NESailor,
I fully agree with you. The republican plan accomplishes very little that is positive. It just shifts the cost one more time. It will help some of the people who have been fiscally hurt by the bill and harm those who are poor. It may also eliminate the pre-existing condition clause which would be very bad for everybody. As a fiscal conservative this is not an appropriate direction for our healthcare system. I think you and I agree much more than we disagree. But just because we disagree on some things does not make me some heartless monster that fiscal conservatives are portrayed as being.
Also, what you are seeing from your rich friends is exactly what I see here from many liberal posters. It is almost impossible to get most of them to admit that the ACA has some serious flaws that actually increased the cost of healthcare for a significant subset of the population. Despite showing clear cut examples of these people, they get ignored and then I get insulted by one of the forum members. The blinders are on not just on the conservatives but also on the liberals.
Example: Just a few posts above I bring up how well our private insurance industry is doing and that private insurance makes a ton of money by managing medicaid for the government. Blinders go up and I am told I am wrong. I show examples, and I am ignored.
To really understand our political system and actually do something good, we need to step back away from the news and the media. We need to keep open minded and look at every angle. We need to understand how the laws affect not just one small subset of the population, but everybody. Even those who you don't like or disagree with. This opens our mind to formulate our own opinions based on facts and all sides of the equation. At times your hard thought beliefs will be questioned which is the time to not stubbornly put your heals into the ground like you see your rich friends do, and I see so many on this forum do, but accept that information. You can admit to yourself that you may have to amend your views and that is OK. altering your beliefs a little is actually very difficult to do. It forces us to accept that maybe we were not 100% right and our minds resist that every step of the way. It is human nature and very difficult to break even when you know this phenomena exists. The best negotiators listen to the views of others and accept them as important and real to them.
We have to admit that despite all the good the ACA has done, it also harmed many Americans. Voting, tax paying Americans. I'm not talking about the 1%. They weren't harmed. They can afford paying an extra $1k/month. Once you see that, you can understand why so many Americans do not like the ACA. You can then understand why so many liberal seats were lost to republicans this last election. I see plenty of examples every day where the ACA has helped a family. I also see every day examples of the ACA harming families. Despite all the media mumbo jumbo I see it play out in real life and how it actually affects people. Even when forum members here point out how their costs have skyrocketed 100-300% over just a few short years, those comments are ignored and we stubbornly stick to ACA good everything else bad heal digging. I need to pause for a second and remind you that I am not a fan of the AHCA despite all those negative things I just said about Obamacare.
The only real way to fix healthcare is to fix costs, but that would not fly in our congress. Cutting costs affects the healthcare industry which spends tons of money lobbying on both sides of the isle. Imagine removing unnecessary healthcare on the brain dead with no quality of life. Imagine we stop spending money uselessly on the super users/abusers of the system. Some studies show it can drop healthcare spending by over 20%. 20% reduction would fix all our problems and even allow returning taxes
back to the way they were before the ACA was enacted. There are so many other great ways to decrease cost and spending which can be done over time so as to not create too much turbulence in the economy. So simple, but it will never happen. Our politicians are crooks and we need to accept that before we move on.