Can't speak for carlfense, but one of the reasons this is remaining such a politically divided topic is the 40 votes to repeal Obamacare. I can see one, two - maybe several such if there's new legal standing to the repeal, but 40 is absurd. And passing only 15 bills before ending sessions while this country faces real problems and needs real leadership doesn't help, and that's entirely a partisan issue.
^^^again . . . the bold. heh.
I've never said that it's all sunshine and roses. I have said that it's far better than the status quo. Despite the "repeal and replace" slogan the GOP has not proposed a workable alternative. They've voted what? 40+ times? to repeal Obamacare. How many alternatives have they voted on? How many times have they voted to improve the law? Then again . . . I forget . . . I'm making this a partisan issue.
I am not offering any excuses for the obstructionist repubs. They suck and are doing us exactly zero favors. However, I am trying to express real concerns I have about this bill, regardless of who/which party advanced it. Just because the numbnuts in Washington can't get together to change a light bulb doesn't mean we have to follow in their footsteps and cheerlead bad parts of the bill. That's what I was getting at when I said Carl was making this a partisan issue. I understand that it is one anyway, I just don't think we have to fall into those roles when we're discussing it. If and when we do, we get exactly as far with it as the folks in DC.
Sure. Let's talk about fixing the parts of the law that need improvement.
To be honest, I have not thought a whole lot about the employer mandate. I have been too focused on the impact on my small business which is not subject to the mandate. My guess is that, without the employer mandate, they will have trouble paying for everything involved so, at this point with the way it is setup, they probably need it to make it appear viable. I do know what is going to happen with smaller employers though, they will be bailing out of company sponsored plans left and right. This will lead to more and more people having to go directly to the exchanges to get their health insurance. And, this quite naturally leads to an eventual one payer, government run healthcare system. this will likely be somewhat better for the poor and those who historically have not had coverage. It will be decidedly worse for those of us who have maintained reasonable health care coverage. When the government gets involved with deciding what we do or don't need and what they're willing to pay for, individual care will suffer.
Definitely agree, and this is the single biggest area where Obamacare missed the mark. We need to curb those costs more than anything else. Curb those costs and mandatory healthcare becomes a much smaller problem.
There's a reason why the critics of single payer systems tend to focus on inane issues like waiting room times . . .
Not really. The employer mandate doesn't apply to ~95% of companies and the vast majority of companies who fell into the mandate already offer insurance.
If we're lucky.
Why? It works elsewhere, as knapplc noted.
That curve has been bending downwards lately. Maybe it's just a coincidence. Maybe not. We'll see.
Color me skeptical. Yeah, there are the occasional horror stories coming out of the private system but "government run" just plain gives me the willies. The only thing our government has ever done half way efficiently is wage war. Post Office, Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid.......need I say more. It should be a big clue that our lawmakers exempt themselves from all of these programs.
Other than escalating costs for the past ten years or so, I have generally been pretty darned happy with my health insurance and the care I have received. I just don't see any scenario where the care gets better and the costs go down. Heck, I don't see how the care will get better with increasing costs. I hope I'm wrong and it all turns out beautifully. Like I've said though, I'll have to see it to believe it.
Could be. Personally, I'm a lot more concerned about costs and outcomes than "wait times." I think that's quite the red herring.
I think you are probably a lot more familiar with health system workers than I am. I would agree that many of them are lavishly compensated. But, I believe a good portion of that lavish pay is driven by all that extra schooling, on going education, and excessive malpractice insurance costs. Add in all the cover your a$$ paper pushing and testing and lab work they have to do and pretty soon you'll have some runaway conditions. I know some in the system myself and, as you say, they are generally disgruntled with the system even though they are profiting greatly from it. But, they also tend to take more days off, vacation more exotically, and live at a higher level than most other occupations.