Most of us who come to DKos probably have a great deal of trouble understanding just what those screaming loudest against the Affordable Care Act are so upset about.
My next door neighbor is a private contractor (he did a nice job remodeling my bathroom) who does not have health care insurance. I know he doesn't because, when he recently had to be checked out for Hepititis (which, fortunately, he didn't have), he had to go the local free clinic for his service. On top of that, his girlfriend recently told me that he was laying a floor in a dentist's office in exchange for dental work that she desperately needs because they don't have dental insurance.
Yet, this guy HATES Obama. And I don't just mean dislikes; I mean HATES. In the summer of 2009, when the Tea Partiers were in full revolt at Democratic town hall meetings, he came running over all excited about how the people were finally rising up and taking their country back. I once heard him walking through the hallway of our condo yelling "Impeach Obama." And, to top it off, he recently had a bumper sticker (since removed) on his pickup truck calling for Obama's impeachment.
I don't get it. Having to rely on the free clinic and doing carpentry in exhcange for dental services - THIS is the system he's so hell-bent on preserving?
I know a lot of us are frustrated because it seems to be taking such a long time to get the system up and running, a system we believe people will come to accept and appreciate once they can see how they themselves will actually benefit from it. And, in the meantime, the right-wing noise machine is cranked up to 100, spewing out fear and falsehoods 24/7 on cable TV and talk radio.
I'm sure you all have your own stories of people like this, people whom the ACA is most meant to help turning against their own best interests.
I don't get it.
By the way, by sheer coincidence, just as the Supreme Court was rendering its verdict, I had my first no-co-pay-required annual checkup this morning, all courtesy of the Affordable Care Act.