Glimmer of Hope

“I believe we could do better working together, Republicans and Democrats, and have not yet really tried,” McCain said. “Nor could I support it without knowing how much it will cost, how it will affect insurance premiums, and how many people will be helped or hurt by it.”

While this is not over yet since we haven't reached 10/1 yet, there is at least some hope that this very bad and dangerous bill will not make its way out of the Senate. Sure, there are problems with the ACA. Some of those problems were deliberately caused and continued by Republicans who didn't want Obama to have anything that looked like a victory. But millions of people got access to health care that they had not had prior to the ACA. Millions of people were helped. Yes, in many cases the young and healthy had to pay far more than they expected or wanted for the coverage but that's how insurance works, not just how the ACA works.

John McCain is right that finding out what will happen if the bill passes, but the problem with this bill is that there will be 51 different answers and 51 different solutions. That extra 1 is for Puerto Rico which as a dependent country has access to the benefits or faults of the bill. Since each state will have a different process and different benefits, the analysis will be incomplete and premature before September 30.

John McCain is also correct that working together, really working together, can only improve the outcome. Rather than having one side of the aisle taking pot shots (figuratively) at the other side simply because it is the other side makes any discussion, any government, difficult.