Disclaimer: this is just me talking, not as staff. I haven't been thrilled with how the community nor staff have treated this topic, and before we completely lose the ability to speak about anything at all (like that Biden "quote", I saw the interview and it's not what he said), I want to address a few posts made a short time ago regarding healthcare:
Under the ACA I have been made to change plans several times, including having to pay full price for coverage for one period of time, and losing my doctor to concierge service (meaning paying extra for more "private services" which I didn't want to do even if I could). I have a kid to look out for. You want to stick with the ACA or "go back" to it? Me neither.
I don't know if I'm ever sharing a doctor's office with a "poor person". My medical is with the city's health system, so I assume I am, and that my doctor is as well, she has many types of patients. As do Urgent Care centers open to the public, which we utilize since they are closer and more direct than emergency rooms for acute ailments when we can't see a doctor.
Some days, all I want to hear about getting a majority in the Senate. Why? Because that's how anything is going to get passed. That's how you will get your medical coverage, your insulin supply. How you and I will not have to worry about an out of pocket maximum, so it won't lord over us forever, or at all. And not because I think YOU don't know that the Senate is needed. But because the sooner this is done, the sooner more people get actual relief.
But yes, step 1 of this entire thing is really the most immediate, important thing - Trump has to go. The most "effective way" possible, which means the way that as many people as possible will either stay home to not vote for Trump, or to show up to vote for the Democrat on Election Day. I don't know for sure what that is yet, but it's possible it may be "elect Biden". There were a range of candidates and campaigns to choose from, and people polled and chose - but I have to move forward under these constraints now. So if there is more talk about Biden or Sanders rather than other candidates, well that's what people in the early polling and early states set us up for. Many of the campaigns the candidates ran, did not seek out enough people to reach, which was also a problem despite the strength of their political platforms. This includes the front-runners, progressive or not.
Step 2, which has to happen the same time as Step 1, is the Senate majority. Bullock was encouraged to run in Montana, another seat that was needed. A bit of a minor miracle, this about-face.
Step 3 is pressuring Congress post- election to follow through and get the bills to the president's desk. It doesn't stop on election day, it only begins. I have experience with Medicare, and the candidates have not done a good job explaining to the public what is missing from Medicare and what needs to be covered, so this will be a crucial time to make sure elected representatives are focused on helping people in the immediate term and getting things set up for progress. Since the company providing our healthcare coverage at the time ACA was passed, was prepared two years in advance for the ACA start deadline, I know firsthand that changes and adaptations can be made quickly.
Step 4, running parallel to everything else, is everything that can be done at your state level. I know people who had to move from Pennsylvania to New York for job relocation and lost - LOST - a great deal of special-needs medical services for their children. It's not a rosy situation in seemingly the most "blue" states, either. Pressure at the state level is a key part of getting more coverage.
There is nothing incremental for me to accept or settle for about this, the steps and actions to be taken by the people are all the same no matter which Democrat is the nominee. No elected official or candidate has "got this" or "can be trusted" to do the right thing IMO without the firm consistent pressure from their constituents. Pressure and activism worked in many cases and in many states in 2018, it can work again. People would have paid family leave for the coronavirus now, if the Senate and President had different party/majority.
Suggesting I'm speaking in bad faith or I'm a dick for supporting/not supporting a candidate or making up shit about me, I think it takes the focus off of just how much has to be done. All the above is much more important anyway if I want medical coverage to be there for everyone. And I do.