Sorry I've just got to say it.....A Public Option would have avoided most of this crap

[jeff47]

114. The ACA isn't the end. It's the beginning.

A national-level public option would be a very tough political battle right now.

A California-level public option? Not very hard. Vermont? Already planning to go single payer in 2017.

The battle for public option/single payer in the blue states is much, much easier. So we will be doing that. Public options, without the need to profit, will do a pretty good job out-competing the insurance companies. As the private company's risk pools are devastated, they'll be forced to pull back from public option states.

The successes of these "blue state" programs will destroy the FUD about such programs - no giant piles of dead bodies will make it hard to argue such programs will result in a pile of dead bodies. That will let us push on into the "purple" states. Victories there will let us pick off a few red states, and return to the national battle in a much stronger position - against a devastated health insurance industry.

Just because the ACA passed doesn't mean the job is done.