Seriously, Quidnon, government policy is pretty much how we make decisions about things that affect all of us. Participate or don't, but acting like you're somehow not in a society is just obnoxious. If everyone else was a unicorn of personal responsibility like you, then we would live in a free market utopia where nothing bad ever happens.
Your health decisions should not affect me, nor should mine affect you. This is not a business of the federal government. Maybe of the state, but not the federal.
So you have no problem if a bureaucrat with the state government knows the intimate details of your health? Why?
Oh, I would & do. But at least I have someone closer to my own situation to complain to. It's no secret that politicos in Washington DC are too far removed from the people they officially represent, and that this leads to problems. Additionally, my state officials are
much more likely to share my own culture, upbringing and values; and are thus more likely to craft a state solution that is less objectionable to the citizens of the state than the federal version, which is almost guaranteed to upset a large portion of most of the states, which is exactly what happened. It has been noted before that the ACA was modeled on a similar state program for Massachusetts, and that it worked well enough for them. They can have it back, but if I lived in Massachusetts, I'd seriously consider moving, particularly after I retire. To a warm state, with no state income taxes, and no or lower public health care requirements on what I
must do or have. Health care reform is a perfect example of the "many state experiments" in governance that was mentioned in the Federalist Papers (yes, many but not all of which I have read. Have you?). Let the people vote with their feet, as they already do. The broken states lose both their economic base and their working age populations, as Illinois is currently doing; and high tax states lose their accumulated capital base, as they run off the retired population for more income friendly states, as California has been losing to Texas for years. Yes, this sets up a "death spiral" of sorts that the loser states must address, or risk economic destruction. But that is how it is supposed to work, Illinois should already be making changes to make the state more attractive to those who are fleeing, or do something different to attract another crowd.