[Projectiboga]

Yep campaign finance laws really feed this mess. Both parties love to blame the Senate Filibuster, but no one want's to eliminate it. This specific problem would end rapidly if the insurance companies were on the hook for having to honor their 'in network' lists, they should be liable for any inaccuracies on that list, and any fighting about money should be between the providers and the insurance companies, both have money to litigate. Patients do not have the time or money to fight effectively.

[underlipton]

One thing: both parties have done their part in changing cloture votes for nominees to simple majorities (though, of course, with the distinction that Democrats were frustrated with years of filibuster abuse, whereas Republicans used it simply to get their SCOTUS nomination through).

But whether its the filibuster or private entities caught in massive controversies (medical insurers wrt TFA, banks wrt the GFC, Big Pharma wrt the opioid crisis), the hemming and hawing over in government incremental change and any sort of real accountability, in the face of clear abuse and exploitation, is infuriating.

I'll add another wrinkle: all of this was predictable, because these issues that have become of concern for the entire country have analogues that weren't dealt with correctly when they were mostly affecting marginalized groups (LGBT folk accessing care, people of color accessing mortgages and dealing with the crack epidemic). Did we inadvertently build ourselves a framework for failure with those? I tend to think so. They're not new diseases, we just let old ones spread.