There are differences in philosophy about how much the government should do for its citizens.
Politics and Healthcare
Libertarians will tell you that government should have no place in our day to day lives; no welfare, Medicare, Medicaid, unemployment, regulations of any sort. They are pushing for even more draconian legislation with regard to the ACA repeal effort.
Republicans, (or Libertarians who want to get elected), will espouse a role for government that is severely capped; generally, if you are on hard times and need assistance, they’re inclined to blame you for your problems (it seems cancer is on the list of problems for which you are to blame). They consistently chant that big business is our salvation, and the Government is ALWAYS the problem.
Democrats want to support you until you’re on your feet; unfortunately, the solutions Democrats have is to force the middle class to give a lot of money to Insurance companies, then give insurance companies a fat part of our tax dollars, and then have them cover poor people. Their allegiance to Insurance companies above citizens is a fair subject for debate. Of course, insurance companies return some of those tax dollars to the politicians in the form of campaign donations.
Progressives want to take away as many worries from citizens as possible; front and center is healthcare and their desire for a single payer system. Philosophically, this is a challenge to the old American adage “if they can’t pull em selves up by their bootstraps, f*!k em.” They are, perhaps, overly fond of government solutions, but their hearts are in the right place.
No Path To A Real Solution To Healthcare
In the past (40+ years ago), these differing philosophies competed but the people who held them at least tried to work together. They compromise, debated, amended and created laws that were intended to make a better country.
Despite any rhetoric to the contrary from Washington, I think most Americans believe the politicians don’t give a darn about us. After they get done throwing smoke at us about how much they care about Americans, they head back to their chambers and plan the demise of the other party. Today the Democrats have not presented any alternative to the Republicans and instead just berate Republicans for their “terrible bills”. During the previous eight years, the Republicans did exactly the same thing.
Neither side cares about finding a solution. You can’t convince me otherwise. The Republicans are about to throw 22 million people off health insurance and the Democrats have done nothing to present a solution to the skyrocketing insurance rates that are chewing away at the income of the middle class.
The fact is, it doesn’t really matter if the Republicans succeed or not. The system is being pelted from so many angles that will fail. From Republicans withholding subsidies promised to the insurance companies, to the President preventing the enforcement of mandatory participation, to the lack of true cross-state-line competition, the rates are going to go beyond most people’s ability to pay.
In our area, there is literally only one carrier and their rates are 60% higher (minimum) with virtually no cost-sharing until a family is out of pocket $35k. It’s just going to get worse.
From corrupt institutions paying politicians to stick to the status quo to politicians so focused on party loyalty they’re will let people die (literally), to a general public that doesn’t really care until it impacts them directly, there is no path to a solution.
Unless it is perfect, run perfectly, by perfect people, we will always find excuses not to solve this problem. While we decry government waste of millions, we will let corporations bilk us for billions.
If we can set aside ideological predispositions, we’d see that a single payer system, though imperfect, is working better in the rest of the developed world than the capitalistic system we have running in the U.S.
We won’t ever get there.
The latest Senate Bill will put 22MM off insurance. (https://www.nytimes.com/2017/06/26/us/politics/senate-health-care-bill-republican.html)