY, including 2 independents that caucused with the Democrats and Arlen Specter who switched parties to be a Dem on April 28, and a protracted dispute over seating Obama's replacement from Illinois, there were in the Democratic Caucus:

Jan 3 - Jan 14: 57 in Dem Caucus
Jan 15 - Jan 19: 58
Jan 20 - Jan 25: 57
Jan 26 - Apr 29: 58
Apr 30 - Jul 6: 59
Jul 7 - Aug 24: 60! Woo hoo, filibuster proof
Aug 25 - Sep 24: 59
Sep 25 - Feb 3, 2010: 60!

And after Feb 4, 2010, whe. Scott Brown was sworn in, it was 59 or lower (58 for stretches).

And those included Ben Nelson who demanded, among other things, an increased Medicaid kickback that only applied to Nebraska, and Joe Lieberman (one of the indies) who vowed to block anything that included any sort of public option.

Blaming it on a lack of "leadership" is such a bullshit excuse. It's a nebulous, unprovable concept that is unchallengeable simply because it can't be demonstrated one way or the orbiter. Now, I won't disagree that Obama was rather hands-off with Congress. But there were never 60 votes for anything but the most cautious approach. And the Democratic Caucus only had 60 votes, including some REALLY conservative ones, for about four months.

I would love single payer, Medicaid for all, and MAYBE if the GOP totally makes a hash of their ACA "reform" there will finally be critical mass for it in 2018. But it was never going to happen in 2009.

And yes, @21, I imagine most Americans like myself agree with you. Our health care system is crazy. It was state of the art a century ago when American labor unions pioneered getting employers to pay for health care. But the very idea of tying health care to employment is backwards.

@20
He [Obama] had campaigned on national single-payer but once in office he backed a scheme spawned by the Heritage Foundation,

Bullshit. He campaigned on exactly what he delivered, which was a system originally proposed by Nixon. Obama said (just to paraphrase) that if was starting from scratch he would have single payer, but now, given the fact that so many have insurance already, he doesn't support it.

So yeah, if you are disappointed that Obama was too much of a centrist, join the club. But anyone paying attention knew that he was. He wanted to appeal to moderates, and felt like the way to do that was to allow people to retain their current insurance, instead of supplanting it with Medicare.

But that was way down on his lists of mistakes. The biggest failure of the Obama administration was to be concerned about a federal deficit in the middle of a recession depression. Interest rates were zero. The federal reserve couldn't do anything more, it was up to the federal government to pull the country out of this financial crisis, just as they did back in 1939 (by spending shit loads of money on the war). Standard economic theory say the stimulus needed to be huge. But instead of doing that, Obama took baby steps, figuring he could always spend more money later. He didn't realize that the Republicans didn't give a shit about the economy, as long as they could blame it on the Democrats. Next thing you know, your average Joe thinks that Obama (not Bush) bailed out the banks, and this fucked up economy is the fault of the Democrats. Oh, and we didn't get nearly the political, economic or social benefit of a really big stimulus, while the current President is busy trying to build a wartime economy based on locking up people of color. Oops.