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Comment by MicroBerto | Hacker News Reader

Altman acts like buying insurance was impossible when self employed pre-ACA. Give me a break.

I shopped online and bought a sensible plan just like anything else. There were tons of choices and plenty of competition.

This whole notion that we'll all be doomed without it is utter rubbish. The entire Healthcare system is broken, starting from our agricultural subsidies to our ridiculous prescription drug prices (which many pharma-lobbied Democrats just voted to keep high) to the artificially low supply of doctors (you don't need 12 years of school to prescribe penicillin).

ACA is just 2000 pages of nonsense on top of all of that. We can do better at all facets.

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I'm not sure why I bother but;

1. I shopped online and bought a sensible plan just like anything else.

There are literally more than 50 million Americans with pre-existing conditions that would disqualify them from buying insurance at any price. Many of them were fortunate to have employer-backed insurance, but that doesn't change the fact that they were desperately dependent on it.

2. (which many pharma-lobbied Democrats just voted to keep high)

41 Republicans voted against it, 13 Democrats did. Singling out the Democrats calls into question your intentions..

3. you don't need 12 years of school to prescribe penicillin

The ACA and other changes have greatly expanded the responsibilities of PAs and NPs. They can treat and prescribe in nearly every setting. CRNAs and DNPs are working more independently than ever. In addition; over 25 new medical schools have been established in the past 8 years, along with over 6,000 additional residency positions (which are paid for via CMS funds.)

> Altman acts like buying insurance was impossible when self employed pre-ACA. Give me a break.

It was impossible if you had any pre-existing conditions, no matter how trivial.

So, is the argument here that more expensive healthcare shouldn't make for more expensive insurance?

I'm not making any argument except pointing out that for many people with pre-existing conditions, buying health insurance pre-ACA was indeed actually impossible.

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