[Severian]

Originally Posted by ilduclo

ACA shit is gonna hurt a BUNCH of people. Goddamn, those who varted for him and for the R Sens and Reps, fuck them people, truly

Yes. ACA shit is going to hurt (read: CRIPPLE) millions and millions of people.

I've been under the impression from talking to folks in he rural Midwest that ACA is just reviled by everyone in this part of the country, regardless of party. I'm still a newb to small town life, so I thought it was believable (if terrifying) that EVERYONE in reddish states just can't stand the way their "freedoms" are challenged, the way they're being "ripped off" by ACA.

But... recent town halls with my congressional rep have shown me that the way these folks talk when they're bitching about the gub'ment and the way they actually feel are very different.

HUNDREDS and HUNDREDS of people have been flooding the rep's few-and-far-between public appearances, and REALLY taking him to task for backing a president and a policy shift that would disembowel the ACA.

I mean... people are PISSED.

Doctors, mental health workers, patients, hospital administrators have all been showing up at these meetings to voice their opposition to "repeal and replace." Why? Because the entire infrastructure of medical care and administration and billing has spent the last two years rearranging itself to fit with the ACA model. It was a process that resulted in BILLIONS of dollars being spent by the US health care industry, and if this system is "repealed and replaced" ... ESPECIALLY if it's done in the "same day," as Capitol Hill Repos are suggesting, would mean all that time and money was just fucking wasted. Insurance companies have hired and trained people as ACA Specialists... hospitals have refitted their entire model... now they're going to have to do it again? To take a massive, dinosauric step backwards?

ALSO... if you live in a state that expanded Medicaid, then there are tons of people (unemployed, underemployed, laid off and job searching, or otherwise limited by income) who now have free access to most health care (no psychiatrists, for some Fucking reason, and no physical therapists, but PCPs and specialists and counselors and social workers and psychologists, yup!) where they previously had nothing. Plenty of these people voted for Trump, voted to "repeal and replace" (hahahahaha, with what though? The fuckaround they introduced like two days ago? BAAAHAHAHA), but now that things are actually moving in that direction, people are freaking the fuck out.

NOW.. why the FUCK did they vote for Trump, or their Republican reps when they all made it entirely clear that this was their goal? FUCKED IF I KNOW. But now they're upset.

Anything that turns Trump supporters against Trump policies might be a blessing.

I think a lot of people have misunderstood ACA from the very beginning. Some were probably shocked to find that their ACA marketplace plan IS "Obamacare." That's their own dumbass fault, but still... this might get reallly, really bad for a while, but if enough people wake up and speak out against this dictatorial nonsense, then maybe we'll eventually find ourselves on a road to FIXING "Obamacare," and maybe even turning it into what it was supposed to be in the first place (universal single payer health insurance), before Bart Stupak raised his little "moral" objections to the ambiguous phrasing of the original bill regarding abortion, and went on a campaign to turn Dems and Republicans alike against the original language (he and his asshole friends succeeded, of course, and he's probably the worst Democrat in history, and I want him to cry into his fluffy fucking pillow tonight.)

BLAH BLAH BLAH

ANYWAY... people from both sides of the aisle are having that "Oh shit" moment I wanted them to have in the fucking booths on Nov. 8. Better late than never. Of course a veritable fuckton of these folks are still sounding off about the ACA violating their "civil liberties," and are still bitching and whining about the cost of opting out of insurance (it's negligible. Couple bucks a month, tops), but those people have had their brains fried by InfoWars and Fox & Friends, so they're probably a lost cause.

In trying to find humour in some of this because I just don't know what the fuck else to do. The "balloon" is so full of hot air at this point that the very earth risks being carried away by a strong wind.