Well, it has come to pass; I am a dead man walking. As of December 15, 2018 – in response to a lawsuit brought by Republican-run states and the Trump administration – a judge in Texas has ruled that the Affordable Care Act is unconstitutional. While the ACA is not finished at this very moment, this is definately its death knell, and the ACA will pass into history.
My life was saved by the Affordable Care Act when I was finally able to get health insurance about six years ago, after being denied dozens of times over 13 years because of what was deemed to be a pre-existing condition. I asked for nothing but the chance to buy health insurance for myself and be treated by experienced doctors. Now that opportunity will be denied to me once again.
This Texas judge's ruling will surely be a death sentence for me because once again, I will be unable to get the health insurance that doctors require to treat patients. I suspect I'm not alone and this will also be a death sentence for hundreds of thousands of other Americans whose lives were profoundly changed by the ACA. Heart conditions, diabetes, cancer, and many other more exotic health problems will kill some of the best and brightest among us. When will Americans on the right see that these unnecessary deaths are a tragedy of epic proportions in the wealthiest country in the history of mankind?
This Obamanation can't die soon enough! Get the government out ! Tranparency in pricing and free market competition is the ONLY way to bring down healhcare costs. Obamacare is/was a disaster since it was forced down our throats.
If this lawsuit succeeds, millions of Americans will suffer and probably die earlier than otherwise. The elderly, in particular, will lose supplemental policies (medigap policies), since they disproportionately have "prior health problems." Living on a fixed income, moreover, they would have most difficulty paying higher premiums.
But families with small children would experience the greater tragedy. Medical care denied to small children has lifelong effects. The people behind this lawsuit have substituted a narrow, rigid legal ideology for a humane concern for the welfare of American citizens.
2
The GOP has done nothing to provide a better health care plan but has done everything to cripple the Affordable Care Act. Meanwhile healthcare including the cost of prescription drugs continues to skyrocket. Many citizens don’t realize the list of conditions that qualify as preexisting conditions such as acne but many could be denied insurance in the future if ACA is reversed.
I am puzzled my the opposition to the mandate for universal health insurance which has since been voided. No one knows when a major illness or accident may strike. Second, the government requires auto insurance in order to drive a car and no one objects and brings endless lawsuits to overturn this regulation.
Quality healthcare is vital to our populace but in needs to be affordable and available to all. There are many areas that can be improved but right now the Federal government is making it less affordable for many.
5
Republicans are not pro-business. They’re pro big business. Why should the quality of my health care depend on the size of the company I work for? If they really wanted to support entrepreneurs they would support quality health care for small businesses.
They’re not thinking this through. They’re actually driving us toward voter demand for single payer.
5
This step down for working families would increase the danger that our democracy will end and should be challenged at all cost.
Such a move would substantially increase the economic uncertainty and fear, thereby rendering them even more likely to blindly follow a demagogue.
If ever we needed our finest lawyers to step forward to save democracy, this is it.
5
Trump and McConnell are packing the courts with partisan yes-men who see their jobs as voting Republican, not as ruling on the law’s intent. This lawsuit will succeed, but not until
after the 2018 elections.
After the 2018 elections will also be the time when people will file returns and realize that the lowered withholding from their paychecks was just an iou.
The goal is always to hide the consequences of a Republican government until it’s too late to do anything about it.
8
Cruel, heartless, and the opposite of what was promised.
8
Whatever happened to Trump's promise to cover everyone at less expense and better coverage? Just another lie in a looooong series of lies. Any Trump voters enjoy all the winning?
12
Ms Katz seems to conflate having insurance with actually getting health care. It ain't necessarily so.
She also seems to have missed the fact that, between 2011 and 2017, those of us who already bought our own insurance saw premiums rise 250%, deductibles quadruple, and the maximum out-of-pocket costs of health insurance soar into the unaffordable.
Suddenly Ms Katz is worried about our premiums rising -- we who experienced 3%-5% premium increases with no deductible increases fro 1990 to 2011? We who were not able to "keep our old Plans" or "keep our doctors" under Obamacare.
Ms Katz keeps trying to make the Rube Goldberg machine of Obamacare work, and keeps complaining about all the things that stop it from working.
She should start with the original blueprint, which was designed to be impossible to understand, and which was sold to a public the designers deliberately expected to be "too stupid to understand."
Interestingly, the 2016 election occurred onyl afw wrrks after we saw 25%-35% increases in our Obamacare premiums, and, in some cases, 100% increases in our deductibles. Now Ms. katz wants to worry about our premiums going up?
Face it: Obamacare was a scheme intended to make the marginally - middle-income non-employer-paid insureds, pay for the all the prior conditions and coverage guarantees of the genuinely poor and near-poor. It left the very rich and the drug companies piling up their dividends.
4
Time for single payer universal health care. And yes, the rich will have to help pay for it.
5
While I applaud ObamaCare's breakthroughs that showed American citizens what it's like to live in a world without bans on pre-existing conditions, lifetime limits on care, blatant discrimination, or arbitrary denials of care, Mitchell is right in this regard: there are problems with the Affordable Care Act.
The reason for those problems and the "impossible to understand... original blueprint" is that in 2009, Democrats were attempting to provide a healthcare plan that retained capitalism in healthcare. They tried to model their program almost exactly after RomneyCare in Massachusetts, which is what we surely would have today if Romney had been elected President in 2012.
I'm sorry, but neither you - nor anyone else - has a right to get rich off of my medical problems! Single Payer/Medicare for All is the solution of the future. Insurance companies need to be ELIMINATED.
If you're not with us, you're against us and you should prepare to be mowed over by the new American order that is coming your way, beginning in November. US citizens are ready to take their country back from the enablers of the slow-motion corporate coup that has brought America to its knees over the last 30 years.
8
In response to your comments I would point out that for years the Democrats tried to revise sections of the ACA. It wasn't a perfect law. However, all Republicans wanted to do was repeal the law being unwilling to do anything.
You complain about the high cost of insurance and your correct. However you think the costs are horrific now
should Plaintiffs in this suit win, the present high costs will be minimal compared to what they will be should we go back to the system pre-ACA. In addition, should you have a present or future pre-existing condition good luck obtaining insurance period.
A single payer system is what is needed. Maybe you will come to you senses once you go without insurance or have insurance that pays for nothing.
6
It's unbelievable how the Republican Party literally hates the citizens of the USA. Besides being a do-nothing party other than supporting tax cuts to make a few top dogs richer, they search for ways to destroy the possibilities of a decent life in this country, as in healthcare, education, and retirement.
Only a fool would vote Republican or someone who makes over 10 million per year. There is only one solution: turn out for the elections in November, turn out any negative propaganda against the Democrats, and vote all Repubicans out of office. They have become the most dangerous criminals in American history. Otherwise, you and your children will lose what democracy we have left. Vote, vote, vote!
9
The definition of life includes death. So we all have a pre-existing condition.
If the Republicans feel it is legitimate to discriminate against people who are self employed I will interpret that as the GOP advocating for my death. By not allowing people access to medical care they are handing down death sentences.
I will not let them kill me. I will defend myself by going after them first.
8
Not for nothing, but there's a WORLD of difference between "I don't want to pay for your health insurance" and "I want to kill you".
1
Not in reality.
They are saying "I don’t care if you live or die, so I am making it easier for you to die."
3
The Democrats should shove this down the Republicans' throats between now and election day in November. Most people in the United States -- even the stupid ones who have no understanding of the Affordable Care Act -- do not want to lose healthcare coverage or be charged lots more due to pre-existing conditions.
9
You have any problems...They want you dead. You are a drag on the economy. What is it going to take to make you understand this simple point?
This authoritarian money grabbing regime will not be treated kindly by historians...unless of course they kill them all first.
6
"The Justice Department’s brief argues that last year’s tax reform bill has rendered Obamacare’s individual mandate — the requirement that a vast majority of Americans buy health insurance — unconstitutional."
How can one law make another law unconstitutional? Either a law complies with the Constitution or it doesn't. Couldn't you argue just as easily that the Obamacare law makes the tax-cut law unconstitutional?
This sounds like government "Experts" are telling the Trumpists whatever nonsense they want to hear.
3
This is yet another attempt to drive the final stake through Obamacare. Legislators need to understand that if people's health insurance becomes unaffordable or is taken away because of serious illness, the economy will fall into jeopardy. People will not be able to get any kind of medical care which will make prices for needed care increase. Jobs will be lost and people will not be spending money except for essentials such as food. The housing market will suffer because people will not be able to afford to buy one. There are many other things to consider. A major wake up call would be for legislators to not be able to get insurance for pre-existing conditions including high blood pressure high cholesterol, obesity, heart attacks and other serious problems. Legislators who are smokers should not be covered unless they agree to enter a smoking cessation program.
8
There are about 3.5 million people who would be affected if Obamacare were completely abolished. No child would be affected. The people who have employer provided health insurance would be better off. People on Medicare would see their premiums rise at a lower rate.
The drug companies and big hospital providers would not be able to raise their rates and would lose their abnormal profits.
1
You are missing a digit. Tens of millions of people would lose Medicaid or subsidized private cover, and many millions more would be priced out of private medical cover by a sharp rise in risk-related premiums. Not sure where you are getting your info. . .
2
Abnormal profits that’s what it is all about. You are an ATM machine for your doctor, hospital/clinic and big pharma. You stock the machine with cash, they withdraw as much as possible.
coverage in On. Canada, price- 0$ if you earn under 20 thousand a yr. max. 900$ a yr if you earn 200,000.00 and over. taken directly off income tax. yes we do pay more in taxes than USA but,
coverage - everything done in a hosp. all scans, lab work, specialists, GP visits, surgeries - not cosmetic- semi-private rooms
i have a brain lesion, epilepsy and cancer. all starting in 2009
40 days of radiation treatment, visits to countless Dr's
my bill so far- 45$ for my ambulance ride
they do not cover meds. dental, or glasses - but the Gov't is working on it.
i am lucky enough to have extended group coverage through where i worked which covers all reg. dental -50% crowns- 250$ for glasses, but the most important- full medication coverage.
40,000.$ yr for my Ca. med. if i couldn't afford that they have a catastrofic drug Dept. that helps w/ the cost
plus all the androgen and neuro meds i take
at least i know the Gov't is moving forward in more coverage for all, and not backwards in order to put more $ in the hands of corporations at the expense of the sick and impoverished population. as for the argument against single payer- why should i pay for others-
easy to say while you are healthy, but, you NEVER know when something unforeseen may happen to you, it happened to me and i never regretted paying 50$ a mo. for the extra insurance
or a little more in taxes hoping i would never need it
11
Spoken by someone who has had real-life experience with the Canadian healthcare system - as opposed to the constant "theoretical" tear-down we hear about it on TV or print in the US from people who have only read an opposition talking-points sheet about it.
Thank you, Scooter!
Solution: Medicare for All!
7
US health care is the world's most expensive, complicated and profitable.
Health care access for all is distorted by the GOP's credo that big govt intrusion into state policy is anti Freedom and Liberty.
Individual states don't have the political and financial power to protect all their citizens' health care, compared to the Federal Govt, when big corporation profit makers call the shots.
Our media ignores how dozens of capitalist nations have for generations had health care to all citizens, no matter state location, income, age, job or health status. No party tries to tear this down and put in a US style high profit system.
The Democrats are careful---they can’t go too much against the center of our politics, which is to maintain corporate profits as 1st priority over our health care. The GOP and donors call the shots with their anti big govt propaganda. This undermines our our democracy, since We the People are the govt.
Let’s face this at last----truly affordable health care for all is portrayed as actually Anti American. The Democrats have been ordered not to mention 2 words--- “Single Payer”. They are already raising big money to compete with Trump/GOP in 2020.
Our big money campaign finance system isn’t copied by the many nations who also don’t copy our high profit health care system. Their political bribery and corruption are kept illegal, while here they're legalized by Citizens United, while our states are ‘disunited’ and our citizens are unprotected.
7
IF you look at the top 0.1% by wealth in the country, they are overwhelmingly Democrat, and they own the Democrat Party. If you want to get corruption out of politics, start with the Democrats.
3
First, it's the Democratic party. Second, remove the mote in your own eye before you start working on the one you perceive in the Democratic party. Get to work on GOP corruption, which is pervasive, casual and stinks to the heavens. Get to work on Trump and his rogues' gallery of associates and cabinet members. Then we'll work on the problems in the Democratic party.
2
Drip, drip, drip or rather strip, strip, strip away all the lifelines for people of middle to low incomes. Trump promised medical insurance coverage ("better and cheaper" than ObamaCare) for everyone. We are in a new era of mean-spirited Republican conservatism where greed (tax breaks) "trumps" basic human compassion.
5
We would be better off if McCain had not reneged on his campaign promise to repeal and replace ObamaCare, which is a fundamentally defective law.
1
McCain didn’t win the presidency....?
"The Trump administration brief doesn’t speculate on what would happen to such subsidies if it won the case."
The Trumpists don't care, either.
But then again, you do, sometimes, get what you voted for...
5
Such complete and utter madness! The Republicans in power are rearranging the deck chairs in service to some long-forgotten principle (rugged individualism perhaps? undo everything Obama touched, who knows?) while millions of Americans quite literally fear for their lives over the health care issue. It is up to the Democratic Party and its candidates to relentlessly point out to voters that the Republican Party is determined to take away their health care. They need to remind voters over and over that their so-called elected representatives have no philosophical objections to enjoying the security of taxpayer-subsidized health plans for themselves and their families, regardless of pre-existing conditions. "I'll have what they're having" should be the battle cry.
21
This is really the issue: why are the Reps trying to destroy the health care market? Does it help them when people suffer? They must think it does, that desperation drives voters into their line even if they cause the desperation. That seems right: no non-rich person should rationally vote for them even if they weren't doing this.
1
The only Americans who fear for their lives are those being terrorized by the hysterical media, along with big medicine that fears it will lose its government largesse.
Follow the money. All of those predicting doom are big businesses who benefit from the status quo.
Medicare For All.
14
People who have employer provided health insurance are not going to be happy when Medicare's 20% co-pay with no out-of-pocket maximum is substituted, along with the 20% payroll tax it would require. Their employers are not going to compensate them for any savings on the new plan.
1
Too bad. If everyone had the same health plan such inequities would be fixed.
One problem that could be solved is to require a standardized application for insurance so that clients can apply for all and apply for one.
4
The standard form you ask for was provided by the Affordable Care Act. At least for me, it was a one-page application that asked NOTHING about my health. That was break-down into sobs moment when I saw it. This came after a decade of suffering without coverage after my insurance company canceled me shortly after I incurred a spinal cord injury. No other company would touch me and I could not get Disability or Medicaid because I had too much in assets (gone now to the doctors and hospitals - poof).
8
Assets do not prevent someone from qualifying for Social Security Disability. Two years after becoming disabled, recipients of SSD become eligible for Medicare, also not affected by how much one has in assets.
Medicaid is intended for the poor, so you do have to spend down your wealth before qualifying, except under the Medicaid expansion.
Facts Matter: Social Security Disability DOES have income requirements. After all, they do not consider you disabled until you are unable to earn an income. When I was injured, I operated a subscription, internet-based business from home, which made my situation unique.
While I could no longer perform 80%-90% of my work to deliver content to my subscribers, I still retained a significant number of them for some time afterward. When this number declined enough that my income was below a certain threshold, I could be considered "disabled."
However, in the interim, I was without insurance because of what were now pre-existing conditions. The result was that I spent more than $825,000 out-of-pocket to save my life as well as multiple attempts to find a modicum of pain relief during that period. Had I not had those assets to liquidate, I surely would have died an agonizing death. I would have been stuck in a twilight zone where my modest and declining income made me unable to get disability, and no money for all those medical bills.
2
In this context, Trump, Sessions and the rest of these ideologues are proving what small hearted, amoral, cruel and and shameless people America has at the head of its national government. Seriously, may God have mercy on their souls.
22
I don't think ideology has anything to do with it. These people are bought and paid for by their corporate and wealthy masters. It's just a matter of determining who is the highest bidder. What good is ideology when money is on the line? haha
" bought and paid for ". This used to be called bribery and considered a crime. In some cultures of the past it was considered a capital crime for which an official could be executed..
If there is no god, then they are getting away with murder....
It would be easy to set up an insurance program for those who can't get it on the regular market.
As a mtter of fact, THAT is what the Democratic Congress SHOULD have done in 2009 rather than seize control of a seventh of the economy under the terribly unconstitutional PPACA. The question today is whether the federal government has any business addressing the issue today or not.
This is really a state-by-state issue. Best of luck to the states wanting to find individual solutions to the insurability problem, but what America knows is that it is NOT a federal concern.
1
Please tell us why the majority of First World nations have national health care systems that enroll every citizen? States Rights issues usually encourage some states to ignore what's best for all in favor of only a few. Hence, they're discriminatory and usually bigoted.
12
By what natural law do you assert that this is not a federal concern? Do we not have a federal mandate to promote the general welfare? I live in a state that has failed its citizens and great harm has come about due to the political calculations of the Republican Party here. Obamacare is imperfect but it does great good and would have done more had the Republicans either have replaced it with something better (something they promised to do but that was a lie) or not opposed it based purely on partisan politics. What I can't understand is your, L'osservatore. What advantage do you perceive for yourself in this senseless, cruel opposition? Escape from the burden of the individual mandate? Do you oppose requiring insurance for motorists as well?
21
Access to affordable health care is really NOT a state by state issue. If anything is a national duty and responsibility it's health care --- since it affects every person's life, death and financial security.
It's distorted into a state issue by the GOP's claim that big govt intrusion into state law is anti Freedom and Liberty. But states don't have the political and financial power to protect all their citizens' health care, compared to the Federal Govt, when big corporation profit makers call the shots
Explain how dozens of other capitalist nations have for generations guaranteed consistent health care access to all citizens, no matter location, income, age, job or health status.
And explain how this is supported by all parties left, right, center.
6
This American healthcare issue goes on and on and on. Our politicians, Congress, no one can figure out or make necessary changes. They don't have the guts to deny contributions from our healthcare entities, lobbyists, and make real changes. Our insurance companies continue to make huge profits. I just received word that I would benefit from a hearing aid. My insurance will provide $1000 but my costs are well over $4000. Therefore, I can't afford the healthcare I need. I have insurance from being retired from the state of Georgia and on medicare. Still prevents healthcare. Just getting sick and tired of reading about the healthcare issue as it is extremely frustrating.. If I was younger, I would truly move to another country. Sick of this issue, our troubled Trump and other issues that our government continues to ignore. Expressing my frustration to our politicians is like talking to a brick wall. Never lived in an America such as this.
25
There is no excuse for a pair of hearing aids to cost $5,000, particularly for someone who "just received word" he or she would benefit from a hearing aid. Shop around. Costco has pairs available for $1500, that include professional "installation" and support.
You went to a commercial hearing aid center for a "free" hearing test, and they told you that you were in need of a hearing aid that they would be happy to sell you for a profit of 300%. If it were covered by Medicare or your Medicare supplement, you would have been thrilled to get it for free. And then would not have used it. Check out Costco.
Just like people got their "free" overpriced scooters and overpriced "free" neck and knee braces that are available for $20 at Walgreens and the very helpful TV advertisers will bill Medicare $500 and waive your co-pay.
3
Count yourself lucky with the State of Georgia Employee and Retiree Plan, you have much better coverage than Federal employees. Last year after my child’s tenth hospitalization for suicidal ideation or suicide attempts my Federal Plan refused to pay for even a 30 day stay at Hillside hospital, after they told me it was one of four mental health hospitals on their approved list. She had not had three admitances in stabilization programs in the last 12 months. Then they have 14 days to make a decision, but she had been released from critical impatient to partial day after 10, they would not approve anymore, and had only been approving day by day since day 3.
The Ga plan approved 30 day stays off the bat Hillside and other parents told me. They also gave 30 plus day extensions as needed going out to 90.
I paid for 6 weeks out of pocket to save my child’s life.
You're half right. Republican politicians "don't have the guts to deny contributions from our healthcare entities, lobbyists, and make real changes."
A number of Democrats in the House voted for the ACA even though they knew the right-wing propaganda machine was succeeding in poisoning public opinion. They lost their seats. Had the Democrats kept control of Congress they would have made needed changes to the ACA so it would work better.
1
The administrative complexity of our health care financing not only increases the inequities and injustices in health care but it also greatly increases the costs as a major contributor to making ours the most expensive health care system in the world.
We would not be having these conversations on topics such as guaranteed issue and community rating if we had a well designed, single payer national health program - an improved Medicare that covered everyone. Financing would be equitable through progressive tax policies and thus affordable for everyone, plus health care would be guaranteed for life.
Why do we continue to tolerate this expensive mediocrity when for what we are spending we could have a high performance health care system that provides great care for everyone? If the people demand it, the politicians will follow.
21
This is beyond cruel. I remember life before the ACA - I was diagnosed with an autoimmune disease the year before it passed. I went on medical leave from my graduate program, but as my condition worsened it became clear I wouldn't be able to go back, and my health insurance would go with it. Desperate, I applied to every insurer in the state of California. I could not get insurance at any price - no one would even give me a policy that excluded treatment for my pre-existing condition but covered unrelated healthcare.
What purpose does returning to that state serve? Right now I pay my premiums every month (no subsidy, for those who would accuse me of being a drain on the government), I receive necessary treatment to keep my condition stable, and I am paying my share. What happens if me and others like me (there are millions of us) lose our health insurance? Conditions that are treatable go untreated until you end up in the emergency room, where the bill is often ultimately paid by taxpayers.
There is no escaping from the cost of the sick - either we share the cost through insurance and community rating, or the uninsured become free riders on the system, driving costs up for everyone else. Not only is this bad social policy, it's bad fiscal policy. Cruel and stupid, a perfect summary of the Trump administration.
66
My individual insurance premiums are used to subsidize the losses experienced by insurers on large group plans that do not self-insure. My monthly premium for one individual exceeds ten fold what my local government employees pay for an identical plan that covers their entire family with the same carrier and providers. Their co-pays at point of service are tiny and often zero compared to my no deductible, non-subsidized Gold plan. Additionally, this insurer is required by their contract to provide online real time claims data so that this may be used to provide additional medical and health services for their employees in locations not accessible to either local taxpayers or individuals on a substantially identical plan with the same medical providers.
Rates have gone up mostly in Republican dominated states where insurers have left the individual market and choices are limited to one or two insurers. Group coverage, on the other hand, is offered in those same states by many competing insurers.
One remedy would be for each state legislature to craft amendments to insurance legislation that makes it illegal for an insurer to offer only group coverage in that state. Thus if any insurer wants to sell health insurance in that state, they would have to sell to all comers, not just individuals and not just big business and government.
hate to tell you but healthcare costs have been increasing long before Obama. I know as I am in my 60's. To blame Obama is not a solution. Do you not care that millions came forward with health problems because millions now had access to care? Do you not think that these millions of people overwhelmed our system- proof that it was needed? Do you realize insurance companies are profitable entities and their CEO's make millions. Think how one CEO salary could take care of health issues. Blaming Obama is ridiculous. I suggest you study the healthcare issue that began before Clinton. At least Obama had the balls to care about others whose bankruptcies from healthcare and lack of healthcare and initiated something. To deny coverage is cruel and inhumane. That simple.
1
It's amazing to me to see the number of people who think that our healthcare system was working well before ACA.
The reality is that ACA exists only because the healthcare system was about to collapse, and lawmakers were forced to do something.
Prior to ACA, insurance rates were going up 18-24% per year. Nearly 40% of Americans were uninsured due the expense or pre-existing condition limitation. Hospitals were closing ERs left and right because the poor were granted ER care by federal law without any provision for reimbursement of the costs. ER costs for treating the poor were partially overcome by padding charges to those with insurance (one of the reason insurance rates mushroomed) but then the insurance companies and gov't started clamping down on this. So, hospitals retaliated by closing their unprofitable ERs.
Regardless of indigent care, health insurance costs will continue to skyrocket until inherent flaws are fixed. We have a mindset to spare no expense when it comes to healthcare, regardless if it is cost effective. Doctors and patients often have no idea how much things cost because they're insulated from it, and have no reason to care. Spiraling costs means insurance companies and hospitals keep getting richer, so they have incentives to do so.
Medicare, despite its flaws, has at least made some inroads into containing costs. More so than insurance companies have achieved, anyway. A single payer system using the Medicare model should be an improvement.
1
Is Mr Sessions walking on the backs of Americans in an attempt to redeem himself enough to get back at Trump's table of scraps?
If you're going to sell your soul to the devil shouldn't it be to the one who will be around long enough to feed you?
13
I would enjoy engaging in a conversation with any Republican or Libertarian who honestly believes that it is not our government’s responsibility to provide health insurance for its citizens. I would challenge them to justify how it is perfectly reasonable to require an individual who is injured or stricken with illness to pay a higher premium, or even be precluded from coverage, for that illness or injury.
Financial cost simply can not be permitted as a justifiable reason for precluding any individual from receiving coverage. Every other westernized nation is able to do it. We must do so too.
I could point to France where not only are citizens covered, but when upon becoming exceptionally ill, more benefits are provided while they are recovering. In France, malpractice insurance for physicians is exceptionally low because there is only one company providing that insurance. Physicians in France do not pay for medical school. They earn less than their American colleagues but nevertheless live a fairly affluent life.
In a country where Wall Street profits are at record highs and where shareholders can dictate to corporate boards how many employees need to be axed, or demand that raises not be granted to employees for the next fiscal year; in a country where corporations are indeed reaping in the benefits of the latest Trump tax cuts, please spare me any lecture on why our country can’t insure it’s taxpaying citizens’ health and welfare.
38
I entirely agree with you. I've had this conversation with a libertarian, to no good end. I remember fuming and ranting, unprepared for this.
"Get a job with health insurance." And, the more common, "why should I pay for your problem?"
It's too bad my husband developed Type 1 diabetes when he was 12, but it's nothing to a person who thinks that is really just your problem.
This is truly an American problem. We need to get past the idea that ill health is just your d___m issue.
19
The one sentence that sums up this entire thinking is (as you say): "Why should I pay for you?"
We are told on a regular basis in this "Christian" nation and that "God helps those who help themselves", yet this phrase is the exact opposite of the scripture that is found in the bible. We are not a "Christian" nation, especially since we refuse to help those who are less fortunate.
1
A major defect of Obamacare is that it requires the young to pay premiums that are three to five times the actuarial value of their expected costs so that wealthy early retirees can pay less than half of the fair cost of their insurance. And that assumes they do not get taxpayer subsidies.
Why should a 25 year old pay $250 per month for a policy that is worth $50 so that a 57 year old early retiree with millions in savings and a paid for home can get insurance for less than the expected cost of his healthcare?
Christ told wealthy people to give to the poor. He never told the wealthy to get poor young people to subsidize them. He also never asserted that having people take from one person to give to another person in less need was virtuous.
AG Sessions, this is murder without the gas chambers. To me, recission (the ability of health insurance companies to rope you into paying for healthcare, only to refuse to pay if something bad happens) is nothing more the fraud against the insured committed by the insurance companies.
People who have health problems would rather not. This isn't like other blame the victim whines from this administration, this is dropped on you from above. It seems they don't understand that if people have no money for anything but healthcare, or don't feel well enough for work, that they are also not going to be able to make purchases, or fix their apartments (forget houses), or work at all, the economy will collapse, and only the rich will have any money to escape what is left of our once wonderful land.
28
Of course they understand. They just don't care (best case) or they actively want to kill us off.
5
Sessions is a weak willed man of no integrity whatever and a black hearted bigoted white supremacist who thinks health care belongs to the rich. Let the poor whites, Mexicans and blacks die. He is a devil along with Ryan, McConnell and the inhumane “Freedom Caucus”
30
Wealthy or not, white or not, who in their right mind can conclude that health care coverage would be better with no protection against insurance denial because of pre-existing conditions? The A.C.A. hasn't been around so long that only a few people remember the consuquences of being denied coverage for yourself, spouse, child or parent because of a pre-existing condition. Even a pre-disposition to illness could allow insurance denial, including genetic mutations.
Mr. Sessions position is cruel and unusual even if he and his supporters don't believe it.
47
Before the ACA, I was rejected for policies by two large insurers because my father had surgery for colon polyps. Not cancer.
I was rejected because I had a first-degree relative with a health condition. I was unable to find insurance.
27
Before ACA I was able only to purchase unrated health insurance. The same was true for my spouse. I had a history of allergies and my spouse had claims resulting from an accident which could result in claims if arthritis appeared. These premiums for two individuals ran in excess of $34,000 a year before we even saw a medical provider or paid a co-pay at a counter. These were cut in half by ACA but co-pays are higher and some services which did not have a co-pay now do.
1
Why isn't this on the Front Page? The last time the Administration tried to do away with the ACA, Congress was bombarded with phone calls, emails, tweets and any other communication available to Americans, protesting its demise. And it worked. Thanks to Senator McCain, with his thumbs down vote, the ACA survived.
This move by Jeff Sessions is extremely sneaky and needs to be the Headline on the first page of the paper.
How low can Sessions go? Threaten to take away Sessions and Congress's Health Insurance paid by we the Taxpayer and watch the ACA survive.
61
I learned about this lawsuit almost by accident and also wonder why the story is not being blasted by every news outlet. This is actual, real, important news that will impact real American lives. Enough with chasing after every tweet from the Head Twit.
1
If successful, the suit will blow the lid off of pricing and will also result in a material increase in the uninsured. The data is clear - look at per capita health spending and commercial premium increases pre-ACA and post-ACA.
Either the Trump administration does not understand what they are doing or they do not believe that providing access to affordable insurance coverage (and thereby access to decent healthcare) should be a priority. In other words, they believe that health insurance coverage is a privilege while owning an assault weapon is a right.
Should this happen, I hold little hope that we will understand what was done and who did it. I suspect that large swaths of our population will somehow be led to believe that this is Obama's fault.
33
I was denied coverage based on pre-existing conditions when I was in high school (yes, it was illegal because I was a minor but the insurance company knew I would turn 18 before any lawsuit could make it to court). I knew then that if Obamacare wasn't passed, I would have to get a job with a large company. I went to college and am now working at a tax prep office and hope to one day open my own tax prep and bookkeeping company. However, if this particular mandate is reversed, I will have to find something else. I'm not one for dramatics, but attaching health insurance to employment really is a form of modern slavery.
72
No matter what their propaganda pretends, America's conservative govt doesn't really support ambitious, independent people who would like to open their own small business, since lack of affordable health care keeps so many attached to big corporations.
In other democracies h/c doesn't depend on employer benefits, so people there have MORE freedom-- not less freedom-- to follow their ambitions, using their talents, in a new business, further education, whatever.
Why is US h/c attached to employment? It isn't in other democracies, where all citizens automatically are in their h/c systems from birth to death, no matter income, job status or health condition.
Here many portray the unemployed as undeserving, lacking in character and "responsibility"-- the favorite GOP word to criticize victims of GOP policies,
But it's our big money - directed govt that is not responsible, not living up to a duty that most other countries take seriously---health care for all citizens.
Too many of our politicians lack the 'character' to detach their political careers from big corporate subsidy. It is these overly- dependent politicians who are 'undeserving' of being elected.
10
I had my own company for several years but returned to education, an entity that provided health insurance. My insurance increased in 3 months some 200% and I as an individual could not afford it. This was back in the 70's. This issue is so old yet it continues.
6