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Comment by jayd16 | Hacker News Reader

I would argue social safety nets that Dems do push for (such as healthcare) do benefit the labor class.

Healthcare is something that would benefit the working class.

Unfortunately one of the side effects of Obamacare is that rates have skyrocketed to the point that many people can't afford it.

There are subsidies, but the premiums / deductibles are still high enough to be basically useless for many people. Add to it that we had a mandate that you needed to have insurance or you'd be fined.

There are a lot of good things that came from Obamacare, namely the removal of pre-existing conditions and the ability to keep your kids on your health insurance after they've left the house.

But there are real issues with the program, and what many people hear when they raise them is effectively "You're just holding it wrong" to steal that old iPhone marketing wank.

I honestly don't know anyone who is against improving healthcare in the US. The main thing people are afraid of is that a well-intended change will make things worse for them.

(This is a rant at this point that I'm not even sure is responding to anything you said)

>Unfortunately one of the side effects of Obamacare is that rates have skyrocketed to the point that many people can't afford it.

Is that really a causal relationship? What I see in the data is annual insurance premiums rising at 3-4X the CPI inflation rate starting in the 1990s and continuing to the present. The ACA was an attempt to address the fallout from this. It may not have been entirely successful in doing that, but it certainly wasn't the cause of the problem.

* Check the McKinsey study and the Commonwealth Fund study for data. In the 3 years prior to the ACA, nationwide premiums averaged a 10% annual increase, in the 3 years after the implementation of the ACA they averaged a 6% annual increase.

> In the 3 years prior to the ACA

I will admit I didn't look at the study. Does this mean the 3 years prior to the law passing or the 3 years prior to the law going into effect?

I would expect insurance companies to start adjusting rates in anticipation of the new law, even if it hasn't taken effect yet.

Huh? A few years ago Obama/Biden were considering what to do about the "entitlement crisis". The famed Simpson-Bowles commission (unsurprisingly they suggested cuts to Medicare and Social Security) [1]. Only Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren (who waffled on M4A, and subsequently faded in the polls) are trying to expand the social safety net. Meanwhile the DNC is trying to do whatever it can to protect their class interests [2][3].

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Commission_on_Fiscal_...

[2] https://www.politico.com/news/2020/01/31/dnc-superdelegates-...

[3] https://www.politico.com/news/2020/01/31/dnc-shifts-debate-r...

You're going to blame Obama/Biden for things they didn't do that never made it out of a bipartisan committee? And this was the same year they passed Obamacare.

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