During a televised speech last year, President Obama announced, to much fanfare, that, if we only passed the bill, he implied, all people who currently who could not currently buy insurance "because of pre-existing conditions", would be given an opportunity they would not otherwise have had, to purchase it. A national high risk pool.
As always, the details were, and still are, unacceptably hazy. Although Americans should have realized they were being played, few people realized that this was an example of the adage that is something sounds too good to be true, it usually is.
So, implicitly- its now clear, that he also meant that ONLY those who otherwise could afford individual coverage which means only a very small percentage of us- would be helped.
It should have been obvious, because the COST to actually address the huge root problem ADEQUATELY for four years, would rival the cost of the six years represented by the actual bill. So, just as people who depend on premium caps and caps on out of pocket expenses are almost certain to be very disappointed when after waiting four years, they find those promises vanish into thin air, there was NO WAY that THAT promise would EVER actually HAPPEN.