The legislators had the best intentions to be sure, but they were a bit clueless as to the real world reception of said flawed product. Obama making over the top promises (keep your doc, keep your plan, gonna save big bucks) didn't help the public's digestion.

One big detrimental aspect of ACA often overlooked by the champions, especially those actually on a subsidized plan, is that deductibles can cripple you financially regardless of your monthly premium. As an oncologist buddy of mine stated "There are winners and there are losers". To be fair, the losers are a small minority such as self employed people in deserts like Cville making more than 70k per couple (arguably not wealthy by anyone's definition. But despite our small minority, the outrage is real because the pain is real. In my case, back and knee issues that must go unattented to due to lack of insurance. I never wish you or anyone else has to face the prospect of Advil daily until Medicare kicks in 9 years from now.

So it's like the analogy of illegal immigration. It is not an outrage for those people untouched by it's negative affects, but don't sing that same song to a person who has had a loved one killed by an illegal immigrant. Here is another analogy since it's how I roll. The heat in your fancy Arlington house is kinda sorta working. Not greatly efficient, but functional. So you call up your local HVAC guy who comes out, tinkers with it, sends you a bill and 3 days later it goes out completely. "Hey, man", you explain via the latest iPhone "it was working before now it is completely tits up". He shrugs his shoulders and says "Yo, I tried my best to fix it". At the end of the day you are still freezing your ass off and pine for the days when the uber expensive strip heat kept your fingers warm enough to post on the Sabre late into the night. Final analogy of the night (I know you are bummed). You call up your pal and bemoan your situation. You say how you "got screwed" by the guy who came to fix your heat pump. Your buddy doesn't seem very empathetic instead shrugging off your woes with the phrase "I have gas heat. Never gives me a problem".

There were lots wrong with the pre-ACA world and it was a noble goal to make an effort to revamp the health insurance industry, but it was never going to happen primarily because the big insurers would always have to make sure they were benefiting from such changes. At the end of the day, I just think it was too much to bite off and the realizations of success with a cobbled together public/private partnership were unworkable.

Oh well, time to go check on the livestock ..........