Thanks to the ACA and my state not being run by petulant toddlers, I was able to enroll in Medicaid after years of uninsured underemployment. I got to see doctors and get long-needed medication and even surgery at no cost to me. (If I’d had a bit more income it would have been at almost no cost to me.) I saw many people in various waiting rooms who looked to be in the same boat. The quality of care was not merely better than nothing, but almost shockingly good.
Now I have a fulltime job with generous private health benefits, but I’m waiting until January to actually use them, to avoid spending the 2016 deductible towards the end of the year only to have to spend the 2017 deductible shortly thereafter.
I have not had to deal with the Marketplace directly, and understand that it’s a problematic outgrowth of our stubborn insistence on “market-based solutions,” but on balance the ACA is a damn sight better than the previous situation. Don’t “repeal and replace” it, because Congress won’t get past the “and.” Amend it where it’s broken.
