Second, she should be relentless – and if she’s survived two bouts with cancer, she has no reason not to be relentless – in urging state lawmakers and her representative in Congress to adopt the single-payer health care model that would serve her (and everyone else who’s not making money from health care) far better than the ACA, and dramatically better than what came before the ACA. To date, Republicans have proposed no alternative to the ACA that’s worthy of the name, and have disowned the Massachusetts system. Health care in Massachusetts, under a plan initiated by Republican Governor Mitt Romney, and adopted as the basis for the ACA (with several important modifications due to lobbying by physician and insurance organizations), seems to work pretty well, and when the Massachusetts public has been polled, they’ve generally been satisfied with their plan.

But it’s not “market-driven” in the way that right wing ideologues (who generally can afford to pay for their own health care) would prefer, so on the national policy stage, it will remain anathema to right-wing politicians.