We nearly had a public option in the Affordable Care Act, but then Democrats watered down their proposal before it ever went to up for an actual vote thanks to Lieberman. Which of course ended up making it a huge boon to the insurance companies, resulting in our current state of affairs.
JcbAzPx@lemmy.world 15 hours ago
The public option was never going to be in the final bill. It was there to be negotiated out for republican votes. When they refused to play ball, Lieberman had to play the part of the bad guy.
ViceroTempus@lemmy.world 15 hours ago
Lol, they had a super majority at the time. They never needed the Republican votes.
JcbAzPx@lemmy.world 15 hours ago
A large part of the democratic party identity at the time was bipartisanship. They used that as an excuse to water down any sort of public good legislation. It’s why they started with a republican health insurance reform bill instead of single payer and it’s why they ended up negotiating against themselves to drop the public option in the end.
ViceroTempus@lemmy.world 15 hours ago
I’m well aware. Still doesn’t change the fact that it was a self-inflicted wound, and that they took out a public option when they didn’t need to.