Well like i was saying if cost of insurance has tripled in four years, you probably need more than an ad campaign to convince sceptics that ACA is working as intended.
It is working as intended, insofar as, as written, it never intended to fix the grotesque cost of healthcare in America.
I believe it was advertised as doing that though. And while millions have benefited, all have seen rates rise and coverage get worse. The system is broken. Period, not just ACA, the entire freakin system.
On point again.
Sure, ideally we’d have single payer. But what with one of our major parties losing its collective shit over the ACA (which was well short of single-payer, is good but not great, and depending on your state and personal financial situation possibly quite shitty from a financial perspective), that’s not in the cards short of complete collapse of the current system. Obamacare needs fixes like increasing the penalty for not signing up during open enrollment*, etc. so that more companies came back and competed with one another, but again, since it’s been tantamount to National Socialism according to Republican propaganda, that’s not going to happen either till the Dems win unified control of the government once again.
In principle there’s no reason Obamacare couldn’t work a lot better across the nation. Maybe it would take making insurance a nationally-regulated thing (and then insurance could be “sold across state lines” and not have it be a bad joke).
*right now, too many “young invincibles” are opting to pay the penalty because it’s too small.
The main problem with the ACA is that it allowed coverage of a lot of new people and got rid of pre-existing conditions idiocy, but did not do much to reign in costs. So the insurance companies have to raise rates to continue to make their 8% profit.
Getting rid of the ACA will not make people’s insurance cheaper in any way aside from the people who just plain don’t buy insurance, and that cost will get transferred to everyone but the insurance companies, who will go back to making silly profits by not paying for what they are supposed to be paying for.
What we need are price controls, and I say that as a physician who would very likely take a big pay cut in order to implement those price controls. Single payer would be the best way to implement that, but oh noes socialized medicine! Keep socialized medicine out of my medicare!
Of course, medical school costs would likewise have to drop if physician salaries went down, as I’m sitting on well over a quarter of a million in debt from medical school and the only way that’s possible is by making enough to actually pay it off.
The ACA didn’t go far enough, but universal coverage and pre-existing conditions going away are both good things. Expensive, given private insurance, but good nonetheless.
Yes. People kept getting a lot of surprise bills thinking they had coverage for something when they didn’t. Or just when they needed it the most, when something really, really bad happened, they hit a maximum which just isn’t fair. You pay into a plan for years and years and never use it, and then suddenly you have something just… expensive that needs to be done and they cut you off and maybe even drop you the next year.
@ArmandoPenblade and @Timex , Despite the differences between you both and your fathers, take the time. Go talk to them. Roll your eyes at their political differences, but cherish your family. I just spent the weekend burying my last grandparent. One whom I let differences get in between us, and the weight of regret is stiflingly heavy on me right now.
Love your family, despite their faults. They are all you have.
Interestingly, I had a lengthy discussion about this with a friend recently. During the conversation, I conveyed a story to her.
One of the most deeply bizarre things I have witnessed in my life is (and I apologize in advance for a startlingly enormous thread-divergence here) a very, very dear friend, who was sexually abused by her father once or twice a month for about 7 years running when she was a young girl. He never apologized, and indeed, continued to mentally abuse and torment her until she finally was able to move out. The mother knew, and did nothing to stop it.
Years later, the father got sick and died fairly quickly. . . and the girl, who’d mostly removed him from her life in the years since escaping him, was distraught. Utterly broken by having her father die without a bond between them.
And–not at all to compare a political disagreement with my father to the extraordinary pain and suffering she endured for years and years, pain and suffering that continue to haunt her in the form of PTSD and panic attacks to this very day–I really can’t fathom how to reconcile those two facts. He was an actual, genuine, by-definition monster, someone who wounded her and betrayed her trust in a way that makes my skin crawl. . . and she still wanted that connection.
I have no idea if I myself feel something akin to that. I sometimes worry it might mean I’m broken if I don’t. And, again, to be absolutely clear, the situation between my father and I isn’t even in the same zip code as what she endured. But the fact that she regretted the loss after all that. . . dunno. It’s Something to think on.
I lost my biological father when I was young. I have no memory, but despite the mostly not good but some good things I’ve heard about him, i wish had known him before he died.
My dad, i can’t sit at the table with him right now. I just can’t. I can’t hear about his taxes and government corruption while I encounter actual conflict. In time, maybe, but just as he has a right to vote for or against anyone he chooses, he does not have the right to have my presence to hear about it.
I am not sure how old you are, 30ish maybe, but I don’t think a lot of people appreciate their parents until they age and develop some of the same experiences, and until the growing up father/son relationship can become a relationship based on friendship. Not everyone grows up close to their parents, some of us have to grow into it. I always knew my father loved me, but I don’t think he ever showed, we ever showed it, until I was in my thirties.
I also have an aunt that emigrated to the US from Finland in the 60s and she’s just completely lost it in the last 10-15 years. She’s a proud Tea Party member and her Facebook is nothing but a flood of alt-right memes. And she believes them all unconditionally (e.g. that Obama really is a Muslim from Kenya).
It’s so frustrating to even try to debate anything with her since her political opinions are at the level of “THE EVIL LIBERALS ARE TRYING TO STEAL ALL MY MONEY” (re: Obamacare).This election just broke the camel’s back. I just can’t stand to have contact with her anymore.
The worst part about this, aside from it being patently wrong, is these are not disqualifying traits. I am not naive to beleive we could ever elect a president who isn’t Christian, but that’s not a requirement to be POTUS. Based on how Trump acts and speaks, if he is Christian is certainly not at the high level of practicing the faith.
I found it amazing we managed to elect a person almost 50% of the country thought was a Muslim. Trump is the obvious backlash to that accomplishment.
Trump:Christian::shard of broken glass: diamonds
I am pretty sure less than 50% think he is Muslim. I would bet the number is less than 10%. Now is he a Muslim lover…that might his 40-50%. :)
I was being highly scientific with that number, so I am certain you are wrong.
I wasted so much time arguing with people that he was a Christian back in 2008. It wasn’t even an issue for them, they were going to vote for him anyways, but they would not believe me when I said he wasn’t a Muslim. I even had two of them condescendingly suggest I should do more research.
Everyone of them had a college degree and lived in an affluent area too.
I’ve had that same argument too. With the same “well, show me your proof”.
The burden of proof is not on the person you are trying to convince. If you are making outrageous claims the proof is on you.
You wanna know what happens when you fall into that trap? I did research the birth certificate thing. I quoted sources and wrote up a whole page long email. I asked this to be the end of the discussion. You know the response? Vague hand waving and conspiracy theories. Quotes from Fox News and Brietbart, completely out of context and with no sources themselves.
Don’t even try to engage. It’s a waste of everyone’s time. Let them be dumb.
The issue here is, Obama help us, these people still manage to find their way to the voting booth every couple of years…
I know. I don’t have a solution to that. Perhaps better voter turnout next time will help.
Then again, perhaps the majority of our country are just idiots. This is the cost of a democracy, which otherwise is a pretty swell form of government.