What I think is being lost in the debate between those who feel like the government ought to fund health care, and those who seem intent on justifying the costs of private/insurance run health care, is the reality that if the free market doesn't fix this problem, people will demand a government solution, and make it happen.
This is fucking with people's actual lives, and more importantly, that of their loved ones.
I am overwhelmingly in support of a private solution to this problem but I don't see any. What I do see is a kind of fatalism of "well this is just how much health care costs."
"This is just how much health care costs" is a bright shining road to socialism, especially if things continue in this direction.
I have said before that what is likely to truly disrupt health care is when businesses that provide health insurance to their workers drop it because it's too expensive to provide anymore.
And that is where we are heading.
I have no solution (I am not an expert in any of this) but if free marketeers want to keep health care a free market, shrugging over the ludicrous price of medical care is not the way to do it. It won't be a matter of "should we" or some kind of public debate. People will demand it.
The only thing that stands in oppposition to a possibly budget-busting/bankrupting national health care scheme is employer-provided health insurance.
If businesses were to collude in some way and drop it all at once, well...
The Republicans have had a lot of opportunities to attempt something - anything (more competition?) to stop the spiraling costs of health care, and they've done nothing - fuck all.
What they are doing now will also not fix things, however pleasing it may be to some Republican constituents. They may well get away with it with Democrats at their lowest point of my lifetime, but they will return at some point in the future, and probably with younger, more Millennial-focused leadership.
This debate is almost beside the point: Republicans need to get a serious handle on this shit now when they control everything, or they will lose the entire thing to socialized health care of some sort, and probably within the next 10-15 years.
I suspect, based on what they seem to be focused on, they are about to fuck up very badly.