let's be real here about the impact of "you can keep your insurance" [View all]

[scheming daemons]

Almost everybody reading this post is not affected by this in the least.

There are roughly 320 million people in this country.

About 85% of us get health insurance through an employer, Medicare, Medicaid, or the VA.

That means about 270 million of us are not affected at all by healthcare.gov web site issues or by junk individual policies that are being cancelled.

Among the 50 million who are affected, 40 million had no insurance at all, so it isn't like the ACA or the website problems made their situations worse. They are either better off or the same.

That leaves 10 million. Roughly half of those are able to keep the plan they already have because it complies with the ACA and their insurance company still offers it.

That leaves 5 million people that are losing their coverage and forced to buy a new plan.

Among those, roughly half will have access to a cheaper and better plan than they had before. The website issues affect these people and will be fixed and they'll be alright.

That leaves about 2.5 million people that are in a bind. Their insurance costs will be higher than before, even if the coverage is better.

1/120th of the population. 1 out of every 120 people in this country have every right to be pissed about the ACA, at least in the short term.

But 40 million people... 1 out of 8.... have access to insurance now who didn't have it before.

The math doesn't work for the opponents of the ACA once that 1/8 gets insurance. That is why they are desperate to kill it in the crib.

What the GOP and their friends in the media have been trying to do is to convince everyone that THEY are one of the 1/120 of the population that is being adversely affected.

The only way they kill it is if they convince enough of the voting public that it harms THEM.

As a utilitarian ... I accept policies that help (or don't harm) 119/120 of the population while inconveniencing, in the short run, 1/120 of the population.

We're losing the message war right now. But the math is in our favor... and long term, the ACA is an enormous positive for Democrats. And the GOP knows it.