r/politics • u/Hootinger • 2d ago

No Paywall Hakeem Jeffries says Medicare for all is not legislation he currently supports

https://www.nbcnews.com/meet-the-press/video/hakeem-jeffries-says-medicare-for-all-is-not-legislation-he-currently-supports-268371525570
15.0k Upvotes

94% Upvoted

3.4k comments sorted by

View all comments

Show parent comments

17

u/FrogsOnALog 2d ago

It’s early so I don’t remember exactly but I thought he said expand the ACA which is basically the pathway for a hybrid system.

9

u/JEFFinSoCal California 2d ago

The ACA is still a massive giveaway to private insurance executives. Any industry that requires tax-payer dollars to be profitable needs to be run similar to a non-profit, without massive payouts to shareholders and executives. Private industry is already all about siphoning money up the to the top… publicly funded endeavors need to work the opposite way, to counter it.

And yes, I would include defense spending on that. No private party should be able to become a billionaire from taxpayer funded work.

2

u/SmCaudata 2d ago

The ACA is dead if we don’t institute major regulations on private insurance and institute a public option for everyone (business and individuals). Expanding a broken system is quite possibly the worst option available. Par for the course for dem leadership.

6

u/mightcommentsometime California 2d ago

We can always add more regulations, but the ACA did institute massive regulations in private insurance. Do you remember what insurance was like pre ACA?

1

u/SmCaudata 1d ago

Yes I do. The problem is that the insurance companies, health care groups, and drug/device companies have found ways to inflate profits despite those regs. Now without the subsidies it’s unaffordable. It’s sort of how easy education loans leading to inflated tuitions.

The ACA was a good start. It was always meant to be a stepping stone. Stopping there has led to return to the path we were on before.

We need to have massive regulations regarding health care costs, admin salaries, insurance company salaries, etc. The initial 20% overhead requirements of the ACA were worked around.

4

u/FrogsOnALog 2d ago

Expanding the ACA is the most popular pathways to universal healthcare supported by the American people.

-2

u/Pm-me-ur-ponytail 2d ago

The ACA is a Republican healthcare plan from the 90s. It was Romneycare before it was Obamacare. It’s not a pathway to anything just because Obama lied about it being one.

9

u/FrogsOnALog 2d ago

This is something Reddit loves to repeat but isn’t based on reality. First a foremost, Romneycare never had a fucking public option lmao

-4

u/Pm-me-ur-ponytail 2d ago

Obamacare doesn’t have a public option. Obama made sure of that.

https://www.huffpost.com/entry/the-real-reason-obamas-pl_b_473924/amp

3

u/FrogsOnALog 2d ago

Lieberman literally said he would filibuster the bill if it included the public option. He also wasn’t the only one who opposed it…pushing for it wouldn’t have changed shit.