....just as Medicare Part D was a sell out to the insurance industry and big pharma. The ACA was much less of a sell out than Medicare Part D which was passed by a Republican Congress in the middle of the night with a lot of arm twisting, several votes, and signed into law by a Republican President. It's how our government works, and it reflects the power of lobbyists groups. Lobbyists have often been referred to as the fourth branch of government. If Republicans want to get something through congress, even though Republicans have the majorities, they will need the approval of lobbyist groups too in order to get anything through congress. Since ACA has only been active for a few years so it's a little early to be accessing quality improvements. It takes time, and there just hasn't been enough time to make those kinds of determinations. But what we do know, is the rate of healthcare cost increases have slowed dramatically.
Yes comrade, we have your number, only Comrade Putin is to be believed. Never mind all that evidence crap, you only need whatever Comrade Putin gives you and you only need to believe and do whatever Comrade Putin tells you.
So, I guess you missed the whole Great Depression thingy. Where have you been for the last 8 years....living in Eagle, Alaska? You missed Obama's finding and killing of Bin Laden. You missed all the millions of jobs which have been added to the economy, and you have missed all the economic growth which has occurred under President Obama's watch. You missed the ending of the 2 botched wars he inherited from his Republican predecessor. And you missed the middle class tax cuts Obama was able to get through a Republican Congress. That's a hard one to miss. It reduced the taxes paid by every American wage earner. You didn't notice that? It was part of Obama's stimulus program. The bank bailout was actually the work of Obama's Republican predecessor. That occurred under Baby Bush's watch. It was the right thing to do, but that was Baby Bush's doing. Obamacare was a pretty big thing, and as a result millions of Americans now have access to affordable healthcare. That's a very big achievement in and of itself. American presidents for more than a century have been trying to get universally affordable healthcare passed through Congress and only one was successful, and that one person was President Obama. That's no small thing. Tell me what do you remember of Obama's Republican predecessor?
From Newsweek in 2015: "Since the policy took effect in September 2010 it is estimated that an additional 76 million people now receive preventive care." (i.e. they don't wait until they are really sick to see a doctor.) "practices are often required to offer extended hours for their patients on evenings and weekends" (i.e. more times available) "New payment models in the ACA, such as accountable care organizations promote team-based care. There is growing evidence that shows providing care in a team can lead to higher quality care and better health outcomes for patients."
The ACA was a massive sellout to the insurance industry - as it was designed to be, by the American Heritage Foundation, its original authors. It did, however, significantly improve the quality of health care delivered to the American people - the situation it replaced was that bad. And had it not been damaged by Republican Congress vandalism tactics, it would have been of even greater benefit and made even greater improvements (the failures of coverage and recent price increases are entirely due to those damages, for example).
