• Semi-Hemi-Demigod@kbin.social
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    11 months ago

    Even with the ACA I’m too afraid to use my health insurance lest I go bankrupt. I fell and hit my head and the ER bill, even with “good” insurance, was over $3,000. I would have been better off if I set my nose and sealed the cut with super glue myself. I’m paying $600 a month for insurance I can’t use without going bankrupt.

    Health care is still broken after the ACA, and will continue to be broken until we get rid of the rent-seekers in the health care industry. But Democrats seem to like those folks so I guess I’ll just buy my meds from Tractor Supply and invest in a good needle and thread.

    • Chetzemoka@kbin.social
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      11 months ago

      The ACA was only ever meant to be a first step. It was never intended to be the end goal. The Republicans gutting the individual mandate is what stole that momentum because it leaves simply being uninsured as an unfortunately viable financial option for enough people that it reduced pressure to reform the rest of the system.

      The end goal is single payer. But it’s difficult to the point of bordering on impossible to shift from what we had instantly into single payer in the third most populous country on the planet. It’s estimated that single payer will put nearly 400,000 private insurance middle-people out of jobs. That’s not a negligible problem. We’re going to need a way to address that in the process of making the shift.

      The ACA open markets have allowed me to leave jobs that I otherwise would not have been able to leave because I can’t afford to go 30-90 days without health insurance. That open market didn’t even exist when I was a young adult 20 years ago. Insurance gaps between jobs were simply a fact of life that a lot of people couldn’t abide

        • Chetzemoka@kbin.social
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          11 months ago

          Single payer is the only actually viable option. The more change we make, the more obvious that will become. Probably single payer with private supplementation is where we’ll end up because America will never settle for rich people not being able to buy nicer lives than the rest of us.