Sad….. The driving force behind getting rid of the ACA has nothing to do with Obama and his legacy other than he and the Democrats allowed ZERO Republican participation in forming the program. The Democrat goal was to provide everyone with healthcare paid for by other Americans, employers and the States. The program had little concern for the impact of jobs due to increased labor costs, little concern for the long term costs for States due to expanded medicare participation and little concern for personal freedom and responsibility which is a foundation of Conservative ideology. The ACA did not reduce costs and it increased deductibles to a point that for many, its similar to not having insurance at all. For instance our company pays 100% of the premium for its employees (not families). Employees often still choose to go to free clinics instead of paying the $500 deductible which is obscenely low post ACA.

It is foolish and ignorant to think Republicans sit around hoping people die or desiring hardship. However, lets get a few facts out of the way. People will die and will have medical hardship regardless of what plan is passed by either party. Another fact, insurance is very different from medical care. Another fact, we did not have rampant death in the street of people who were refused medical care prior to the ACA. This is not to say the system was fine. We can all agree improvement is possible and desirable.

Perhaps if we can get past the ignorant sentiment of assigning unwarranted hate and a complete lack of compassion on either group, we can improve what will always be an imperfect system. Somewhere between the desire for everyone to get uniformly crappy, limited, untimely overpriced government healthcare and the desire for everyone to take care of themselves as best they can lies the answer. The answer will not be perfect. Its a very complex problem. Failing to have a perfect answer does not make anyone evil.