My husband now brings home less pay than 5 years ago, despite yearly raises, because of this damn healthcare crap causing our contributions to skyrocket. We have to shell out $7k before it covers ANYTHING except the mandated well-child visits. So...whoopee! Free cheap-ass vaccines, but have fun paying $7k of your daughters $16k 3-day hospital stay bill!!!!! A bill that would have cost us $150 5 years ago, total.

Obamas plan: turn the middle class into the poor, so it's all fair, except for the elite of course, who get exempted. We live in the USSR, people. It's done.

I like some of the POV's of a lot of the republican contenders. But I will only vote for someone who promises to end this fucking nightmare.

Obamacare was a fraud from day 1. They wanted a single payer system, but they knew that would be too much at one bite. So they set out to crash the current system. "Never let a crisis go to waste." And if the crisis won't appear on its own, make one.

That said, if you want to see US government run single payer, look no further than the VA. How's that working out?

I've been the beneficiary of Emperor Teh Won's exemptions, as my employer has been deferred until next year, I think. Or maybe this year.

Yeah, I'm on a prescription medicine that costs $400/month. Insurance used to pay about 75% of it over the course of the year, but now it pays nada unless we have a bunch of other expenses, becuase our yearly deductible has gone up to $9000.

(That's putting aside the question of whether insurance should be paying on a maintenance drug at all. As we know, in a properly structured insurance system, it would not. However, per the system as it exists or did before Obamacare, it should. The system mandated by the ACA is the worst of both worlds for the middle class -- you pay for comprehensive coverage, but you only get catastrophic-care coverage. And my prescription would probably cost a lot less than $400 on an open market.)

But I will only vote for someone who promises to end this fucking nightmare.

Anyone doing so will be villified in the press as waging a war on women, war on the poor, or war on those without health insurance.

More than a few people will vote for the candidate offering them "free stuff". Maybe I'm too cynical, and think poorly of my fellow voters[*] but it will require people to sack up and take some personal responsibility.

[*] in the TV show "Battle Creek", an FBI agent is cheery and trusting in people, while the local detective is cynical and bitter. At one point, the FBI agent is going on about the good qualities he thinks people have, and the detective asks Do you even know people?

Here's Obama in 2009 whinging about a 5.5% increase:/www.whitehouse.gov/assets/documents/Health_Insurance_Premium_Report.pdf.
Of course his solution has created chaos and will eventually double health care costs.
He lied about what was in the bill. It was passed by a narrow margin on Christmas Eve. He's micro-managed it by executive order - passing out extensions and exemptions. Of the 23 state insurance Co-ops set up, most of them are in the red. CoOpportunity Health of Iowa is the bastard poster child for the ACA's failure.
And frankly, I've never paid a cent toward Obamacare and I don't give a rat's ass if I die first.

Do you even know people? -

I adored that show and it broke my heart to hear it was canceled after 1 season. Wish this show could find new life on cable, but I don't think that's happening.

Statistically speaking, the only coverage improvements Obamacare has made has been through a vast expansion of medicaid. They could have given away 10 million free medicaid policies with a 1 page bill and saved the rest of us a lot of money and headaches.

In the houston area we are thinking up new and creative ways to force the poor off of their current insurance (run by the county) and onto obamacare. It is quite telling that even with all of the subsidies and support o-care costs more and doesn't provide the same level of heath care that previously existed.

Maybe they can fall back on 'do it for the children'. I guess they need to suffer as much as the rest of us.

If you search for "The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act" at congress.gov, you will see all sorts of attempts to modify and/or defund it.

None make as much sense as this, but since *that* doesn't increase government powers - which can be extended to "discourage" activities bureaucrats don't approve - it won't get considered.