by mentalgongfu2 » Fri Sep 27, 2013 2:29 am
What's good about the ACA? Based on people I know personally who have been directly or indirectly affected.
* College students able to be covered under parents plans for 2 extra years, especially beneficial in the current economic climate of few damn jobs to be found.
* Otherwise "un-insurable" individuals cannot be denied coverage.
* Lots of people previously ineligible for insurance due solely to economic circumstances now have the ability to get some.
* Eliminates lifetime maximum coverage limits. Horrible idea from a business/risk perspective, but helpful to those black sheep who get seriously sick and run up against the bottom line.
What's bad about the ACA?
* Mandate to purchase insurance. The only constitutional argument involves a lot of lawyers playing with words, i.e. legal mumbo jumbo bullshit.
* It's not a single-payer system, which was and remains the only sensible route if there is to be a mandate requiring universal coverage. Related to the mandate, it's a giant cash giveaway of personal and taxpayer dollars to the largest, most powerful and profitable insurance companies. Insurance companies are one of the largest employers and biggest money makers the metro areas of this state where I live, . Wellmark/Blue Cross Blue Shield has a monopoly and is gaining more market share as a result of ACA provisions. No competition, no free market, no price controls.
* It doesn't directly affect health care and health care costs, only health insurance. Admittedly, there is a potential for uncovered individuals to now access the insurance system, but that doesn't necessarily mean an improved situation. I have health insurance through a small co. below 50 employees not covered under most ACA provisions. Despite having insurance, like someone posted above, I can't actually afford to access the care it supposedly provides. It covers some of the cost of a doctor's visit and a prescription if I want one, but a serious medical issue would still break me financially despite coverage. The ACA doesn't fix that.
* Since I can't afford to access the actual care despite insurance, I am paying for other people's care without getting any benefit ofmy own.
* Some employers are dropping insurance or reducing hours to avoid dealing with the bureaucracy. Those people can go to the exchange, but all signs point to the exchange plans costing more for less.
I'm sure more can be added to both these lists. I've withheld judgment on the ACA for a long time, hoping it will turn out to be an improvement to a system that is obviously broken, while being equally disgusted with how the bill was passed, the industry perks that were included and how the GOP has built a following by pretending to try and stop it. However, the more I learn about it, the more I see it as a decent idea (universal coverage) mired in bad legislation that amounts to a corporate giveaway that will cause more problems than it fixes. I wouldn't mind being proven wrong, but I have little reason for optimism at this point.
My pessimism toward the ACA comes despite full knowledge that the majority of the anti Obamacare talking points are complete BS. Earlier today I read an article claiming it will allow hospitals to ration care for dying people to grow profits by delaying such care till they die, thereby avoiding costs. Such arguments are presented as if this isn't already the case. Although we are told "they can't do that," one of my best friends was sentenced to die when denied care and thrown out of the hospital for being uninsured by the "non profit" Genesis Medical Center while facing a fatal but treatable condition. He luckily ended up at a hospital in the state university system where they gave him the required surgery despite his inability to pay and wrote off the debt. If I thought the ACA would actually solve such situations, I could get behind it despite my reservations. Truth is, I don't see it solving that situation at all, only bleeding more from all of us while now-mandated insurance premiums continue to increase and the level of care purchased with those premiums falls even closer to the point of non-existence.
"When I'm done ranting about elite power that rules the planet under a totalitarian government that uses the media in order to keep people stupid, my throat gets parched. That's why I drink Orange Drink!"
