Why this renewed assault? “Obamacare Sucks!!!” declared the former and possibly future president. For those offended by the language, these are Trump’s own words, and I think I owe it to my readers to report what he actually said, not sanitize it. Trump also promised to provide “MUCH BETTER HEALTHCARE” without offering any specifics.

So let’s discuss substance here. Does Obamacare, in fact, suck? And can we believe Trump’s promise to offer something much better?

  • Anamnesis@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    Obamacare does suck. It’s a shitty half measure that leaves thousands to die from lack of health insurance every year and costs us a ton of money that goes straight to middle men that provide no health care.

    It’s better than what we had before. But we need universal healthcare.

      • Goku@lemmy.world
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        1 year ago

        We need healthcare reform. Trump is not equipped for this job, however.

        Also he is not capable of appointing someone to work for him who is equipped for this job.

        • MechanicalJester@lemm.ee
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          1 year ago

          Agreed.

          Medical billing is a pachinko game that provides no health benefits. I’ve overseen things and had things like medicaid/medicare billing mapped out and it’s terrifyingly stupid. It makes our tax laws look rather simple.

          We can’t even trust cost plus models because of the for profit games like:

          Hey we need 1000 bandaids at the hospital. Ok, how about 1000 for $100 bulk? Uh…no we need special ones. Um okay how about 1000 individually packaged bandaids hand prepared atop Mt Olympus by golden haired virgins during intense thunderstorms for 1000 bucks each? Perfect!

          Because they have to defend only making cost plus a fixed percentage of profit so better to make 15k than 15 bucks. Jackassery

          I’m not against financial rewards for superior products but there’s nothing like that in healthcare here. Financial incentives for better outcomes might be good, but instead every incentive begs for bad things.

          Trump promised a plan, teased it constantly, never released one. No plan except getting rid of Obamacare.

  • Dagwood222@lemm.ee
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    1 year ago

    The GOP has been talking ‘repeal and replace’ the ACA since the day it was passed. Over a decade and they are still trying to come up with a better plan.

    • PunnyName@lemmy.world
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      They aren’t trying to replace. They’re trying to kill. If it has Obama’s name anywhere near it (or anything Democrats do), they want it to die. Including Obama himself.

      • CharlesDarwin@lemmy.world
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        1 year ago

        Just like Social Security, they were worried about having the problem of a good example of yet another government service that people like. It doesn’t matter if it is overwhelmingly popular, they want to kill it.

    • BarqsHasBite@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      They 1) think free market is better by definition and 2) don’t believe in social programs. So they don’t need to replace, just repeal.

      • logicbomb@lemmy.world
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        1 year ago

        They 1) think free market is better by definition

        They may pretend that they think that. Some small few may even think that they think that. But they don’t actually think that.

        The easiest way to see what people believe is to observe their actions.

        Republicans are absolutely fine with handing out big juicy government contracts to a select few contractors, for example, instead of letting the market decide.

        Republicans are absolutely fine with banning books from libraries instead of letting the market decide.

        Republicans are absolutely fine with starting a trade war with China, instead of letting the market decide.

        Republicans are absolutely fine with banning women’s access to medical care, instead of letting the market decide.

        Republicans are absolutely fine with interfering with the free market and giving tons of cash to large corporations.

        No, Republicans do not think free market is better by definition. They simply lie and say that when the alternative is to admit that their policy is rooted in bigotry.

      • pelespirit
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        1 year ago
        1. don’t believe in social programs.

        Except for the military, that’s a social program.

          • pelespirit
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            1 year ago

            There’s a lot to unpack in that statement.

            • We’re talking about the GOP in general
            • We’re also not talking about veterans because they get way less benefits once they’re out of the military
            • It’s not just healthcare, but college and housing
            • I’m also inferring that it’s a social program for the military complex
            • BarqsHasBite@lemmy.world
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              Point is they don’t give two shits about the people in the military. Use and discard. But they like the concept of a military because rah rah USA USA we can win wars. Not because it can be argued as a social program, that part they can do without.

              • pelespirit
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                Again, I’m inferring that the social program is for the military weapons manufacturers because they get a shit ton of money and it helps the economy…

        • BarqsHasBite@lemmy.world
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          I couldn’t believe when that storm happened and some Republican (Texan I think) got on TV and says “what are you the people doing to solve this?” They bought hard into private market solves everything.

    • frezik@midwest.social
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      Which they can’t, because it’s already the most conservative plan that had any chance of working. It doesn’t even work well, it just had some kind of chance.

      • Dagwood222@lemm.ee
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        1 year ago

        Apparently, Obama himself told Trump that he, Obama, would not call Trump out if he decided to label it ‘Trumpcare.’ All Donnie had to do was change a few lines in the ACA and then declare victory! He could have plastered his face all over the site and made plenty of his voters happy. No one hates Trump’s voters more than Trump.

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    1 year ago

    Because it doesn’t have his name on it. He’s made a career of slapping his name on things other people created.

    • lando55@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      I remember him doing everything in his power to not have his name attached to the proposed ACA replacement, which is really saying something

  • RubberStuntBaby@kbin.social
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    1 year ago

    Trump, and Republicans in general, love destroying anything Obama did or cares about.

    Remember though that Trump often says things just because they make his crowds cheer. Also, although he had almost 5 years he never even managed to release an outline of a plan, though I do think they are preparing much more for a second term.

  • agitatedpotato@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    Donald Trump has an inferiority complex to Obama and I’d wager its emboldened by his racism. This was kind of a big feature of his presidency, he showed the desire and capacity to un-obama everything he could.

  • cyd@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    Same reason he wants a 1980s style trade war against Japan. He doesn’t think much about issues, so once he decides a soundbite is a good one, he’ll use it for decades.

    • FuglyDuck@lemmy.world
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      And employers. Keep in mind if you can’t afford healthcare without a job paying for it… the. You have to work, and they use that to keep you in line,

      And they take it out of your earnings, so, they’re still not loosing anything

  • givesomefucks@lemmy.world
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    This is why “compromise” is a shit strategy when dealing with Republicans, even if it works.

    We got a more conservative plan than what Mitt Romeny had drawn up, and now we’ve got “moderate” Dems who agree with Republicans that it went too far.

    If Mitt Romeny had won, we’d unironically be in a better position with healthcare. Because Republicans would have seen the boost from Romney doing it, and wouldnt blindly oppose anything better.

    And even the “moderate” Dems would have to support improvements, because they’re always just to the left of Republicans. But never further to the right

    But since Obama was president at the time, it might be decades till we get something better.

    • Pronell@lemmy.world
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      Problem is here than Romney did NOT draw up “Romneycare” and even vetoed eight sections of the bill, even though all of those vetoes were eventually overridden by the Legislature.

    • OldWoodFrame@lemm.ee
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      Wild take. If Romney was president they would have just ignored health care as an issue like Bush had just done for 8 years.

  • EatYouWell@lemmy.world
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    He wants to repeal it because it’s an easy method of getting his base riled up, because they hate (are afraid of) black people.

    Simple as that.

  • Fedizen@lemmy.world
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    1. The ACA does suck, but it sucks less than pre-existing conditions
    2. Trumps record with NAFTA is probably a good template. Made the deal sweeter for tech bro companies and as part of the deal settled on very narrow improvement in labor standards because canada insisted on it.
    3. We can probably expect he would rename the ACA into like trumpcare or something and add some boondoggles for insurers. Maybe dismantle medicare.
    • Zink@programming.dev
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      If he were to get reelected, Congress should pass a bill renaming Obamacare to Trumpcare before Inauguration Day. It’s so stupid it might just work.

      Hopefully instead he’s just grumbling about the world in jail by then, but we’ll see.

  • ArugulaZ@kbin.social
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    Because he never gave us a health care plan and knowing Obama did it (using a blueprint from his other enemy, Mitt Romney) makes his pee-pee feel small.

  • CharlesDarwin@lemmy.world
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    Cuz Obama is a Blah and also made fun of little donnie at the correspondent’s dinner and he haz a sad about that ever since. Also explains why little donnie is a birther, too.

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    Like everything, he dislikes Obama a lot. He needs to blow up something kind of good. Then, “replace” it with something better that is always 2 weeks out from sharing. I’m pretty sure it’ll be called “Trump Cares, He Really Doesn’t Care”

  • PorradaVFR@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    Aw give the fella two weeks and he’ll surely come up with something.

    (Well, four years plus two weeks maybe)

    • CharlesDarwin@lemmy.world
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      Well, give him four years + three weeks, since he’ll need room for Infrastructure Week somewhere in there.

      • PorradaVFR@lemmy.world
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        My bad. With the sole exception of everybody who has actually seen it, nobody has seen an infrastructure week you know. Tears in their eyes. Huge.

    • Asafum@feddit.nl
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      He just need two more weeks. Just two more. He needed two more weeks 6 years ago, but now I really pinkey swear guys, just two more weeks and we’ll have the best damn Trumpdoesntcare health plan ever!