We are not like other nations, either. We are a nation of states, literally a nation of nations. Notice that while European nations all have some form of mixed or single payer system, each one has it's own version. Many are alike, but they still have differences, and they are administrated by the state or local governments; not the EU. We have a variety of regional cultures in the US, a national plan will never make enough people in enough states to survive. And this is the outcome. The same will be true with anything the Republicans replace it with, if it's not something that is state optional or can be opt-ed out as an individual.
The EU is a supranational construct. The United States is one nation. Comparing the two is silly.
The men who showed up at the first continental congress regarded themselves as representatives of free and independent states, and created the first "supranational construct" in the world, at least the first that didn't come to be by imperial conquest. You can think of the US as a single nation, but that doesn't make it true. I've been a member of a manufacturing union for decades, and they like to pretend that we all think and act with a like mind, in solidarity; pretending it is so is still a useful idea sometimes, but that is still not true either. We still have distinct borders, and up until much more recently than one might imagine, border disputes. We have, if not unique, independent bodies of law between states; and even distinctions about the colonial foundations of some of that state law. We are what the EU could be in several generations, if it somehow manages to not break apart first. We are, in effect, what the EU government, currently seated in Brussels, aspires to be. It's a pity, really, that they are too European to succeed.
The US has some regional differences, but by and large quite uniform. People speak the same language, watch the same TV shows, learn roughly the same things in school, buy things from the same national corporations, and consume health services the same way (extremely poorly). Your average Floridian is immensely closer to your average South Dakotan or Alaskan than a Frenchman to a Spaniard or a Greek.
State differences are vastly overrated.
Overrated perhaps, but still there. And yes, the vast majority of us do speak English and share a common cultural background; and perhaps more importantly, a common legal background. This is one reason the EU is doomed to failure, no common language and no common legal or cultural background.
Quindon - you speak your opinion as if were fact. Really - it is just your opinion.
The following is my opinion.
Being part of a society has its costs. We all pay for the public school system whether we use it or not. We all pay for TSA whether we ever get on a plane or leave a port. I could go on and on. We are one nation of individuals. Every other nation in the world close to our stature provides its citizens with health care. I get it that you don't want to pay for everyone else to have some minimal healthcare - but personally - I'd rather pay for that then another carrier to protect some other part of the world. But most of all - I'll support both. You simply sound mean spirited and selfish - and maybe you are not - but that is how you come across to me. I highly doubt our forefathers would have rejected the idea of a measure to provide the country's citizens with a simple measure of wellbeing in the form of minimal health care.
You are not smarter nor wiser than everyone (or maybe anyone) here - no matter how forceful your rhetoric. I am now to the point where this is my last ever post on MMM regarding the ACA, because I guess our country is so divided at a fundamental level the civil, respectful discourse on the issues of the wellbeing of all of its citizens is now beyond reach.
I will say what I said in the beginning, whether you believe it or not, i could not get insurance at any cost before the ACA due to an operable and curable condition. (I know you don't believe this - you've told so many people who conveyed this to you on a number of occasions - but you are just simply wrong.) I want three things.
1.) I want every citizen in this country of any income level to have access to health care because it is better for all of us if they do and because I am a socially conscious human.
2.) I want to be able to purchase a high deductible health plan. I don't mind paying my typical annual expenses on my own. But if I come down with a disease or fall while hiking - I want to be able to get treatment without having to spend our entire NW on it.
3.) I've paid into medicare for over 35 years. I want it to be around in mostly its present form for me and all of the others that have paid into it.
Those are three simple things. And one day, Quidon, when you are not so young, and life has thrown you a curve ball or two, you might see that there is some wisdom in what I am saying.