The US health-care debate can be a bit confusing. One big reason is probably that there's an elephant in the room that nobody is talking about.
A trillion dollars per year.
That, in rough figures, is the amount by which the US (as a whole) over-pays for health care. It may have other problems, but any real health-care reform in the US must deal with this central issue: health-care for the nation really should cost about one trillion dollars per year, and it costs two. There are two or three dozen countries with similar (or slightly better) health outcomes, and for the most part their health systems cost 40-60% of what the US pays (per capita, or as fraction of GDP). Singapore manages on a fifth. Either these countries and their citizens are getting really good deals... or the US is over-paying.
Politicians can't mention it, slashing health care is political suicide. The public and the doctors are worried that any cuts will be in entirely the wrong places. Whoever's pocketing the extra $1T is worried that cuts will be in the right places, and has the budget to run a misinformation and misdirection campaign.
For a sense of scale, $1T would come at about #16 in a table of countries by GDP. It's a lot of money.
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