As for the ACA, it was a STEP in the right direction, but not far enough.
#1. The BIGGEST PROBLEM in health care access is the health INSURANCE industry. THEY PROVIDE NO TANGIBLE POSTIVES in our health care system. NONE. THE ONLY THING they do is enrich themselves to the tune of BILLIONS a year.
We need to move to a system that REMOVES the health insurance industry and provides better access to ALL Americans. The closest thing to that is the VA system which is NOT without its own problems, but it has a SUBSTANTIAL customer satisfaction rating that is beyond ANYTHING ELSE we have. WE NEED to work the bugs out of THAT system and then make it the model. Even perhaps taking the best of the VA AND the best of Medicare, but our current system is a mess and getting worse. IF the industry can find a way to re-work itself and survive, fine. OR move into other areas of insurance. However, if they can't then they need to just GO AWAY. PERIOD.
#2. The changes to Medicare in the ACA is designed to force the health care providers to get more efficient. That is where a TON of waste is. Hospitals in particular are almost comical in their ineptitude (or would be if the attendant cost burden to patients and taxpayers were not so tragically high) and they NEED to get MUCH more efficent and more technologically savvy...utilizing systems that are currently readily available.
#3. GET BIG PHARMA to be more competitive in pricing drugs, AGAIN, another asset of the ACA. The other prong of the $716B reduction in Medicare, ALL on the provider side while leaving recipient benefits COMPLETELY untouched.
We should not be having a government agency propping up a private industry and their ENORMOUS profits at the expense of the average American...and denying them access to cheaper alternatives from Canada as an example. For that matter, we should not have a government that is propping up EITHER the health insurance industry OR big Pharma. Neither need the assistance due to enormous profitability, and especially the insurance industry is ONLY a detriment to more affordable health care. THIS is MY biggest problem with the ACA. It still leaves the insurance industry in the drivers seat. Of course it is FAR below what the Republicans would do to rip WIDE OPEN the abiltity of private industry to step into the cockpit and 'let 'er rip', but...it's bad enough and needs to be reconfigured.
THE ACA. A good first step. Just not a big enough one to do what OUR HEALTH CARE SYSTEM SHOULD BE DOING. PROVIDING FAIR ACCESS TO ALL AMERICANS AT A REASONABLE COST TO EVERYONE.
ANYONE who thinks THAT is NOT a good idea has an ulterior motive. like working for the insurance industry, cause that is not only common sense, it is HUMANE. Course this 'new' Republican/Tea Party is HARDLY notorious for its humanity quotient.
It does make me laugh to see how they are contorting themselves when it comes to their stands on 'LESS & SMALLER GOVERNMENT', while simultaneously standing behind a system and companies that are holding hostage an entire country to their own advantage and to the detriment of everyone else.
FUNNY. (Or it would be if their oxyMORON-ness weren't so totally disgusting).
Db
The opinion(s) expressed here are my own except where otherwise noted.
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