Capitol Hill Blue Forums Political Issues Politics In General Is it too soon to be talking 2020?

As a matter of fact, yes! Losing a job that supplies health insurance means you can sign up for ACA immediately, and they will put you in the Medicaid system if that was your only income. If you had a two income family, you will probably end up on subsidized ACA. Since I've been retired (and on Medicare) my wife's ACA has been free the first year, and about $80 a month the second. Now that she's on Medicare she has to pay more and get less!

Medicare For All would just be a bit simpler and save about 15% for people with high income who have to pay. It would NOT give everybody free medical coverage. Even Medicare as we have now costs money for people who can afford to pay it, and even more for people with a lot of income.

People say ACA was a crappy bill, but they are evenly divided between Republicans who don't want poor people to get any benefits and Socialists who want free medical care for everybody. Then there are a lot of complaints about the high cost of health care, which is a different problem all together. ACA is a medical insurance access law. Costs are determined between your provider and your insurer.

There is one problem with ACA: It starts at 138% of the poverty line and the bill writers included a generous Medicaid expansion provision that would have the federal government pay most the cost. In some states, the governor has chosen NOT to accept that gift just to screw poor people who work, and to try to sabotage ACA. So Medicaid is free, then there is a gap with no coverage, then ACA is free if you earn enough to qualify.

But that's on your governor and the fools who vote for them. Feel free to recall him or vote for a governor who isn't so petty and vindictive. Many Republican governors have accepted Medicaid expansion.

I would suggest you take a look at the job corps that they had in the great depression. They did EVERYTHING, built roads, painted pictures in post offices, etc. They were paid a living wage.

The alternative is to have millions of unemployed on the streets ripping everything to pieces. We are getting very close to that right now. its going to take a long time for all the jobs to come back. Google "great depression ccc"

the Republicans wrote half of ACA not the whole thing. It was unpopular because, back then, just as now, people were determined to believe the worst due to also believing all the crap that the Republicans threw at it. Basically, just like now. When the Republican started dismantling it THEN they realized that they had been had and wanted it.

Sometimes our problems are self made and, unlike Trump, we get to pay the price for that.

2016 - 2018, Republicans had the chance to improve ACA. They couldn't! All the defects they tried to convince everyone about turned out to not be real. Trump finally just gave up and said: "Who knew it could be so complex?"

All the experts, that's who.

Shame the Democrats didn't listen to the experts when they wrote it.

Although they didn't actually write it at all...it was formerly known as Romneycare but then they let the Republicans tinker with it until it would no longer work, giving them everything they wanted and more in the hopes that some might vote for it...none did. It was all a trick.

Democrats shoved it up our asses and then lost control of congress because of it. Republicans are still laughing their asses off about how gullible Democrats were. Obama was neutered inside of two years.

Shame Democrats don't have the political skills to neuter Turmp.

I am hoping, should Trump go down, that the Dems have the common sense to realize that Covid-19, if nothing else, has proven that we have a healthcare system which is an failure, an embarrassment, has poor result against other systems and needs to be replaced.

My other hope is that they do not even so much as talk about it until they have the reins as that would only serve to give the righteous right ammunition to scare everybody with. They have, incidentally and so far, been able to tone down the rhetoric of the self proclaimed socialists, self proclaimed progressives, etc. Bernie, for instance, lost the Democratic nod because he insisted on being a socialist and there is simply no way he could have won the presidency for the same reason. The dedicated lefties just don't get it. They think they should be anointed and screw the election stuff and that's just not gonna happen. The trick is simple keep your powder dry, win the election and THEN have at it! If they can manage to keep their mouths shut the Left/Dems just might win!

Their error, I think, is that they believe everybody thinks like them because they rarely speak with anybody else. I have always believed that is the very worst thing that a politician can do because they get a screwed view of the world. This is doesn't just apply to an individual but groups of the like minded. If a politician, or group, is willing to listen to everybody that gives them a better picture of the reality they have to function in. Trumpies, for instance, only watch Trump news and only really speak to one another. I fear the socialist/progressive wing of the Dems are the same. The only real difference, between the two, is that the Trumpies were able to get rid of almost all Republicans that didn't agree with them. The Socialist/progessives of the Democratic party have, I think, made runs at that but have failed which is a good thing - otherwise we would be having a civil war right now!

Sorry - couldn't resist.....

It's not so much a healthcare system failure, as a lack of respect for science and public health instructions in the general population. In other countries where the people follow public health instructions, they have had MUCH better results. Here there are a lot of people, including the President, who see ignoring those instructions as a political right that must be exercised.

In some of those other countries, violating quarantine means prison, hefty fines, or corporal punishment. Here it gets you a snappy red cap and club membership.

I agree with what you are saying and I may have stated it wrong. What has happened is that our healthcare system has been put into stress and the chinks are showing and people are simply not getting the care they deserve (as breathing citizens). In Florida, right now, their hospitals are all plugged up and they haven't been exactly offering hospital procedures not related to Covid-19.

I also believe that there will be more pandemics and, hopefully, we will have learned our lesson by then. I know, Obama believed that and set up facilities to deal but Trump changed that one. Hopefully we have learned the results of voting in a n'er do well financial failure who starred in a show that portrayed pure baloney which everybody, apparently, thought was quite wonderful. We will see, in the fullness of time? (apologies - couldn't resist, love that phrase!)

So, what if we lose a few million Americans to the virus? Will the other hundreds of millions suffer much for it? Or will commerce continue unabated as Americans must eat, pay their bills and work?
The stock market is doing remarkably well and so the President will be able to claim recovery is underway just before the election.

National polls show Biden with a shrinking lead and Republicans are excited about their candidate retaining his office for another 4 years!

The Democratic Convention had as many Republicans speaking as Democrats so their isn't an ideological difference between the parties any more to speak of.

Progressive Democrats were not even invited.