Obamacare: how much was it to blame for the loss?

[DanTex]

41. Universal healthcare, yes. That was the point of Obamacare. It just came up short.

There are multiple ways of getting there, single payer being just one. Another way, like Germany, is with an individual mandate.

Which means that Obama did exactly what you suggested: find a way to get universal coverage that also includes insurance companies. But even with that, he got zero Republican support. And because of two or three conservative Dems, we couldn't even get a public option.

Then the Supreme Court weakened Obamacare further, and GOP governors refused to implement exchanges or expand Medicaid. Obamacare worked much better in states where the state government wasn't trying to sabotage it to the detriment of their own citizens.

But despite all that, it still managed to expand coverage by 20 million and reduce the growth of health care costs.

You're right, there are a lot of ways it could be improved. But none of them are things that the GOP would go for. Sure, having the government pay premiums directly instead of subsidizing citizens would mean that out-of-pocket premium expenses would be lower, but then taxes would be higher by that same amount. Do you really think the GOP would sign on for a tax increase of that size?

And even politically, it's questionable whether people would rather pay the money to the government rather than directly to the insurance companies. Maybe they would, I don't know, it's a matter of perception.