this post was submitted on 17 May 2026
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The last time Democrats had a filibuster -proof legislative trifecta it was for 3 months and they passed Obamacare. When they don't have Republicans blocking them every step of the way, they actually do work to improve things. They aren't perfect by a long shot, but Democrats are the best of two options by far.
Obamacare was the implementation of a 1989 Heritage Foundation plan to implement an individual mandated health care system.
Also by no available metric did Obamacare "improve things". Healthcare costs rose significantly above the pre-ACA trend, bankruptcy increased, and health outcomes plummeted across nearly all metrics.
Didn't the ACA get rid of insurers denying coverage based on "pre-existing conditions"?
Yes but that was also a part of Romneycare, ie the heritage version implemented in MA under Romney being Governor
Sure, but you're assuming that "coverage" leads to better outcomes. I remember diabetes being one of the big ones at the time and is avery maneagble disease.
So, what was the hospitalization rate before and after? Did it decrease as was promised? Is diabetes unique or does this trend hold for the majority of those "pre-existing conditions"?
The ACA would have passed much faster if they didn't try "working across the aisle" with the Republicans. If I remember, the original plan was to expand medicare to encompass more people who need it but negotiated to what Mitt Romney passed in his state while governor. Then the Republicans all voted against what they wanted. So the Democrats are either a paid opposition party or so absolutely naive to the dealings of Republicans and keep stepping on that rake. As well instead of making it a stepping stone they don't really talk about improving it either. Also in that time they could have enshrined abortion rights into law that is harder to overthrow than a supreme court ruling.
No matter how your parse things, the Democrats aren't good.
You're making the point for us. Obamacare is a 90s conservative proposal, it also completely killed the possibility of single payer healthcare for a generation. Republicans ratchet things right and then Democrats lock it in, great example you provided thank you.
Yup. And they did a switch to remove the public option, since they had an obvious ability with 60 votes. They had Lieberman play the rotating villain, and removed the public option so they could supposedly get GOP votes.
When they got no GOP votes, they passed it anyways, through reconciliation - but didn't put the public option back in. They literally chose to leave it out.
Not only a 90s conservative proposal, it was written by the Heritage Foundation. Democrats have never found legislation written by them that they didn't love.
When was the last time Republicans had a 60-vote majority in the Senate? Why do you need 60 votes to fix that which didn't take 60 votes to break?
Then its time for a third option.
Obamacare forced every American to purchase private health insurance. It wasn't a victory for anyone but United and Aetna.