I used to be disgusted, and now I try to be amused.

[ThurgreedMarshall]

Originally Posted by sebastian_dangerfield

Actually, given 80% of plans are subsidized, if the premium increases significantly outstrip the new taxes used to cover the subsidies, and the GOP refuses to increase those taxes to adjust for those increases, doesn't that also put pressure on the program?

I honestly do not understand your position. (And to be honest, I haven't really read anything you've written as it relates to healthcare, so maybe that's on me.)

It seems to me that no matter how complicated providing adequate healthcare coverage is, there are a few simple truths.

1. The more people covered, the lower the premiums--this means the most efficient model is probably universal healthcare
2. The fact that we don't have universal healthcare means that insurance companies must make profits in order to provide insurance, which creates incentives for them to fuck as many people as possible--this is why, before the ACA, there were caps and preexisting condition bars, etc.
3. We either decide that we are a society (a Capitalist one at that, which necessarily means there are winners and losers) and provide assistance to those who require it, or we decide we are a libertarian wet dream in which the government provides protection to the rich and infrastructure for their businesses only

Now, maybe you're a libertarian when it comes to healthcare, which means you will continue to be angry that we provide insurance coverage as a society to those who would die in the streets without it. If that's the case, I guess when premiums increase (even if they increase at a lower rate than they did before the ACA was implemented) you will side with Republicans and continue throwing fits because you will have to pay for some of that.

But I really want to understand what you think the right approach is. Because, unless you choose one (universal healthcare) or the other (government completely out of the healthcare "business"), everything in the middle will have problems. The question is, do you have any interest at all in figuring out how to solve those problems or do you just want to bitch about your taxes?

TM