Harkin: OBAMACARE Should Have Been SINGLE-PAYER But 'WE BLEW IT'

[merrily]

283. It was indeed a single payer prevention act, but, oh, so much more.

Medical cost was the single largest cause of individual (i.e., not business) bankruptcies in the US and creditors don't like bankruptcies, even creditors who are doctors and hospitals. Hospitals also wanted out of the burden of providing emergency room care whether or not the person had insurance or other means to pay. The AMA and hospital associations are some rich and powerful lobbies.

PHRMA wanted to be covered, too, including the doughnut hole because poor people were doing without medication when they could not afford it. PHRMA also wanted to block drug reimportation, which Obama did kill. (I think Dingell was the one who had introduced it.)

Health insurers wanted the young and statistically healthy market to make up for the 55-60 plus population who carried private insurance and were not eligible for Medicare.

Hence, those were the groups that were meeting with the then new Obama administration when the ACLU tried to get the White House visitor logs.