Obamacare is the biggest disaster I've ever seen in my whole life. It's just money redistribution. He's counting on us young people to pay for health care that we really don't need right now, epecially not the health care provided with Obamacare. He basically wants us to pay for all the old people that go to the doctor all the time. Sounds like the social security program if you ask me. Young people paying for the old people once again and worse yet, when my generation gets that old, social security won't even be around anymore. We're not as stupid as the president thinks. When hardly any of us sign up the whole thing is going to fall apart.
I signed up for the Affordable Care Act (Obamacare). Love it. It's the first time in a long time that I have had decent health insurance since being self-employed. My new plan will replace my high deductible ($2500) plan that only covers hospital care. I worked in the health insurance industry for more than 20 years. I think a single payor plan would be better, but Obamacare is a good start. When the dust settles, I believe the positives will greatly outnumber the negatives.
I could not agree more with Parker. Sadly, I feel like companies are really doing all they can to circumvent the responsibility to their employees by hurting their employees. I recently spoke to someone who just got a job at a Home Depot that was paying a tad over minimum wage. He was told that if Obamacare did not happen he would be able to work over 30 hours a week but because of Obamacare he would have to make sure each week he did not exceed that. Why, in the name of everything, would a company that is making a decision to not insure these employees AND cut their hours blame Obamacare? Oh, I answered my own question. Not taking responsibility defers attention to something else. God forbid they have to insure their own employees that work at their facilities.
What most people who are against ACA is the fact that they are paying for the health care one way or another. People that do not have coverage go to the emergency room knowing they can not pay the bill, the increased cost is then passed on to those that can pay, by increasing the cost of services provided, increased taxes to help the hospitals that service the people that do not pay and the cost of if a person should die and the family has to go on assistance because the bread winner has died. There is so much to consider when you look at what is involved in this situation. Another thing to think about if the nation is sick because we have a poor healthcare system and we get attacked and no one can defend the country because most of the nation is sick or under the weather because they can not afford to go to the doctor how long do you think we would be able to protect ourselves? This is a case of choose your war.
I don't see a problem with this. The younger generation paying for the older generation. It's going to be the same when you all get older. The younger generation paying for you when you're older. That's pretty much how it works in Canada and this system has been in place for decades. It's not the best system, but it's a lot better than what the USA had before. Pat pretty much nailed it in his last paragraph. Isn't it better to have universal health care, where the majority of the citizens are healthy, than to revert back to the way it was and only the select few get better healthcare, while many continue to stay ill and unable to contribute to society? Personally, I never understood why people can be so short sighted and ignorant of universal health care. No one said it's perfect, but it's a basic necessity of people who need good health to sustain a stable society.
Interesting debate here. While I'm not wholly familiar with ACA, it strikes me as similar to the NHS we have here in the UK where everyone has access to universal care. It's a system I believe benefits everyone for reasons already explained by others above. Personally, I believe a measure of how civilized we are is in terms of how we treat our elderly and infirm - the better we treat those others in need in society is one I want to live in.
This is so true. A lot of people make jokes about why hospitals will charge $25 for an aspirin without considering the reason behind it. We (taxpayers) pay for the uninsured one way or another. Everyone getting access to healthcare makes the overall cost of healthcare lower for everyone. I don't get why some people don't get that.
I'm really not a fan myself. The quotes I was given were incredibly high...$350 a month with a $5,000 deductible. Are you kidding? I'm young and have never had health problems.
I agree with the OP. Obamacare is a disaster on many levels. Here in the U.S. we already had Medicaid for the poor and Medicare for the elderly so the ACA is not about helping the needy at all. It's about forcing people for the first time to purchase a government mandated insurance plan and it's results are already causing harm. Obama keeps delaying the parts of the law that will hurt the most, just trying to save his party during the upcoming elections. It won't work because this thing was passed without one Republican vote and under a blanket of secrecy and with a barrage of outright lies. Remember Nancy Pelosi said we have to pass it to find out what in it? Well, now we know and most of the country doesn't like having their insurance policies cancelled and being forced to buy the new government plans that are truely sub-par. Come November elections, the people will finally have their say on this matter. We didn't get to keep our plans or our doctors and come November we won't be keeping the politicians that pushed this thing through either.
Yep, it's going to take a while, but for all of the people who are uninsured currently, it's going to be a great option eventually. For me personally, I still haven't signed up, but I know that in order for it to work overall, more of us are going to need to and I'll eventually jump on board. I just haven't taken the time to do it yet.
In response to Parker, good to know that someone likes the their health care plan under this program. I've heard so many horror stories of people who had insurance before signing up for the ACA plan and getting cancel letters in the mail. I can imagine how frustrating that must be. Things seemed to have settled down now it seems like from the complete disaster from earlier in the year with the launch of this health care plan.
I agree that someone should not be forced to pay for heath care that they are not going to use. I'm hoping that things will work out for the best, since I don't see Obamacare going away any time soon. But so far, it has caused a lot of people a lot of problems.
I have insurance through my work, luckily. It's a better plan than the one my husband has, deductible and copay wise, but it does cost me more a month. If we would insure him through my work, we would be paying almost $600 a month JUST for him. (I work for a small company). We were very upset with the figures that we were seeing with ACA insurance. For my husband, the lowest plan (healthy, under 30 male) was around $120 a month - but we were looking at a $6,500 deductible!!! We spent a lot of time comparing the rates. He is now paying about $185 (I pay about $225 myself) for a $1,200 deductible and copays that are around $20/25 regular and $50 specialist. It's working for us for now and we find relief in that if a serious accident occurs, our deductible is only $1200.
Yeah the insurance care is really expensive, especially for businesses. I have a feeling there are going to be a lot of people trying to go under the radar on this one. There are too many healthy people who won't need insurance in the foreseeable future and they can't afford to pay the premiums.
I signed up for it because we do need to have medical insurance since my husband is a cancer survivor (technically considered in remission). The thing that got me is that I was quoted a price when I accepted my plan and then when the bill came it was for double what I had agreed to. Needless to say, I've never paid a premium because it has me confused.
