This is the imperatives of a realignment I speak of. In the last two election cycles it was about bringing health care coverage to about 30 million Americans. Part of that approach was to bring costs of premiums down with the individual mandate feature (insure or get fined by the IRS), working with the pharmaceutical industries and the providers to cut down on unnecessary procedures and visits. We've also seen where insurers cannot use the pre-existing condition to deny coverage and children up to 26 years of age can be on family plans.
Then came the cost escalation as the Republican dig in to obstruct claiming its not their plan. So what do we do?
Well, maybe not this election cycle, as making Obamacare versus making it better is on the ballot, but I can see where in 2020 this service will be elevated to the level of a right and some mix of a single payer or more government investment in some ways is coming. It's not masking the costs Caribny. It's about recognizing what to to in terms of mitigation. Is soaring costs a concomitant on medical science progress? Hell no! We can keep health care spending below the 21$ of GDP threshold. That's fixable. We do not have to keep government's spending in all areas of health care services to below 20% of the government budget. And that's not socialized medicine. That's a recognition of the new economics of labor income and mitigating its inadequacies. It fits into the larger picture of income inequality and what to do about it.
Obama is never given credit for this structural change in our economy rewarding structure and its mitigation. We last had a realignment with baby-boomers. Now the catch-phrase is millennials. 20 years from now history will recognize those who saw it coming and Obama will be its standard bearer.