The first person to truly float insurance reform was a republican. Romney Care. The DEMs literally went no further than Republicans. That tells you how much they truly tried. Not a lot.
Insurance reform pushes are older than that. The democratic and republican healthcare reform plans from the Clinton era famously both had insurance reform as an element of the reform plans.
The ACA does have similarities to the old Massachusetts plan, but it does go farther in a number of places. Employer mandates are a good example of that. That was an element taken from the old Clinton plan. Most in the GOP never liked that mandate.
Given that most in the GOP moved pretty far to the right in the 15 years between the last national healthcare push, and the dems needed 9 GOP votes to get to 60 in the senate, what was the alternative? Most of the national GOP were basically for the “let the uninsured go bankrupt and die” plan.
The first person to truly float insurance reform was a republican. Romney Care. The DEMs literally went no further than Republicans. That tells you how much they truly tried. Not a lot.
Insurance reform pushes are older than that. The democratic and republican healthcare reform plans from the Clinton era famously both had insurance reform as an element of the reform plans.
The ACA does have similarities to the old Massachusetts plan, but it does go farther in a number of places. Employer mandates are a good example of that. That was an element taken from the old Clinton plan. Most in the GOP never liked that mandate.
Given that most in the GOP moved pretty far to the right in the 15 years between the last national healthcare push, and the dems needed 9 GOP votes to get to 60 in the senate, what was the alternative? Most of the national GOP were basically for the “let the uninsured go bankrupt and die” plan.