[mike_d]

In the Swiss system the private insurance companies are required to be non-profits. The government sets the standard for care and coverage and all the companies can do is compete on price.

Basically what Obamacare was originally intended to be before they had to compromise to get it passed.

[k4shm0n3y]

Who were they compromising with? The Congress had large Democrat majorities in both houses during the ACA legislative process.

[votepaunchy]

The 60th vote was Ted Kennedy who died in office and a Republican was elected to fill the seat, forcing passage of an earlier bill.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/2010_United_States_Senate_sp...

[zacherates]

They were trying to get Republican votes so that the law would be bipartisan. In the end it passed on a party line vote, so maybe the compromises were a mistake...

[SpicyLemonZest]

The parties weren't yet ideologically sorted. The Democratic majority included dozens of members of the Blue Dog coalition, a conservative group who (among other things) didn't support healthcare reform.

[Alive-in-2025]

Also the us Congress is blocked by the senate needing 60 votes/supporters to reach cloture on every single bill, except the once per year thing that got the bbb passed. So it's very easy to block the other side. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reconciliation_(United_States_...

[phatfish]

All the Democrats bought by the private health insurance companies I assume.

[vjvjvjvjghv]

Democrat senators Lieberman and Baucus mainly torpedoed it. And Pelosi refused to get republicans on board.