Originally Posted by Villages Kahuna

I honestly don't remember whether it was ever alleged that ACA would pay for itself. Maybe in its original version submitted to Congress, it might have been self-funding. But after the lobbyists and Congress finished re-writing it, we have what we have.

Going back and saying, "...but you promised" won't do any more good than it does in the millions of divorces that happen each year. ACA has elements that are attractive, fundamental to an advanced society and absolutely needed if we are to begin to get healthcare costs under control. I don't think it's debatable that fundamental healthcare reform is needed in this country. The path we were on was both unaffordable and wasn't producing good results for all Americans.

So rather than look backwards saying that a promise has been broken, maybe we should look forward and think about placing much of what's in ACA on a list of important national priorities. Then start coming up with two answers...

• How do we pay for it without increasing the deficit and the national debt?

• How do we amend ACA to remove those elements placed in it only to satisfy special narrow interests, modify parts to make it better, and add what might be needed to both improve American healthcare and truly "bend the cost curve" to make our fundamental health and well-being something all Americans can afford over the long term.

Let me say what I think shouldn't be done--repealing ACA would return the national debate back to the bitterness and total confusion of 2008. It would remove tens of millions of citizens from having reasonable healthcare insurance. And it would place the trend of costs back on a path that will drive this country into bankruptcy even faster. Repeal might be an option to be considered if we knew we could rely on Congress to come up with an improved, more affordable replacement. But we all know that placing such reliance on a divisive, ideologized, increasingly divided legislative body is not a reasonable expectation. I haven't heard even one member of Congress or the presumed Republcan candidate for president suggest what a replacement should include. So I think we'd better start fixing the broken parts of ACA and stop wasting time creating all those repeal soundbites, stump speeches and TV ads.