Blog Credo

The whole aim of practical politics is to keep the populace alarmed (and hence clamorous to be led to safety) by menacing it with an endless series of hobgoblins, all of them imaginary.

H.L. Mencken

Tuesday, August 16, 2016

So, This Is Bad News

Obamacare has been one of the singular achievements of the Obama administration.  It caps off over a full century of trying to bring universal (or close to it) health insurance to the American people.  It has been wildly successful.

Until now.

There is an open question as to whether this constitutes payback for the DoJ nixing Aetna's merger, or whether the exchanges aren't working.

The clear solution would be a public option, which fucking Joe Lieberman and Ben Nelson killed back in 2009-10.  Adding a public option should be a first priority - along with immigration reform - should Clinton miraculously carry the House as well as the Senate.

Obamacare was always a jury-rigged system, because no one could tolerate the disruption of going to single payer.  It has worked really, really well.  But if the big carriers get out of the Exchanges, that could be a problem.

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