Why do many liberals think Obamacare is a success?
Let me add one more success story.. I have a heart condition, I’ve had it all my adult life and I’ve had 4 heart surgeries - 3 open heart surgeries and one minimally invasive surgery. 15 years before the ACA came into existence, my health insurance was cancelled by my provider after my last heart surgery and since that day getting health insurance has either been incredibly expensive or just impossible. When the ACA went into effect, I got health insurance for the first time at the same rate as other people, through my employer. It was, to me, an absolute miracle. I was able to afford the preventative care necessary for my condition (which, by the way, was mostly corrected through the last heart surgery and I was no longer a huge insurance risk….but that’s a different story) and felt, for the very first time, safe. That year, I also needed a hysterectomy due to a cancer scare and didn’t worry about the costs, which, after surgery, were about $500 in co-pays.But that wasn’t the biggest benefit for me. I was laid off in 2016 and received information on COBRA. It was $400 per month! Generally, if I did receive a COBRA letter after getting laid off or when a company went under (which was rare), it was for $1800-$3000 per month. $400 was incredible! But, I didn’t have to do it. NYS embraced the Medicaid expansion and while on unemployment, I received Medicaid. First time in my life I had health insurance while unemployed and I didn’t have to worry about using my pittance of unemployment dollars to pay for it. During that time period, I had emergency gall bladder surgery for a blockage and paid NOTHING. (Some may say I am living off of the welfare of others while on Medicaid and I say, bite me. I have worked and paid my taxes for more than 25 years and didn’t have health insurance for many of those years. I think I earned a year on Medicaid.)The ACA truly did save me. It saved my life when I had the cancer scare - I got the surgery I needed without constant stress of bills and debt. It saved my life when I had emergency gall bladder surgery. And when I go back to work this month, I will be eligible, once again, for employer provided health insurance. Does it have problems? Sure, but I would rather have it and push our government to fix those problems than have nothing again. And, I think, so would most of us.
Why do people without health insurance get taxed for not having it?
Obamacare raised men’s premiums, especially young men’s as a way to subsidize women’s healthcare. Being low risk, and low income it was clear many young men would choose to go uninsured rather than pay high premiums to subsidize others. Taxing people it was hoped would cause them to buy insurance or at least provide some subsidy money if they didn’t. As with many social programs, promoters of Obamacare failed to realize how their program would change people’s behavior. You don’t need to be an economist to understand how waiving coinsurance and deductibles will cause people to consume more while decreasing revenue or that raising premiums for young men would cause many of them to go uninsured. There’s no such thing as free healthcare, it’s just a matter of who pays and what incentives are in place. To paraphrase a Margaret Thatcher, the problem with social programs is that eventually you run out of other people’s money.
Government wants to Mandate that American's Buy Health Insurance?
But IF Obama-care passes, the private insurance won't be able to compete and they will all go BK. We will be stuck with the government program! If Obama-care is so wonderful, let congress have that and we get their plan. I think that's fair!