Jon, I consider that it is in the kind of analysis which this post concerns itself with, that you do your most important work and, thereby, provide the rest us the most important and useful of insights.

I wonder if I might encourage you to speculate, just for a moment?

As you say, health care or, as I would prefer, health insurance, “news” is dominated by speculation about how SCOTUS will come down on the mandate.

Should SCOTUS, as likely they will, decide in favor of the mandate, then do you see a more favorable “attitude” toward that mandate somehow developing, or do you see antipathy toward the Democratic party hardening?

It would appear, from such evidence as there is, that the “popularity”, is such a term is not completely ironic, at this point, of BOTH the Democrats AND the Republicans is at a very, very low point, and that it will not take much more “effort” on the part of either party for the desire for “alternatives” to become the “choice” of a vast majority of the voting public.

That being the case, do you imagine, and here I ask you to speculate once again, that FDL will start to provide news coverage of those alternatives any time soon?

I have suggested, several times, that it would be of value to this community and to the progressive community in general, were FDL to consider sending someone to interview Jill Stein and Rocky Anderson and, as well, any other Presidential candidates that the FDL community has, or might express, interest in. Do you consider that this suggestion might have some merit, and might it not also be of value to interview alternative candidates running for other, federal offices as well?

I ask this not to put anyone “on the spot” or to ruffle anyone’s feathers, but because I am convinced that the public is VERY disenchanted with most of their choices from the two “major” and dominating parties, and that one way in which the current political “lock” on meaningful change may be challenged is by providing information and perspective about other possibilities.

Thank you, Jon, for considering my concerns and wee notions.

DW

Jon, thank you for this excellent and timely article. Recommended.

You nailed it–the mandate “is shockingly unpopular,” and Democrats would be wise to drop it.

Most everyone I know blames the ACA for the double-digit premium increases in their group health insurance premiums, fairly or unfairly. And it’s no wonder, considering the fact that many employers claim that the exorbitant increases in insurance premiums are due to the passage of this law.

This year, for the very first time, I plan to cast my vote for a third party candidate, most likely Jill Stein.

The Democratic Party Leadership needs to wake up before it’s too late, and either drastically reform, or junk the ACA. If they don’t, I think they’ll suffer a resounding defeat at the polls in November.

Blue

Jon, you Jane and the entire FDL team did a great job in exposing ACA. Unfortunately the dems didn’t give a rat’s ass what the public thought.

It really shouldn’t be any surprise premiums are skyrocketting as the insurance companies will have high rates by the time the mandate kicks in.

Obama and the dems fucked us. Perhaps you and the rest of your team Jon can have front page stickies on ACAas the court sets to hear the case against it. I do hope that they strike the whole damn thing down.

Jane’s had a lot of great moments, none eclipse what she achieved during the long fight over ACA.

At the beginning, we asked our reps to sign a pledge, that they would not support anything that did not include AT LEAST the public option.

A lot of acolytes SCREAMED. They said Jane should demand single payer/Medicare4all. Jane patiently tried to explain, that was the goal, but she knew what slime the Dems were. Jane knew the industry was writing the legislation. She knew Single payer/Medicare4All was unlikely to have the votes. In the collapse after that failure, we needed a fire wall against the health insurance oligopoly. She correctly saw that as the public option, the only tool against them using the mandate to force Americans to buy lousy coverage.

As always, Jane saw the future with a clarity which practically everyone else in the veal pen missed didn’t want to see. As the months wore on, single payer was taken off the table, just as Jane had predicted.

Then Obama got pretty much everyone in the veal pen to claim Jane wasn’t being a “team player,” holding out for the public option. Pretty much everyone on the left, even Krugman, caved after Obama took away the public option. That was the one element of competition that would have prevented the health insurance oligopoly from offering CRAPPY coverage.

What happened to all the SCREAMING acolytes for single payer? Instead of “falling back,” to the public option, they used Obama talking points to rip FDL for holding out for too much.

Then, because the count was so close, Stupak was able to swoop in and get Obama to increase the scope of the Hyde Amemdment, something W had never even attempted.

What Stupak proved was that Jane had been right all along about the public option. A very small number of progressives, who were as committed to choice as Stupak was to anti-choice, could have held ACA hostage until Obama put the public option back in. Tammy Baldwin and a lot of other Dems in super safe districts failed us.

When the history of ACA is written, two names will dominate, Bart Stupak and Jane Hamsher. Jane wrote about what would happen. Unfortunately, Bart put it into action.

The tragedy of ACA is the complicity of Dems who claim they are liberal. Not only did Obama give the industry what it wanted, a mandate to force people to buy lousy coverage, he eliminated federal funding for choice.

The mandate has allowed the industry to “reload,” all their advertising and lobbying budgets for the next fight over single-payer.

FDL fact sheet, the truth about ACA

Funny, the Democrats house members were tweeting positive talking points the other day about ACA with the tag #ILikeObamaCare
It’s like 2010 never happened, and they can win on the issue if they can just let us all know how great it really is.

No matter how cynical you become, it’s never enough to keep up.
~Lily Tomlin