Where we are is wretched, where we could've been was worse. There's two ways of making yourself look good, by excelling and by comparing yourself to someone who's doing worse than you. It's the difference between getting a C grade somewhere in the range of 70 to 79 and getting a B grade with the same score because of the curve, making your C a B relative to others in your class.
So it is with Obamacare, which has won a relative victory because the Republicans are currently worse. This doesn't mean that the sloppy, entitlement creating, government/insurance company partnership has improved, it just means that it looks better because the Republicans have revealed what we already knew the Republicans' ideas keep the worst aspects of Obamacare and do little to address the extensive list of failures of Obamacare.
This relativism is the essential ingredient of our weird political environment, with Republicans consistently providing the fodder to allow the abject failure of Democrats to seem not so bad compared to the more abject failure of Republicans.
But consumers lose in this relativism scenario. Sure enough, we still have no universal right to health CARE, we still have no universal access to health INSURANCE, we still are required to purchase the consumer financial product of health insurance under penalty of law, we still have to watch our tax dollars support two-thirds of the costs of Congress and other public employees' health insurance costs in addition to the entitlements paid out under Obamacare, we still have rising health insurance costs, we still have fewer choices and higher rates on exchanges because of the expiring government payoffs under Obamacare to insurers including reinsurance, we still have millions of people under-insured facing enormous financial distress on top of any health crisis they face.
So, let's return to our test grades between 70 and 79 suddenly becoming a B when it's placed on the curve. It's silly to ignore that information. For the test maker it indicates that the basic teaching was inadequate or inaccurately provided information that was not test-worthy. For the test taker it indicates they don't have better than C knowledge of the subject matter, but they're not alone and their knowledge is actually a little better than "most" other test takers. So it is with Obamacare. The problems persist, and only in relation to has the assessment of the law improved for some consumers.
We cannot tackle problems as consumers unless we recognize that the Democratic smug POLITICAL victory of the downfall of Republican plans guarantees that our problems will persist. Even with the bill dead, those entitlement receiving members of Congress could do something.
After all, part of the way the middle class was squeezed to pay for the Obamacare entitlement was the manipulation by government to get more money to pay for the program through increased payroll taxes and the increase of how much we have to spend before we can get the medical expense deduction.
The two percent payroll tax increase imposed by President Obama on working Americans by allowing a reduction in that tax to LAPSE, should be put back in place--Give Americans more of their paychecks. That's possible without repeal/replace or any other grandstanding. Then there's the increase of medical costs to consumers exceeding 10 percent of their income rather than the former 7.5 percent of their income that President Obama also imposed on Americans by allowing the 7.5 percent provisions to lapse. This means we have to spend more before we can take the medical deduction. That too can be restored.
These are LOGICAL first steps, especially (this is the relativistic part) when we consider that Congress is seriously considering restoring the expired payoffs to insurance companies in order to "stabilize" them. Stabilize us Congress, pay for your benefits Congress, and stop the relativistic argument that things could be worse instead of making things better.
