I was reading an opinion piece yesterday on Bloomberg and this is a great summary of the underlying problems in our healthcare system:
"... voters don’t want genuine insurance, by which I mean a pool that provides financial assistance for genuinely unforeseeable and unmanageable expenses. Voters want comprehensive coverage that kicks in at close to the first dollar of spending, no restrictions on treatments or their ability to see a doctor, nice American-style facilities, and so forth. They are also fond of their health-care professionals and do not wish to see provider incomes slashed and hospitals closed, nor do they want their taxes to go up, or to pay 10 percent of their annual income in premiums. This conflicting set of deeply held views is one major reason that Obamacare -- and American health-care policy more generally -- has the problems it does."
The problem is we can't have it all. And until we as a society accept that and are prepared for some individual sacrifice for the greater good, we'll have to live with a Frankenstein monster of a health insurance system that we have in this country.
I paid both the ACA taxes since the ACA was enacted and I think the Ryancare plan is absolutely ridiculous, even though I would directly and immediately benefit from it. I would gladly pay a lot more for a national single payer system that covers all Americans. But at this point, it looks it's just a pipe dream.