Important to remember how bad pre-ACA has been

Posted by Sir Four at 4:52pm Nov 20 '13
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A damning graph:

In the source link, Andrew Sullivan reminds us that "the US pays far more and gets far less in healthcare than any other comparable country." He continues:

When a private sector system means you have ten times as many people failing to get basic treatment as in Britain’s uber-socialized NHS, you realize just how great the market failure is. I’m all for markets, but the facts seem to me to reveal that in healthcare, they are toxic to most people’s actual, you know, health. In what other area does socialism work so much better than capitalism? Isn’t that a first order question conservatives should address?

Democrats got their legislation through: the ACA, which was essentially Republican health care ideas without actual Republican good-faith negotiation or votes. Republicans have focused all their energies on attacking the ACA without offering a true proposal of their own. You can get only so far with attacks, though, when you don't have an alternative plan.

Of course, the O Admin's self-inflicted wounds have boosted ACA's critics somewhat. But the options on the table remain:

1) proceed with ACA and iron out problems as we go
2) repeal and return to the former failed status quo
3) enact a market-based Republican plan that handles free-riders, pre-existing conditions & other barriers to access, as well as high cost.

The 3rd option does not actually exist. #1 is the only viable choice at this time.