re: All things considered, why is the Federal government involved at all in health insurance ?

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How would it be if there was simply state and local oversight of doctors and hospitals and routine doctor visits could be paid out of pocket and insurance was only used for catastrophic situations?

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"Routine" doctor visits can be very costly ( $160 on average). Medications that some people need on an ongoing basis can be very expensive LINK. If you have any issue that the PCP thinks should be looked at by a specialist, that's a lot more money( Average $350 for an OB-GYN, for example). If the specialist thinks a "routine" test, like an MRI for example, is necessary to diagnose the issue, that's a lot more money ( $500-1300 for MRI). A person who is struggling to pay their rent and feed their kids can't come up with the money for "routine" medical treatment.

Because the Democrat party has always been after more power and control of your life. They've been after healthcare for a while, and given the opportunity, they rammed it through without any consideration. As usual, the ends justify the means for "progressives." They always claim it is to help the poor and afflicted and for the betterment of society as a whole, but they know that is complete bullshite. It's the same con ruthless dictators and oligarchies has been running for centuries.

Some of the Republicans don't want to for political and personal reasons. That is true. However, the Democrats knew it would be nearly impossible to repeal and forced it on us all for ideological reasons.

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Some of the Republicans don't want to for political and personal reasons. That is true. However, the Democrats knew it would be nearly impossible to repeal and forced it on us all for ideological reasons.

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They didn't go nearly far enough, quite frankly. There are only two ways to reduce costs -- single payer or globally free market. Both would create leverage over costs.

What we had before Obamacare wasn't a free market at all, but rather a state-by-state oligarchy. In a free market, I'd be able to get pharmaceuticals from Canada, dental surgery from Mexico, all covered by an insurance company in India. What we had before was nothing less than a state-by-state oligarchy that limited competition among several health insurance providers.

Obamacare is screwed up, its true. But ideological? No. Obamacare was a detente -- a mutual agreement between insurance companies (who traded additional risk for additional revenue) and the federal government (which erroneously believed it had the political will to reform the system).

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So why can't the GOP good guys repeal it? Oh wait, they don't actually want to.

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Because taking away an entitlement is political suicide.

If Obamacare would have been done correctly, they would have carved out the 5 biggest perceived problems with the then coverage issues, address those, evaluate and then in a couple of years address the next 5 biggest issues. It is going to be impossible to unravel what ACA created.

Because the government is adept at finding new and creative ways to waste the tax money I pay every year.

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Why are there "rising costs" that far out-strip normal inflation? Could it be rising government involvement forcing the rising costs so eventually they'll have to step in and blame everyone and everything else for the rising costs and take control to "fix" it?

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Kinda like student loans, government got involved and tuition went through the damn roof.