Healthcare: The Good, Bad, and Ugly
Well at the time I write this the Supreme Court of the United States in what was a surprising move to many people upheld the Individual Mandate and other contested parts of the Affordable Healthcare Act (Obama-care) as being Constitutional.
It was a surprise to me, for sure, because the Supreme Court has really become a partisan hand of the two main political parties and has even gone as far as really stretching or ignoring the law in recent years. (Citizen's United..District of Columbia vs. Heller). So when Chief Justice and Bush appointed crony John Roberts was the deciding vote it really tells you something.
So I guess the point of this post is to put my two cents in on this issue. Do I think this Healthcare Act is the answer to America's horrible healthcare system? Fuck no. Do I think it should be repealed or struck down? Also no. So let me break it down into the standard but usually fun theme of "The Good, The Bad, & The Ugly".
The Good Several key issues will be addressed with this bill. First it will make it so soulless, greedy, thieving Insurance Companies cannot turn down people because of a pre-existing condition. Imagine the gall or disdain for basic human dignity you must have to tell a family that their kid cannot get coverage because he was born with a defect or a condition that he had while mom and dad were between insurance companies. It also makes it so that kids up to the age of 26 (not really still a kid then but with college loans etc. same income level as a teenager nowadays) can be covered by their parents plan. It also taxes or punishes freeloaders. Which is a big Republican talking point, and something that Mitt Romney basically came up with when he was the Governor of Massachusetts. If you do not have healthcare through an existing job and you refuse to use the mandated government insurance then you will get taxed a little bit more. This argument I put here in the Good section but I will also talk about it in the Ugly section because I like the idea in basic principal but I think there are smarter and better proven ways to do this. While implementing this 10 year process of a healthcare bill will cost about a trillion dollars its cost savings with having more people who are in a healthcare plan, and likely taking care of themselves better, i.e. regular check ups and preventative care will save this country money in the long run. Being terrified to get sick is no way to live and this bill helps a lot of people so they won't have to have that fear. How about the basic argument that it is reform. It is a big change that will take years to go into effect but it really is big legislation. The kind of legislation that you just don't see in modern politics. For all of its flaws (Which I will get to soon) it is still a step in the right direction.
The Bad So what do I think would fall under "The Bad" when it comes to this bill? Well first off it is a hand-job for insurance companies. While it does set some regulations in line for these companies it also gives them millions of new customers. So these awful businesses will likely thrive even more after this act goes through. If you couldn't tell by my previous comments I hate insurance companies. They are the biggest legal scam going on in the U.S. today. but that whole argument is for another blog and time. Moving on to more bad, I think this whole thing is just one giant band-aid! Instead of solving the fundamental problem, having our healthcare system run by capitalistic entities, it just does little fixes here and there.
The Ugly Going back to the whole tax/penalty argument for a second. I put this partly under ugly because while I like the idea of making it so scumbags cannot freeload off of other peoples working tax dollars I think it is ignorant to think that the true freeloaders will be the one's that pay. This will be a lower middle/middle-middle class problem like most pay to play problems in this country. You can't get blood from a stone so it will be the mosquito's that have just enough blood to get by that will be punished with this. This leads me to the other ugly part of this, this whole penalty/tax thing could be void if we just used our brains and took the money out of life and death. The Big Ugly in my opinion is that this whole problem would be gone if we were smart like many other civilized countries in the world. We should have come to the conclusion that a public option, or Medicaid for all is the only legit answer to this issue. Anyone that gives you bullshit arguments to this like, poor service, slow service, etc. is full of shit. It is straight propaganda crap. Of course in countries that do something like this , Canada, France, there are draw backs but who thinks anything will be perfect? We are looking for what would be the best option and it has been studied to death that this is the only legitimate way to run a healthcare system.
In Conclusion To finish this very long-winded post up I would just like to say given all of the "Good,Bad, and Ugly" I think this bill needs to go into effect. It is real change and hopefully it will be a progressive start for Obama's second term? Maybe he will get his shit together and be the "Change" leader that we were promised? Probably not though but as Carlin says "Inside every cynical person there is a disappointed idealist."
The Good Several key issues will be addressed with this bill. First it will make it so soulless, greedy, thieving Insurance Companies cannot turn down people because of a pre-existing condition. Imagine the gall or disdain for basic human dignity you must have to tell a family that their kid cannot get coverage because he was born with a defect or a condition that he had while mom and dad were between insurance companies. It also makes it so that kids up to the age of 26 (not really still a kid then but with college loans etc. same income level as a teenager nowadays) can be covered by their parents plan. It also taxes or punishes freeloaders. Which is a big Republican talking point, and something that Mitt Romney basically came up with when he was the Governor of Massachusetts. If you do not have healthcare through an existing job and you refuse to use the mandated government insurance then you will get taxed a little bit more. This argument I put here in the Good section but I will also talk about it in the Ugly section because I like the idea in basic principal but I think there are smarter and better proven ways to do this. While implementing this 10 year process of a healthcare bill will cost about a trillion dollars its cost savings with having more people who are in a healthcare plan, and likely taking care of themselves better, i.e. regular check ups and preventative care will save this country money in the long run. Being terrified to get sick is no way to live and this bill helps a lot of people so they won't have to have that fear. How about the basic argument that it is reform. It is a big change that will take years to go into effect but it really is big legislation. The kind of legislation that you just don't see in modern politics. For all of its flaws (Which I will get to soon) it is still a step in the right direction.
The Bad So what do I think would fall under "The Bad" when it comes to this bill? Well first off it is a hand-job for insurance companies. While it does set some regulations in line for these companies it also gives them millions of new customers. So these awful businesses will likely thrive even more after this act goes through. If you couldn't tell by my previous comments I hate insurance companies. They are the biggest legal scam going on in the U.S. today. but that whole argument is for another blog and time. Moving on to more bad, I think this whole thing is just one giant band-aid! Instead of solving the fundamental problem, having our healthcare system run by capitalistic entities, it just does little fixes here and there.
The Ugly Going back to the whole tax/penalty argument for a second. I put this partly under ugly because while I like the idea of making it so scumbags cannot freeload off of other peoples working tax dollars I think it is ignorant to think that the true freeloaders will be the one's that pay. This will be a lower middle/middle-middle class problem like most pay to play problems in this country. You can't get blood from a stone so it will be the mosquito's that have just enough blood to get by that will be punished with this. This leads me to the other ugly part of this, this whole penalty/tax thing could be void if we just used our brains and took the money out of life and death. The Big Ugly in my opinion is that this whole problem would be gone if we were smart like many other civilized countries in the world. We should have come to the conclusion that a public option, or Medicaid for all is the only legit answer to this issue. Anyone that gives you bullshit arguments to this like, poor service, slow service, etc. is full of shit. It is straight propaganda crap. Of course in countries that do something like this , Canada, France, there are draw backs but who thinks anything will be perfect? We are looking for what would be the best option and it has been studied to death that this is the only legitimate way to run a healthcare system.
In Conclusion To finish this very long-winded post up I would just like to say given all of the "Good,Bad, and Ugly" I think this bill needs to go into effect. It is real change and hopefully it will be a progressive start for Obama's second term? Maybe he will get his shit together and be the "Change" leader that we were promised? Probably not though but as Carlin says "Inside every cynical person there is a disappointed idealist."
While on the surface it does look like real progress, especially in this super-partisan era. However it's just one nasty compromise. Yes "affordable" health care will now be made available to everybody, however it's obvious insurance companies will be the clear victor. Granted, I know that generally the increasing progress in medical science and healthcare has been a driving force in soaring medical costs. But you can't tell me insurance companies aren't collecting fat paychecks at the end of everyday. Something's gotta keep their lights on. Yeah total universal healthcare for all would be optimal but I don't believe that even the ghost of FDR could pull that off.
ReplyDeleteAnd when I signed in to post that I had no idea I even had a blog.
ReplyDelete- Pete
Agreed Pete, it is a lot of compromise and Obama completely pussied out on the public option but I think it is a start and hopefully a step in the right direction.
ReplyDeleteYeah he didn't hold his ground very well I thought. He seemed to do the exact opposite of holding congress' feet to the fire. However he got the legislation further than any other president that's attempted it. Clinton could not do it, albeit with stronger opposition, and earned even less by compromise.
ReplyDelete