Remember our success story highlighted by the President?

[zipplewrath]

42. Two way street

I understand your concerns, I really do. And I agree that there are some really big pot holes up ahead. The alternative of course is that there are probably an equal, if not greater, number of people who will now have insurance. The question of course is which population is more politically influential.

The weakness of ACA was also its original strength, it only affects about 7-12% of the population. With the states not implimenting the medicaid portion, it will probably be closer to the 7 than the 12. So the reality is that the vast majority of what the population thinks and feels about it will be based upon anecdotal evidence. That will include news stories, and it will include what peoples employers tell them about their own employment based insurance. It will also include though what people hear from friends and families about finally affording/getting/having health insurance.

This can be big. The public opinion on homosexual issues moved rapidly as more gays and gay couples became "open". Once people knew the guy down the street, the girl at work, the person that helped them at the social service agency were gay, the more they agreed with the LGBT issues. The war in Iraq started to turn a bit against George when more and more soldiers were writing home, and came home and started talking to friends and family.

Word of mouth can be powerful. It just matters which mouths they hear more. I do wish that all those people that could be covered by medicaid, except their state refused to participate, could be told about it, somewhere around Oct/Nov of 2014.