but.... the damage is already done. A large portion of the populace is dependent on it.... making it exceptionally difficult to claw it back and disband it.

The Washington Post just admitted what conservatives have been saying for 15 years:

"The real problem is that Obamacare was never actually affordable"

Even Jeff Bezos's paper can't ignore the truth anymore. Once you create dependency on government handouts, it becomes… pic.twitter.com/OpnbNTBtiA

— Stephen Moore (@StephenMoore) October 7, 2025

Cloward-Piven Strategy


The ACA was designed to fail.

Difficult to disband fully, but work on better neutralizing its harmful effects. Get some legislation passed that undos McCain's meddling and makes lasting some of Trump's nullifications of it.

When you can't get rid of something, the next goal should be to seek to restrict the area and percentage it impacts, the harm it does.

CDUB98 said:

---

Cloward-Piven Strategy


The ACA was designed to fail.

---

To be replaced by a UK/Canada style government run system.

And, because of this, very soon you'll have Dems ramping up their rhetoric about Single Payor or Universal Healthcare.

Have already shared this. I'm 51 and my wife is 49.

To get an ACA Bronze plan which is the "cheapest" plan, we are looking at $1,300 to $1,500 per month in premiums and a $12-15K annual deductible.

YouBet said:

---

Have already shared this. I'm 51 and my wife is 49.

To get an ACA Bronze plan which is the "cheapest" plan, we are looking at $1,300 to $1,500 per month in premiums and a $12-15K annual deductible.

---

And under those conditions, you may as well go self-pay if you both are in good health.

Are they saying it's unaffordable because of the cost of the program or because of the premiums paid by users?

One has a solution of cutting the program but the other has the solution of expanding the program because it hasn't gone far enough.

Rapier108 said:

---

CDUB98 said:

---

Cloward-Piven Strategy


The ACA was designed to fail.

---

To be replaced by a UK/Canada style government run system.

---

Good point.

Last i checked, the government always finds a way to expand in every administration, so even if ACA was gotten rid of the Swamp abhors a vacuum that they can't fill with something they'll be able to benefit from.

[Do not bypass obscenity filters -- Staff]

Sorry staff! /cheer

No poop Sherlock. All of us in healthcare when it launched knew it would be unsustainable.

YouBet said:

---

Have already shared this. I'm 51 and my wife is 49.

To get an ACA Bronze plan which is the "cheapest" plan, we are looking at $1,300 to $1,500 per month in premiums and a $12-15K annual deductible.

---

Holy Moly?! Really!?

That's just insane. If that was the only choice would just have to say f it and continue until founder.

The premium is horrendous - but that deductible really ups the ante---- it makes it useless in all but most of the severe cases.

CDUB98 said:

---

YouBet said:

---

Have already shared this. I'm 51 and my wife is 49.

To get an ACA Bronze plan which is the "cheapest" plan, we are looking at $1,300 to $1,500 per month in premiums and a $12-15K annual deductible.

---

And under those conditions, you may as well go self-pay if you both are in good health.

---

Correct, which we are/do. It also has the added disadvantage of not being accepted by many good doctors.

It's been ruled out. Just need a catastrophic option.

YouBet said:

---

CDUB98 said:

---

YouBet said:

---

Have already shared this. I'm 51 and my wife is 49.

To get an ACA Bronze plan which is the "cheapest" plan, we are looking at $1,300 to $1,500 per month in premiums and a $12-15K annual deductible.

---

And under those conditions, you may as well go self-pay if you both are in good health.

---

Correct, which we are/do. It also has the added disadvantage of not being accepted by many good doctors.

It's been ruled out. Just need a catastrophic option.

---

At least you're not getting "taxed" for it anymore

titan said:

---

YouBet said:

---

Have already shared this. I'm 51 and my wife is 49.

To get an ACA Bronze plan which is the "cheapest" plan, we are looking at $1,300 to $1,500 per month in premiums and a $12-15K annual deductible.

---

Holy Moly?! Really!?

That's just insane. If that was the only choice would just have to say f it and continue until founder.

The premium is horrendous - but that deductible really ups the ante---- it makes it useless in all but most of the severe cases.

---

Yep. I retired and my wife is self-employed so we are in the no man's land for coverage. Someone posted a link to an Aggie that specializes in finding health insurance for folks like my wife and I so I'm going to call her. I just don't know what the full landscape of options are for poeple like us beyond ACA and Medishare (Christian based cost sharing program).

Yep, $1500 per month on the BCBS HMO (there was not a single PPO plan on the exchange last year) with a 15,000 family deductible and an 18,000 max out of pocket. No premium credits. Biggest bill of my household, larger than my mortgage.

Unironically, thanks a lot Obama. /s

Obama refused to implement major parts of the law from the get-go and it's still a disaster, e.g. he refused to penalize individuals who refused to buy HS insurance.

Dems said it would bend the cost curve down. It did not such thing! They said it would end ER use for primary care. ER usage has gone through the roof!

TheHulkster said:

---

Yep, $1500 per month on the BCBS HMO (there was not a single PPO plan on the exchange last year) with a 15,000 family deductible and an 18,000 max out of pocket. No premium credits. Biggest bill of my household, larger than my mortgage.

Unironically, thanks a lot Obama. /s

---

Here's how screwed up that is... I'm still working at 61 and have the BCBS PPO plan which is much better than the HMO plan. $337 per month for the wife and I with a $1,500 family deductible.

If I paid for my employer's contribution -- which early retirees can do before Medicare eligibility -- the total monthly premium would be $1686 for both of us. Expensive, but it's still great insurance with a low deductible.

And my out of pocket max is $7,500 per family.

Government screws everything up.

You should look at some of the liberal responses to that tweet. Absolutely idiotic.

YouBet said:

---

CDUB98 said:

---

YouBet said:

---

Have already shared this. I'm 51 and my wife is 49.

To get an ACA Bronze plan which is the "cheapest" plan, we are looking at $1,300 to $1,500 per month in premiums and a $12-15K annual deductible.

---

And under those conditions, you may as well go self-pay if you both are in good health.

---

Correct, which we are/do. It also has the added disadvantage of not being accepted by many good doctors.

It's been ruled out. Just need a catastrophic option.

---

Obama outlawed many catastrophic type plans.

Trump should ignore the garbage law and allow them to be sold again!

Quote:

---

it banned non-compliant pre-ACA plans that functioned like catastrophic coveragesuch as high-deductible, low-benefit "junk" policies that failed to meet new minimum standards for essential health benefits, annual/lifetime limits, and preventive care. This led to the cancellation of millions of such plans starting in 2014, as insurers could no longer offer them in the individual market.

---

the word junk is the term designated by the lefty Marxists!

The solution is to neuter it - get it down to some basic set of services/benefits like just being able to go in and get a prescription for a simple ailment/infection, etc. Cut out ALL of the specialist treatments, ER expenses above the initial triage cost, etc. Get it down to the basic set of services a normal healthy person needs to just STAY healthy - not provide services for every unhealthy person to GET healthy. If you want better insurance then you should look somewhere else than the government for that.

Logos Stick said:

---

YouBet said:

---

CDUB98 said:

---

YouBet said:

---

Have already shared this. I'm 51 and my wife is 49.

To get an ACA Bronze plan which is the "cheapest" plan, we are looking at $1,300 to $1,500 per month in premiums and a $12-15K annual deductible.

---

And under those conditions, you may as well go self-pay if you both are in good health.

---

Correct, which we are/do. It also has the added disadvantage of not being accepted by many good doctors.

It's been ruled out. Just need a catastrophic option.

---

Obama outlawed many catastrophic type plans.

Trump should ignore the garbage law and allow them to be sold again!

---

Yes he did and Biden quietly reduced options further while he was president. The only way you can get a catastrophic plan via ACA is if you live in poverty.

I was just discussing this with a co-worker. I know I am bound for Medicare at age 65, so I've been contemplating how to bridge the gap if I retire early.

So apparently Obamacare has a "discount" based on how much you earn, to the point of costing little to nothing if you have no income? It seems the secret is to avoid making any 401k withdrawals until you are finally on Medicare. Any Roth withdrawals are not considered income, so you would need to live on that and cash savings in the interim.

Gotta play the system.

One hyphenated word- Medi-Share

torrid said:

---

I was just discussing this with a co-worker. I know I am bound for Medicare at age 65, so I've been contemplating how to bridge the gap if I retire early.

So apparently Obamacare has a "discount" based on how much you earn, to the point of costing little to nothing if you have no income? It seems the secret is to avoid making any 401k withdrawals until you are finally on Medicare. Any Roth withdrawals are not considered income, so you would need to live on that and cash savings in the interim.

Gotta play the system.

---

Yeah, it's based on your MAGI. The subsidies go up to 400% from the poverty level if I recall correctly. Beyond that, you pay full freight.

The other thing you have to consider thought is that not every doctor or hospital will take it. So, if you have certain doctors you like or want to use it would behoove you to find out if they will take it in the first place before you sign up.

Bulldog73 said:

---

One hyphenated word- Medi-Share

---

I'm just signed up for this. Do you have experience with it you can share?

There are income minimums.

If you have no income you get put on Medicaid or do to the ER and have the hospital district pay the cost of an ER visit

Not if you have assets.

annie88 said:

---

Absolutely idiotic.

---

That's why I don't look at them.

Yep, it's amazing how poorly designed and managed the entire system is. And unfortunately, we're married to it as we are self-employed and my kid has T1D, so we can't go off-exchange because we have to have the guaranteed issue/no medical underwriting plans as we'd be declined for everything else.

I don't mind paying for insurance as we're definitely the unhealthy ones that the healthy insureds backstop. But at the end of the day, the uninsurable like us and the exploding costs of care were the problems that should've been addressed back in 2008 with, say, expansion of high risk pools, across state lines insurance sales, etc, rather than forcing everyone into a worse plan at higher costs and the oddball premium credits scheme that tried to hide the new taxes by having insurance companies charge differing amounts based on income.

The whole thing feels dumb and clunky, and surely this isn't the best system American minds can come up with.

We ALL predicted this would happen. Anyone with a brain knew this was the goal and likely result.

Name one thing that gets cheaper by adding another governmental layer into the process. Just one. You can't because adding inefficiency makes things inefficient. Shocking, I know.

So many lies were told to get this thing passed. And they knew, once it was passed, it would be nearly impossible to take it back.


I had a friend who purchased a plan on the exchange. It was the cheapest option for them at the time, for a disabled adult son. Problem was, none of the doctors they needed to see, accepted it. They had to take who they could get, and the care was sub-par.

No one talks about that part of it. Not only is it not affordable, it's useless.

So everything the right said at the time has proven true, and everything the left said at the time has proven to be false. Hmmm.

YouBet said:

---

Bulldog73 said:

---

One hyphenated word- Medi-Share

---

I'm just signed up for this. Do you have experience with it you can share?

---

DM sent

Quote:

---

They had to take who they could get, and the care was sub-par.

---

And this is all any of us would get under single payer.

Impossibly complex (intentionally) becomes impossible to fix (intentionally)...

Healthcare
Tax codes
Regulatory compliance
Etc, etc, etc

Leaving you with no choice but compliance, which begets dependence, which begets servitude