Dear Democrats,

[LWolf]

54. Which one?

I've got a broad selection, ranging from ideal to more likely to happen in the greedy U.S.

Any real answer would involve several of them interacting together; there is no one real "solution." The ACA does not address the root of the issue, which is why it is not a part of a good long term solution. We, unfortunately, ARE a capitalistic nation; that's the root of the problem.

For health care and ALL OTHER VITAL SERVICES, profit has to be removed as the driving factor, or any factor at all, in the equation.

That can be done in a variety of ways. It doesn't have to suddenly turn us into a socialist nation. It does have to take those vital services out of the for-profit sector.

Any good, long-term answer to our health care needs has to be focused on people, health, and care. Not profit. Not the insurance industry.

My ultimate answer is a fully public, universal, national health care system FREE AT POINT OF SERVICE TO ALL and paid for entirely through taxes. Take the insurance industry, and any need for insurance, out of the mix and focus on access to whatever care is needed. Insurance doesn't guarantee affordable care, and the more "affordable" the insurance, the more costly, thus less accessible, the actual care.

Meanwhile, we could be exploring different avenues to get there. Medicare for all is one avenue, although I'd like to see Medicare simplified so that it simply paid for whatever care was needed without requiring people to pay more of their limited SS for extra insurance and still not get needed care because of copays and deductibles. Medicare is helping my senior citizen mom pay for her care, but it AND her supplemental insurance together don't cover all of her costs.

That's how I'm spending today; I'm leaving in a few minutes to provide care-taking for my mom, just released from the hospital yesterday, because everything she had to cover HER part of the expenses for her surgery doesn't leave enough for the extra it costs for after-care. We're taking turns taking days off from work and scheduling shifts to do that for her, each of us eating a loss of income to do so ourselves.

My son, who has insurance acquired through the ACA, is taking the night shifts with my mom. He can't afford to miss any work, because he's trying to pay his own medical bills. Bills that insurance did not cover. So he's working each day and spending each night with her.

We'll never truly "solve" health CARE in the U.S. until insurance and profit are not part of that solution. The primary purpose of insurance is to limit care in service to their bottom line.