There was a Tea Party person on C-Span a little while ago going on and on about how we have to do away with the Affordable Care Act (aka "Obamacare") so we can retain control over doctor-patient relationships. I actually worked my way through a couple of detailed explanations of the A.C.A. and that led me to the conclusion that much of the opposition to it flows from folks who have no clue what's actually in it, folks who do know but have decided to fib in order to rally the troops against it, and maybe folks who currently have some phenomenal health insurance that covers absolutely everything including pre-existing conditions and every single procedure and prescription that might be ordered by any doctor they go to.
This thing about "doctor-patient relationships" really stuns me. First off, I don't think these folks get that under the A.C.A., if you presently have health insurance, that will not change. Mine won't. I mean, it might change in ways that it would change with no Obamacare in the land and my premiums will surely go up (and up and up…) as health insurance premiums always do. The A.C.A. might actually lower them a tad but I'm sure not counting on that, and I'll be satisfied if we can just make them rise slower than my blood pressure does when I deal with my insurance company.
I'm with one of the five biggest health insurers in the land. They're always interfering with my relationship with my doctors, telling me they won't cover this or that. They recently decided to stop paying for a very expensive medicine one of my doctors has me on and recommended several others he could prescribe instead. He didn't like any of them as much so he gave me as many free samples as he could scrounge up and I'm now paying out-of-pocket for the balance of what I need. If I couldn't afford to do that then my insurance company would have effectively forced me into a medication other than the one my doctor recommended.
And the system as it stands interferes all the time. The best physician I ever had changed firms and my insurance was worthless at the new firm. But if I'd changed insurers to one that paid for him at the new firm (a big expense of time and money), the new insurer wouldn't have covered my gastroenterologist of choice. One insurance company or another would be telling me I couldn't have the guy I wanted to have treat me.
If Obamacare did that kind of thing (which it does not), opponents of that bill would scream that it's government-controlled health care that interferes with my relationship with my doctors…but they're fine with having Delta or Anthem or Blue Shield make those decrees. They think it should be a totally "open market" and don't get that it would still be just as much of one under the A.C.A.
The guy on C-Span was claiming falsely that under Obamacare, none of us could pick the insurance company we want to have cover us and it's of paramount importance that we be able to do that. If I could have spoken with him, I would have said, "You're right. I'd like to be able to pick the Public Option because I'm sick of being insured by a company motivated wholly by profits. Do you agree that folks like me should be able to make that choice? Or how do you feel about making Medicare available to all? Should Americans have the right to choose that?"