Is exactly what you and the other opponents of this bill have to back up your claim that it hurts our efforts to repair and save the ACA. In other words, it's an opinion, nothing more.
The ACA will, with Trump in the Whitehouse, crash and burn. As far as coverage for people who were left out of the insurance market, read: "the working poor," it was mortally wounded when the Supreme Court upheld it solely under the federal government's taxing authority AND declared the Medicaid payment incentive unconstitutional. It was then crippled when Red State governments refused to expand Medicaid and did not get punished at the polls for it for it. As for the insurance companies, reluctant "partners" at best from the start anyway, it became a "no go" the minute Marco Rubio killed the pools. As written, the ACA was one of the most remarkable bills ever passed and, as passed, would have worked without excluding the very people it was designed to bring into the fold of "the insured." With a brilliant president like Barack Obama patching it through executive order and if we could have turned some Red States turning into Blue States, the ACA's primary goal of expanding coverage for medical expenses to people who lacked it before could have still succeeded even with these wounds. We don't have that. The working poor, already suffering from the double blow of not getting covered by Medicaid (as they were supposed to) and not being eligible for subsidies (which they were not supposed to get under the ACA because they were supposed to be covered by Medicaid as the bill was originally written) are going to be crucified when Trump executive orders replace Obama executive orders.
When that happens, what will we run on? Can you fit the explanation why it's Republicans' fault that people are hurting (which it CLEARLY is) into a 60 second campaign ad?
On the other hand, with Medicare for All as our calling card, our ads become about us filling in the gaps for everyone and (if Republicans DARE to repeal the ACA outright in the face of that being our goal) them wanting to make the gaps even bigger. As it is, they get to point to the failures they have already gotten away with creating (which I described above) and the only thing we have is "we're for more of the same" unless someone comes up with a way to saddle Republicans with the blame they so richly deserve for these failures, but which they so effectively parried at the time they were creating them
THIS is why all three of our putative frontrunners for the 2020 presidential nomination and practically every rising star in our party stand proudly behind this bill. THIS is why after years of being relegated to the back bench by the vast majority of House Democrats, John Conyers now has over 110 co-sponsors for his single-payer plan. THIS is why even the architect of the ACA says single-payer's time has come.
It's not only a just policy, it's also great politics EVEN IF IT DOESN'T BECOME LAW UNTIL WE TAKE BACK OUR GOVERNMENT.
This is also why I question the motives of people who are doing their very best to make sure it never sees the light of day.
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