In fortifying for-profit health care companies, the Affordable Care Act became a cautionary tale about the political supremacy of an insurance industry that many Americans hate. But it has now become something even more profound: the ACA’s modest popularity, forged in desperation, proves that an initiative can now be considered a political “win” even as it preserves a problem, steamrolls alternatives, and makes a crisis more difficult to fix.
In essence, a policy sold on the “audacity of hope” has helped deflate hope for anything better.
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