Gaffe?

To paraphrase Ronald Reagan, "here I go again."

Two days ago Bill Clinton was on the stump and made comments about the Affordable Care Act and the problems in it. His use of "craziest thing" is all the media is talking about and so, of course is Donald Trump, who is the craziest thing to ever come along. I'll get back to the media but let's stay focused. Americans say they want to hear the truth but when it gets said by prominent political figures they either lose their minds or miss the point, largely due to a T.V. media incapable of offering a serious discussion on anything.

If you've read a lot of my commentaries you know that I have honestly stated that the Affordable Care Act as it exists has major problems and must be fixed by the next President. Hillary Clinton has also said this but you probably missed it because of poor reporting. My position does not come from an elite penning op-eds from my summer home out of a sense of liberal guilt or genuine belief in social justice, it comes from the reality of my own life. I started my adult life working for a major corporation that didn't give a shit about any of it's employees except for it's executives. Managers like myself and all other employees were provided the worst catastrophic insurance policies that the industry offered. I then worked in management with a small company that offered nothing but a hope I didn't get sick. I paid for my own horrible catastrophic policy because it was all I could afford, this went on for many years. I then worked for a large corporation that offered decent shared cost insurance for store managers and above. I could finally see doctors and seek medical care when necessary. That company eliminated my division and once again I was in the ditch.

Aetna is pulling out of the A.C.A. in many states not because of unprofitability but out of revenge for not being allowed to buy Humana Health, period. They and their fellow insurance companies, along with the hospital corporations played a significant role in writing the A.C.A. and that's part of the problem.

Until the majority of Americans believe that healthcare is a right and pressure Congress at the ballot box to put it in law this problem is going to continue to grow. If you have private insurance that you love, great, if you're rich and don't want insurance, great but the rest of we mere mortals need an affordable buy in point to the same system and quality of care everyone else is getting. Affordable means based on what you can actually pay, not what insurance companies say they must have to maintain the profit margin that makes them Wall Street darlings.

Opponents of the A.C.A. or doing anything always argue "you don't want rationed care". That is a profoundly moronic statement. Rationed care already exists and it is executed by the private insurance industry. There was only one death panel ever implemented in the healthcare system and that was with your insurance company when it had the legal right to deny you coverage for a preexisting condition, so sorry your sick, now go die and it'll pass. They continue to have more power over your healthcare than your doctor or any government regulation.

Now to the media and the pundits populating these insular studios that seem to be on another planet. On the Bill Clinton comments a lot of truly ridiculous speculations have been made about it without any serious discussions of the A.C.A. itself and the Americans desperately suffering. One pundit, a Pulitzer prize winner no less, stated that he wondered if Bill Clinton was in reality ambivalent about Hillary becoming President. Really? Bill Clinton is ambivalent about there being two Clintons in the Presidential roll call? Bill Clinton is ambivalent about returning to the White House? Bill Clinton is ambivalent about Donald Trump becoming President?

Where the hell do they find these people and why the hell aren't I one of them?