*Are people losing healthcare because of Obamacare?* No. Plans are being upgraded. And people who have never been able to get healthcare will soon be able to. Headlines reading People are losing their healthcare should be people are having to upgrade their plans. This all makes great headlines for the media, but here are the facts. The changes in Health Care coverage that will cause people to choose new plans will only effect 5% of the population who buy individual plans. These plans have to be changed and updated because they do not provide adequate coverage. Why do they need to provide better coverage for the Affordable Healthcare Act to work? As an example, if a person does not have a plan that covers a surgery, then when that person has a surgery that is not covered, that they cannot pay for, those costs are then passed on to other people who have better coverage. Their premiums are raised to pay for the other guys bill. A select group of other people pay for it. That is why there is a minimum requirement for coverage and why more people need to be in the pool. To spread out the costs. Again, this effects 5% of the population. And many of these plans are garbage plans that dont cover anything. Many dont cover prescriptions or maternity leave or surgery etc... washingtonpost/blogs/wonkblog/wp/2013/10/29/this-is-why-obamacare-is-cancelling-some-peoples-insurance-plans/ But people who have to switch plans will get coverage. Anyone whose plan is cancelled will get better coverage under a new plan. That is the only reason that plans are being cancelled. And while it is true that *some* people will pay more, for most people this wont be the case. Premiums for younger healthy people who make a good living will see premiums increase, while poor, middle class, and older people will see their premiums decrease or stay pretty much the same. The reason that this is important, and the reason that the Conservatives from the Heritage Foundation, and other Republicans came up with this plan was to get more people in the pool and to encourage personal responsibility. Obamacare is not the Democrats plan. This is the Republican alternative. They have tried to get this passed for years but they now oppose it because it was passed under a Democratic President. Jim Demint, head of the Heritage Foundation praised the idea of passing Romneycare for the entire nation all the way up to 2008. And of course that is exactly what Obamacare is. So did Mitt Romney, too, support his healthcare plan for the nation. In an oped for USA Today, he urged president Obama to copy his healthcare plan for the nation before Obamacare was passed. And then when it passed, he said on Meet The Press that he was glad that the President chose to follow that path. Ill post the videos later. So the opposition to this by the Republicans is purely political. In 1986, Ronald Reagan passed a law requiring all hospitals to treat anyone who comes in, including illegal immigrants. They have no choice. So who pays for it? People who buy insurance. The hospitals have to raise prices on services and bill the insurance companies extra to recoup the money that they lose treating people for free. And the emergency room is exactly where uninsured people go when they get sick. They have no other alternative. But just to be clear, it is not just poor people who dont have insurance. A woman who has ever been a victim of domestic violence has often been denied coverage in the past because that was considered to be a pre-existing condition. There are a lot of really odd examples of what constitutes a pre-existing condition. Its unbelievable. But anyway, Reagan signed a bill into law requiring hospitals to treat all people, including illegal immigrants. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emergency_Medical_Treatment_and_Active_Labor_Act So one alternative to healthcare would be to repeal the Reagan law and start denying services to people who dont have insurance and who dont have the money to pay for healthcare, accidents, and injuries. For instance, a little girl gets hit by a car. She is bleeding profusely from the head. Her collar bone is broken, as well as her arm. But her parents dont have insurance. What we could do, as a society, is just say, sorry about your luck, and send the little girl home screaming and crying, or unconscious, to let the parents do whatever they can with her. Or, we can collectively provide healthcare like every other wealthy nation on the planet does. Because if we do treat this little girl, *someone* pays for it. There is just no way around it. And maybe you are young and healthy now, but you may have a car accident. You may need surgery. But most definitely, you *will* eventually require costly healthcare. Everyone needs healthcare at various times in their life. So either we collectively provide health insurance, like we have car insurance, in case something happens, or we let people bleed to death and die on the side of the road when they have a car accident. Or we let children suffer and die of diseases and illnesses that they have no control over. Either we all pay for it, or we dont. Those are the two choices that we have. Even people on Medicare pay premiums. And although many young people can now get coverage for less than $50 a month, that adds up over time and helps cover costs. If 10 million young people pay $50 a month, that will go a long way in spreading the costs out and encouraging personal responsibility, as the Conservatives like to say. Here is the subsidy calculator. Just plug in any income to see how much coverage would cost you with subsidies. If you make minimum wage or close to it, I think you may be surprised at what you can now get healthcare coverage for.....including prescriptions and all the rest of the requirements under the new health care law.. kff.org/interactive/subsidy-calculator/ Heres what I think. This is a rough start. So was Medicare and Medicare part D. But I think Ted Cruz was right. Once the vast majority of people are actually able to get better healthcare coverage at an affordable price, they wont want to give it up. And once America sees healthcare costs rising at a much slower rate, which is what has happened in Mass, and in Switzerland (which served as the model for Romneycare), then America will never look back. And then we can make improvements as we go. Maybe I am wrong? But I am willing to bet you that I am right! We shall see. *Im Chuck Frasher and I approve of this message.
Posted on: Wed, 30 Oct 2013 04:07:34 +0000
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