In the early morning hours of July 28, 2017, Sen. John McCain made one of the most consequential votes in the history of American health care when he gave his memorable “thumbs-down” to block Senate Republicans’ effort to repeal the Affordable Care Act (ACA). It was the dramatic culmination of a battle that had raged for more than half a year as Republicans in Washington tried to repeal and replace the ACA. No matter that it protected millions of Americans with pre-existing conditions. No matter that it helped millions more access coverage that would otherwise have been unaffordable.
Before even taking office Donald Trump promised that Republicans would repeal the Affordable Care Act on day one of his presidency. In October of 2016 during the election he said it is “going to be so easy” to get a new health care law. But by February 2017 he was complaining that “nobody knew health care could be so complicated.” Had he asked anyone who actually worked in health care he would have known this much sooner.
Americans across the country watched through the spring and summer of 2017 as plan after plan was floated attempting to devise a better solution. Every moderately serious proposal was nothing more than an inferior copy of the ACA that would have resulted in an increase in the uninsured rate and deep cuts to vital public health care programs for the elderly and people with disabilities. All were opposed by nearly every major medical, health care, and advocacy organization.
Offered a different path
When McCain cast the deciding vote against his own party’s signature issue of the last decade he was offering Republicans a path away from their quest to repeal a law that provides health care for more than 20 million Americans. The members of his party could have realized that the ACA, while imperfect, was still better than anything they could devise, and worked with members on both sides of the aisle to improve the law and make it work better for Americans of all stripes.
Instead, they chose to double down on the harmful repeal agenda by trying to do in court what they couldn’t achieve legislatively.
[image_caption]Jeremy Drucker[/image_caption]
At stake in the lawsuit is coverage for more than 265,000 Minnesotans — and protections for the more than 2 million with pre-existing conditions, not to mention the millions of Americans who have contracted the virus. It would eliminate the Medicaid expansion, raise drug prices for seniors, kick adult children off their parents’ health coverage, undermine the fight against the opioid epidemic, increase racial disparities, and more.
A sturdy framework
Polling shows that a majority of Americans support the ACA. People like the law’s provision that funds Medicaid expansion and protections for pre-existing conditions, and in red states across the country Medicaid expansion ballot initiatives are winning. Ten years after its passage people have come to not only accept but rely on the fundamental features of the law. And while it remains imperfect, it is a framework that can be built upon.
Over the last two years Democrats, including Minnesota’s own Rep. Angie Craig, have introduced multiple pieces of legislation that would do just that. From lowering health insurance premiums and prescription drug costs to shoring up provisions in the law that have been weakened administratively by the Trump administration, Democrats have continued to push for increased health care access and affordability. None of these bills have been taken up by the U.S. Senate.
Most people want elected leaders to work on issues that better their lives, not partisan crusades to redeem the lost ideological battles of the past. John McCain, who was no fan of the ACA, understood this better than most, and stood up for his constituents and Americans across the country when he cast his fateful vote protecting the Affordable Care Act. We could use more like him today.
Jeremy Drucker is the director of Protect Our Care Minnesota.
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Meanwhile, in the midst of this Pandemic, the DNC Planning Committee just voted overwhelmingly NOT to put Medicare for All on the Democratic Party Platform.
We spend more than 4 trillion each year on Health Care. I don’t know that anyone has done the math, but I’m guessing only a small relative percentage of that is actually the cost of care. Between profits and admin costs I assume the bulk of that spending is just the padding of nests for investors, executives and the managerial/admin class.
Maybe Medicare for All is not the answer. But this ACA did nothing to control the growth in racketeering in official Health Care, separating people from their money under much false pretenses. Insurance premiums for a lot of people, likely a majority, is metaphorically equivalent to using leeches to heal every illness, leeches that are left on even when you are well.
Health should not be so bloody expensive.
1) The party platform is completely irrelevant. The fact that the Bernie supporters get so worked by it just demonstrates how clueless they are.
2) The ACA is flawed, but it enabled tens of millions of people to access affordable healthcare and protected those with pre-existing conditions. And this despite non-stop efforts to undermine it by Republicans. It matters very much to a lot of people.
If the platform were completely irrelevant, then at least you would think the DNC would pretend to care about everyone getting health care, and at least put it up for show.
And again, you so desperately want to be rid of Trump, I get criticized endlessly in these pages for daring to criticize Biden, as if that is support for Trump, but there seems no end to the pejoratives launched at anyone who supported Bernie. Calling people clueless is no way to get them to join your cause.
As for the ACA: “Breaking this number down even further, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid services estimate Americans spent $10,000 on average for healthcare in 2016 and this number increased to $18,764 in 2017.”
https://www.thebalance.com/what-is-the-average-health-insurance-premium-4586358
This is the average cost of just the premium this year. It adds up to about $10,000 per person per year, when you factor in the deductible. That is beyond insane. That is a country in an advanced state of collapse.
https://www.valuepenguin.com/average-cost-of-health-insurance
In 1935 William’s grandfather, upon the passage of the Social Security Act, crossed his arms high across his chest, and with a scowl let out a big:
“Haruumphh! Social Security Act! It does not do nearly enough to insure the security of our old people, even FDR acknowledges its’ short comings:
“We can never insure one hundred percent of the population against one hundred percent of the hazards and vicissitudes of life, but we have tried to frame a law which will give some measure of protection to the average citizen and to his family against the loss of a job and against poverty-ridden old age”
If we can’t do any better than that, let’s do nothing at all”
And in 1965 William’s father, upon the passage of Medicare and Medicaid crossed his arms high across his chest, and also with a scowl let out a big:
“Haruumphh! Medicare! It does not do nearly enough to insure the health of our old people.
If we can’t do any better than that, let’s do nothing at all”
And now we have William refusing to acknowledge that the ACA, though far from perfect, was a start down the road to something better. Like Social Security and Medicare. Accept progress for what it is: a step towards something better and a basis for a discussion of what’s next rather than an endless discussion of why it’s bad.
Neither social security nor Medicare nor Medicaid started out demanding you pay $300-500 a month with a $6000-8000 deductible. Which is like $10,000 a year before you can access any serious health care. Which is just a way to bleed people until you make them bankrupt.
So as very creative as you think you are being, the reality of the matter is, Health Care has been turned into an exercise in graft, and mocking me for calling that out is not very useful. If there was half the venom that gets directed at people like me for calling out the corruption, flowing toward the actual corruption, maybe we could do something about it.
Cost of Social Security to wage earner in 1935: 6% or so of per capita net income.
Average cost of ACA insurance to a wage earner in 2020: 9% or so of per capita net income.
Seems like a possible starting point towards a better final solution. And that seems reasonable to me. When I drive by the monument to healthcare overhead on Highway 62 and Shady Oak Road (UHG HQ) I can agree with William on many of his points. To say the first step in reform is calling out the wrecking ball is fruitless.