Of course, it’s difficult to talk about healthcare reform in the US without addressing the Affordable Care Act. The ACA is a subject that has become even more contentious than usual in recent months, as Republicans rush to implement their new healthcare bill. Many on the right of the political spectrum view “Obamacare” as a step towards a socialist single-payer healthcare system, but the ACA has its detractors on the left, too. Many liberals and socialists feel that Obamacare is a move in the right direction, but that it is ultimately ineffectual. They claim that the ACA is not adequately funded or organized, resulting in a half-measure that greatly inconveniences many Americans by placing unreasonable financial burdens on them to support other users.
Six of One, Half a Dozen of the Other
If we take both arguments into consideration then we can see that each one has valid points. A top-down federal solution will not work politicians do not have the freedom to exercise the political will to do it. We also cannot make major reforms that would move the country towards universal care. We should be wary of single-payer systems which would be ruinously unworkable in the United States. Care is readily available in large, well-developed single-payer countries like Canada and the United Kingdom, big procedures come with long waits. America’s demographics and population size means that a single-payer system would create a new entitlement that we could never support.
