Aside from the 56 million paid to an incompetent foreign web design company to set up the ACA log on system, Obama messed up by omitting two simple words when he promised people they could keep their old health plan if they liked it. Those words were "if legal."
Anyone with the sense to read the provisions of the ACA should know that certain provisions made some old policies illegal, like not covering preexisting conditions, like putting a lifetime cap on coverage, like not including maternity benefits, not providing for annual examinations, etc. Failing to live up to those ACA provisions makes an old policy illegal under the law. But people don't read their own policies and don't pay attention.
Politically savvy readers will realize the passage of the ACA with the cooperation of lobbyists from insurance companies, hospitals, and pharmaceutical companies was possible because they were promised a pool of 47 million new customers, many subsidized by the US government. Who could pass up that deal? So it passed, barely.
Now the insurance companies are scrambling to cash in and the melee is causing confusion and anger. Eventually the public will say, "Screw the insurance companies! We want Medicare for all." Then we will finally have a single payer plan.
In Denmark where I have access to the tax forms being a potential payer of Danish income taxes I see they have a 5% income tax for health, just as we have a Social Security tax. That pays the so-called premiums for health in Denmark. So why can't we be that smart?
