"Obamacare"

[SdK]

It's all about the Benjamin's baby.

[Kat Kid]

I gave up trying to read the House bill, and I haven't even attempted the Senate version. It is depressing to me that the GOP lacks the courage to ram through a full repeal and replacement of Obamacare, and is instead resorting to fixing some of its worst aspects.

But I am surprised and optimistic to see that Avik Roy, the policy expert who was 100% right about all the flaws with the original Obamacare, is actually pretty happy about the new Senate bill. I'd recommend everyone give this a read, as opposed to the dopey tweets from Dems claiming that the GOP wants to kill everyone (nice rhetoric, guys - keep feeding your hate to your base).

Roy's primary praise for this bill is that it fundamentally transforms Medicaid, which is the worst and most wasteful of all entitlement programs, and is one of the biggest drivers of our federal deficits. I'll take his word for it.

I'm chiefly disappointed that this bill still relies heavily on federal subsidies - like Obamacare - to make insurance more affordable, when we should be taking a free market approach to driving down cost. Unless we dramatically deregulate health insurance, and lessen the role of insurance in purchasing health care, prices will continue to rise.

Love to "purchase" health care. One time I was bored and I had $50,000 saved up so I went down and had some exploratory surgery to look for cool crap in my lungs. Some people would've got a new truck, but I love to purchase health care. I even shopped around one time when I had an emergency and demanded the ambulance drive me to Topeka where prices are much better.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[renocat]

Stoooopid congressional republicans.  Like a bunch of moron chicken hens who find a pile of livery grenades.  "Hey Myrtle, let's sit on these eggs!"   Kablooey.  If Obamacare is crap, why try to hatch something new from the same egg?  Old people are going to blow a gasket on this.

[Fake Sugar Dick (WARNING, NOT THE REAL SUGAR DICK!)]

Only a Fake Sugar Dick (WARNING, NOT THE REAL SUGAR DICK!) would be upset about the pubs making obamacare less shitty.

[K-S-U-Wildcats!]

Love to "purchase" health care. One time I was bored and I had $50,000 saved up so I went down and had some exploratory surgery to look for cool crap in my lungs. Some people would've got a new truck, but I love to purchase health care. I even shopped around one time when I had an emergency and demanded the ambulance drive me to Topeka where prices are much better.

We've had this discussion before. You keep coming back to it, and I'm not sure why this is so confusing for you. The situation you are describing is exactly why people should have insurance. Insurance is not supposed to be a payment method, it is supposed to alleviate risk of big expenses you cannot afford. Just like you don't use home insurance when your AC goes on the fritz, and you don't use car insurance when you need an oil change.

This really is not a difficult concept! It is important that you understand it if you want to engage in any meaningful healthcare discussion and not sound like a complete fool.

[Fake Sugar Dick (WARNING, NOT THE REAL SUGAR DICK!)]

Their elected officials routinely refer to health insurance as healthcare, so it really isn't surprising they are incapable of understanding the difference.

[K-S-U-Wildcats!]

I sure wish every congressman (especially GOP) would read this. Might help them get their priorities straight on HC reform.

http://thefederalist.com/2017/06/29/blue-collar-middle-class-truck-drivers-rant-americas-health-care-mess/

So often I hear the health-care crisis discussed in generalities and abstractions. “Premiums are skyrocketing.” “Deductibles are gargantuan.” “The co-pays are outrageous!”

While that’s all true, that sort of talk is largely meaningless to me, and probably you as well. I want to scream, “You have no idea!” So if you’ll indulge me, I’ll give you a concrete, albeit anecdotal, example of what “skyrocketing premiums,” “gargantuan deductibles,” and “outrageous co-pays” look like on the ground for a blue collar, middle-class truck driver.

I work for a really great trucking outfit. I love the job. They provide us with top-notch equipment and plenty of miles. (For those of you not familiar with truck driving, miles equal money.) However, if I elected to buy health insurance for my family of four through my company, I would take a salary cut to the tune of about $25,000 a year. That’s on top of my employer paying approximately one-fourth of the costs, about $6,000.

I wish they’d just add that to my salary. Another six grand a year would cover my daughter’s private school tuition, which keeps her from being indoctrinated by the progressive left and “common core” propaganda. But I digress.

So if I want health insurance, the tab for me is a little over $2,000 per month, plus $500 if you add my employer’s contribution. Comparatively, then, my monthly payment for my daughter’s school tuition is cheap, at about $425 a month. Anyway, does that $30,000 a year go toward actually paying for any health expenses we incur? Nope. The deductible is five large!

We have to meet that before our meds or anything else will be covered. Until then, we have to co-pay on all meds and medical treatment. For my inhaler for asthma, I pay a $55 co-pay. Retail cost of the inhaler? $63. Without going into the grisly details, on average we have about $400 in medical expenses per month among the four of us. Obviously, something isn’t passing the smell test here.

So let me get this straight: I’m going to drive 2,500 miles a week so I can pay a health insurer more than $2,500 a month just in case, God forbid, one of us gets cancer? If you break that down by mileage, the insurance company and whoever else is benefiting from this is getting paid 25 cents for every mile I drive. And they’re not doing anything! If they want to earn 25 cents for every mile I drive, then come out on the road with me!

So, in reality, my company hired me, not because I’m a rock star truck driver who makes the company a profit, but so, what—the insurance companies can stay in business? The politicians can stay elected? The lobbyists can drive around in Benzes? Where in the name of Sam Hill is all this money going? Oh, that’s right. Perhaps it’s going to a Georgetown law student who wants to have sex with no consequences. Or to a “transgender” person in the military who wants a sex-change operation. Certainly those must be covered, right? To be sure, women who want abortion on demand or abortifacients must be fully subsidized, but who cares if asthma meds for working folks quadruple in costs.

Now, I do alright. I can help some people. If a pregnant teen came to me and asked for help, I might be willing to take a large salary cut to help her find her way. I could help her in a very specific and personal way that is accord with my values and her best interests. But no! Uncle Sam is going to dictate how I’m allowed to “help” her. That once-discretionary income has been wrested from my hands on pain of death because, after all, I can’t be trusted to do the right thing with my own money.

Before “Obamacare” I paid a $16 co-pay for my inhalers. Now I might as well buy the things outright. To add insult to injury, I make too much money to qualify for the “Obamacare subsidies.” So all that talk about health reform being for the “middle-class” is absolute nonsense.

I’m a truck driver who spends his weeks away from his family to earn a living wage. Yet if one of us gets really sick, we’re sunk. Dying slowly in America has become a very, very expensive proposition. What’s more is, I fear this has all been concocted by design. The only thing that makes a lick of sense is that this is a gargantuan transference of wealth. It is not robbing the rich to give to the poor. It’s not even robbing the middle-class to give to the poor. It’s robbing the middle-class to keep politicians elected for “doing something” that somehow constantly seems to make the problems worse.

There’s no bloody way that I’m going for this. I don’t know much about financial planning, but I’ve been told it’s silly to pay for a term-life plan as if you’re going to get hit by a bus tomorrow. So there’s no way I’m going to pay for a health insurance plan that is basically predicated on one of us having something catastrophic happen later this afternoon.

I may be dumb, but I’m not stupid. I’m simply not going to pay out the nose for virtually nothing in return. My game plan is to pay out of pocket for our regular medical expenses. What would you rather do: Pay $400 per month to fund your own regular medical expenses, or pay $2,400 per month for insurance premium plus co-pays plus meeting the deductible? I’ll take option “A.” Then I’ll just set up my own health savings plan so when one of the kids breaks an arm, we’ll pay for it out of that. Then of course I have to pay whatever nonsense penalty Uncle Sam has going on for not having health insurance. GRR.

I’m pretty much done listening to politicians and pundits pontificate about lowering premiums, deductibles, and co-pays. I’m main-lining to give myself the health care I want and need. We can call it the “Blue Collar-Redneck Shield” plan. I’d better get crackin’ on this, because it won’t be long until the powers that be simply start deducting $2,500 a month from my paycheck for whatever convoluted government program they come up with.

It reminds me of the old Mafioso days where the neighborhood boss would come around to your business demanding “protection money.” When it comes down to it, there’s not actually any real protection service on offer. The only real benefit you receive is the peace of mind that the boss may not send his henchmen to put a bullet in your head for non-payment.

Seems to me like our “Big Brother” doesn’t operate much differently. He forces you to pay for a “service” that really isn’t a service, and what you’re really paying for is crummy protection from a malevolent “benefactor”—that “benefactor” being the federal government and politicians’ hand-picked special interest constituencies. Pay him and he won’t punish you, except by bequeathing you a terrifying environment. Refuse payment, and suffer worse consequences.

Well, sorry, Uncle Sam. You’ve fooled with the wrong country boy! I’m checking out of this little game while I still can. I’m opting for the “Blue Collar-Redneck Shield” plan, brought to you by “Southern Engineering.” I’ll simply do what I can given the circumstances—just like I always have.

[K-S-U-Wildcats!]

And for liberals who may not be as big on reading, they'd do well to watch this funny short video.

[Rage Against the McKee]

That would be a whole lot shorter if he wouldn't have copied and pasted about 10 paragraphs from the first half of his manifesto into the second. I'm probably not big enough on reading to appreciate that, though.

[Dugout DickStone]

When even a truck driver who writes like a child can send his kid to private school it is no longer private.  Thank god there are none at my kids school.

[wetwillie]

I really have no idea what ksuw thought when he posted that.  Drugs?

[star seed 7]

I wish they’d just add that to my salary. Another six grand a year would cover my daughter’s private school tuition, which keeps her from being indoctrinated by the progressive left and “common core” propaganda. But I digress

   what a moron

[Rage Against the McKee]

I don't really believe his premiums are as high as he claims they are. His deductible is way too high for those premiums to make sense. I guess maybe if by "5 large" he means $500 that might be about right.

[Dugout DickStone]

He wants sex to have consequences.

[star seed 7]

I think he wants single payer but is too dumb to realize it

[cfbandyman]

I think he wants single payer but is too dumb to realize it

Most people who are against it don't even realize how much they actually really want it in the end. Once we finally do that, we'll leave this whole stupid debate in the trash bin of history.

[Rage Against the McKee]

We probably should do something to actually address a few of the things that make healthcare expensive before we go to single payer.

[wetwillie]

I think he wants single payer but is too dumb to realize it

Most people who are against it don't even realize how much they actually really want it in the end. Once we finally do that, we'll leave this whole stupid debate in the trash bin of history.

We are getting closer to it being painful enough for the electorate to demand it but we have a long ass way to go.

[cfbandyman]

We probably should do something to actually address a few of the things that make healthcare expensive before we go to single payer.

Agreed

I think he wants single payer but is too dumb to realize it

Most people who are against it don't even realize how much they actually really want it in the end. Once we finally do that, we'll leave this whole stupid debate in the trash bin of history.

We are getting closer to it being painful enough for the electorate to demand it but we have a long ass way to go.

Also agreed

[cfbandyman]

Guys, whatever is infecting McCain, I think our ol' Pat Roberts caught it

"Once in Glacier National Park I saw two porcupines making love," said Sen. Pat Roberts, R-Kan. "I'm assuming they produced smaller porcupines. They produced something. It has to be done carefully. That's what we're doing now."

http://abcnews.go.com/Health/wireStory/gop-obamacare-repeal-teeters-senate-shelves-vote-48320474

[Fake Sugar Dick (WARNING, NOT THE REAL SUGAR DICK!)]

Thoughts on the libtard talking point that this bill (which will pass) is "mean"?

 

[SdK]

Actually Chuck called in MeanER! HAHA

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-T377A using Tapatalk

[star seed 7]

Thoughts on the libtard talking point that this bill (which will pass) is "mean"?

 

Your president called it mean but loves it anyway

[Fake Sugar Dick (WARNING, NOT THE REAL SUGAR DICK!)]

"He's not my president!"

 

[Fake Sugar Dick (WARNING, NOT THE REAL SUGAR DICK!)]

Obamacare is doing great, no reson to change it.

-nobody