Obamacare

[chris_gerrib]

Recycled from my Facebook page:

Since I opened this can of worms on somebody else's page, I'll say it here. There is no "Obamacare" plan that we all have to sign up for. Demanding that so-and-so "sign up for Obamacare" is like demanding that they go to the edge of the Earth and jump off.

What Obamacare does do is:
1) Require large employers to offer health insurance to their full-time employees
2) Prevent insurance companies from denying coverage
3) Saying that if your employer doesn't provide coverage, you have to purchase your choice of private plans
4) Offers subsidies for those that can't afford coverage

That's it. There will be no "government spy" in your doctor's office, nor will your doctor have to send your medical data to the government. There are no death panels, there will be no rationing, and doctors won't be working for or getting money from the government. (Insurance companies may get money via subsidies.)

Mitt Romney did this in Massachusetts, and you know what happened? 98% of state residents got insurance coverage. That's it. The world did not end, and the Communists did not win.

Thank you, that is all, and I am now resuming normal programming.

/End recycling/

Comes news today that health insurance premiums nationwide are expected to be around 16 percent lower than originally predicted, the U.S. Health and Human Services Department said in a new report released Wednesday. They were expected to be lower, and now they will be lower than expected.

Comments

[bemused-leftist.livejournal.com]

3) Saying that if your employer doesn't provide coverage, you have to purchase your choice of private plans

Well, "sign up for [ some plan as required by ] Obamacare" isn't too bad a description in casual use.

[chris-gerrib.livejournal.com]

Except that's not what "they" are saying. They (Obamacare critics) are referring to some "one-size-fits-all Evil Socialist Bad Bad Die Now" plan that only exists in the minds of Fox News.

[sinthrex.livejournal.com]

You just used minds and Fox in the same sentence.

So confused.

[chris-gerrib.livejournal.com]

Fox News-people have minds. They use them primarily as a place to hang their hats, but they *DO* have brains.

Corrections.

[(Anonymous)]

First, States have plenary power. Fed Gov has limited enumerated powers. Among those Fed Gov enumerated powers the regulation of medicine and insurance are absent.

Mass care has a high tax on people without insurance. Obamacare has a low tax, which encourages people to not carry insurance, but rather to pay the tax and not be insured. The normal concern about being uninsured is you might get hurt, and not be insured. If you can not be denied insurance, it makes sense to be uninsured for low cost until you need care, and insure at the point of service.

If Obamacare is a good idea, then (1) let it be voluntary for the rest of us and (2) let Obama be covered by it and (3) let us determine what our cost/coverage trade off will be.

In a free society, if you want to pay for another's health care, you will not be stopped.

Re: Corrections.

[chris-gerrib.livejournal.com]

The Congress has the power to regulate interstate commerce, which includes health care.

Obama is covered by Obamacare - his employer, the US Government, like all large employers is required to offer health care to full time employees.

[(Anonymous)]

If that was all Obama care did, it wouldn't require 2000+ pages of legal writing to do it.

I would refer you to the document to read what you left out, but that could be an 8th Amendment violation.

[chris-gerrib.livejournal.com]

I actually have read the document, thank you.