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The story of another man, me, is that I had a colonoscopy about a year ago, and I did not pay a dime thanks to the ACA.
Not one dime! Now there is a FACT for you to please consider before you get out your shovel and try to bury the truth with more anecdotal baloney.
PS: Though my story is the absolute truth, again I maintain that the statistics are what tells the full better truth (ie, let's try to tone down the everything-Obama-is-bad stories and try to focus on the greater state of affairs).
Are you no- or very low-income and/or on public assistance? Because while health care has increased for the poor, that has come at a significant cost to the middle class who can no longer afford health care thanks to Obamacare deductibles.
Are you no- or very low-income and/or on public assistance? Because while health care has increased for the poor, that has come at a significant cost to the middle class who can no longer afford health care thanks to Obamacare deductibles.
Thank you! You would do yourself a BIG favor by asking more questions and "listening" rather than go on with all the other nonsense you seem intent on promoting. I have offered nothing but the truth of these matters as I know them to be, and I am more than glad to correct any errors I might make along the way.
That is not the mark of propaganda and certainly not the shared approach here!
Once again, the objective statistics are what determines what is ultimately working, or not, on a national scale, not the story of one man or another. However, you ask about me in particular after I had a colonoscopy covered ENTIRELY by insurance. Here are more facts for you to please consider, if you will:
1) I am employed and covered by an employer financed medical plan. In fact, our company insurance broker is the one who came and made a presentation about what the new ACA provides in the way of preventive health measures covered entirely by insurance. I recommend you learn these details.
2) I have a fairly long successful employment history, always in private sector, and I have paid more in the way of income and payroll taxes than most people I know. Yes, payroll taxes, during the time I owned my own employment agency.
3) It will take time for all the adjustments and corrections necessary before the ACA is implemented in a more optimal manner. All we have to do is remember the dire predictions of those who opposed the ACA before it became law to keep in mind that those against the concept of universal health care in the first place will NEVER fairly evaluate the benefits of the ACA - never.
4) Yes, of course, there are new deductibles and changes in costs that insurance companies are forcing down the line as they react to what the ACA is doing to the industry as a whole, but there is no denying or reversing the ongoing increase in the cost of medical services and drugs. This is not the fault of the ACA, because that projectory was well in place long before Obama. We are all hoping (or should be hoping) that taking some of the control away from the medical providers and insurance companies, with supplemental government involvement, including covered preventive health measures, will better serve all of us, not just those who are working for an employer that can pay for medical coverage. Not just those without pre-existing medical conditions. Not just the better offs. Everyone, because in this way, we can take advantage of a broader insurance base and better treat those before they show up at an emergency clinic.
5) Right, the most poor will receive this medical coverage, and it will be paid by those who are able. Just like every other government service we enjoy as Americans -- military protection, education, etc. This is why we have a progressive tax code! Again, come to terms with this reality or you will never rid yourself of unnecessary unproductive heartburn over the haves covering for the have nots.
6) All the anecdotes to the contrary, the "doom and gloom" scenarios and claims that this class or that can no longer pay for their medical coverage is the same old propaganda we've been hearing since Obama began his first presidential campaign, still going on all this time that the Republicans have continued countless attempts to overturn the law. Why? Because conservatives just can't accept when they are wrong about something. They would rather run the country to ruin than admit the truth of these matters as we have seen over and over. There is no end to it...
Still, the statistics clearly show that millions of people now have access to health care that before did not. There is also no doubt that we as a country must share this expense, and I for one would also argue for a better balanced tax code that might shift some of that burden to the most wealthy in order to finance all that Americans want, from the mightiest military in the world to better education, wider health care coverage and all the rest!
1) I am employed and covered by an employer medical plan. In fact, our company insurance broker is the one who came and made a presentation about what the new ACA provides in the way of preventive health measures covered entirely by insurance. I recommend you learn these details.
Not all tests, treatments, and/or medications are "preventative health care." That's when the sky-high deductibles kick in.
I'm not the only one saying the middle class is struggling to acquire health care now because the Obamacare premiums and deductibles are WAY too high.
"I'm not the only one saying the middle class is struggling to acquire health care now because the Obamacare premiums and deductibles are WAY too high."
And I'm not saying there is no struggle!
What I AM saying is that changes, adjustments and increased costs were inevitable, or what were you or anyone thinking? That the ACA is the cause? Costs would have otherwise gone down? What are we drinking?
These struggles and increased costs are not new by any means. Hell, one of the primary reasons most people accepted a change ala the ACA is BECAUSE of the struggles and increased costs we have been dealing with for a long time now, with no end or hope in sight, but who was foolish enough to think costs would not continue to rise? Or even go down?
Especially in the early going, suddenly we would all be covered and all of us paying less? It will take YEARS for the benefits of Obamacare to actually reduce SOME costs here and there, but no, Obama nor the ACA is magic. The rise of medical services and drugs is a real problem, caused by a whole host of issues that even the ACA cannot reverse entirely. We're dreaming if we ever thought otherwise.
To suggest these increased costs or adjustments are something new or not to recognize the nature of these same problems before, not to remember the trend lines, or even worse to ignore what benefits are now resulting from the ACA is the mark of bald-faced propaganda!
Never mind the millions who now have access to health care that before could not because of pre-existing conditions and all the other barbarisms!
No, things are not perfect! But have some mercy and spare us the blind one-sided dark side of the conservative agenda that simply cannot accept national health care coverage!
Like arguing with a religious zealot, no pleading for reason or logic -- facts -- can shake a faith in what one insists on believing no matter what the truth may be...
So why do I try? I really don't know when surely I have more productive things I can focus upon...
"I'm not the only one saying the middle class is struggling to acquire health care now because the Obamacare premiums and deductibles are WAY too high."
And I'm not saying there is no struggle!
What I AM saying is that changes, adjustments and increased costs were inevitable, or what were you or anyone thinking?
Wow. No. That's NOT what Obama promised...
Obama promised families would save $2,500 per year over their current medical costs.
Obama promised that those who liked their insurance plans could keep their insurance plans.
Obama promised that those who liked their doctors, could keep their doctors.
Furthermore, Obama claimed employers would see the premiums they pay for their employee health insurance plans fall by 3,000%. I'll let you figure out what's wrong with that promise which also turned out to be a lie...
I'm not really interested in more straw man arguments or even necessarily what Obama "promised."
I am simply focused on why health care reform in American was needed, why it was a significant part of Obama's campaign promise, and why we are better off for the change represented by what the ACA has done for us today and will do into the future.
Not to defend Obama but rather just apply some common sense, how could any President possibly know what the immediate net effect would be of implementing such a massive program, essentially revolutionary for the United States?
Name me one President who sponsored any such significant change that did not find an end result a good deal different over time. Look at the history of the Social Security Act of 1935. How many times revised?
Who understood Obama's promises to be iron-clad given all his opposition, a Congress, always the great unknown? Only the naive, and I'm not interested in defending them here! Again, simple common sense will tell you that just the state of our economy today vs what Obama could have guessed during his first term would also drastically effect our ability to finance Obamacare.
Are we talking hopes and dreams here or political reality?
I suggest we stop thinking in terms of absolutes and more in terms of better or worse. Given the rising costs, uninsured and all the rest of the problems ALL Americans faced before the ACA, are we ALL better or worse off than before? Would we be better off with no change, if the ACA had NOT become the law of the land? Where would we be instead? I know the answer from the millions who now have coverage that before could not...
What better question(s) are there to more seriously consider?
I am simply focused on why health care reform in American was needed, why it was a significant part of Obama's campaign promise, and why we are better off for the change represented by what the ACA has done for us today and will do into the future.
We're NOT better off.
Both insurance AND health care require more out-of-pocket costs for everyone except those on Medicaid, and maybe those with premium subsidies (they'll STILL have to meet the multi-thousand $$$ deductible, and they're the least likely to be able to afford that).
You asked if I was no or low income, because you have assumptions about things that are not to be corrected. Rather than a bit of give-and-take with any of that, we simply move on to the next assumption or factoid regardless what corrections or counter facts are offered.
When you refer to Americans who are not better off, you are not referring to ALL Americans as a whole, certainly not me!
I am referring to ALL of America! Yes, of course, there are those better or worse off than before that I suppose should be evaluated on a case-by-case basis to understand the reasons, but as far any one group or individual goes, you are not talking about me. I for one am better off than I was before Obama came along.
I am employed, I pay my share of the health care plan that my employer shares with me (just like before, no more no less). I still have my same doctor and essentially the same access to health care services, in fact better since I now can get preventive care at no cost. A colonoscopy now done that may not have happened as soon for me or at all for others who can now "enjoy" the same benefit.
One difference, however, is that our coverage for other than generic drugs, has gone up. I'm not like some who can't admit there is BOTH some better and some worse.
Even in this worse case, however, again the cause is not so much the ACA but the inability to keep the cost of drugs from rising. The shift toward generics is at least one way to keep the pharmaceutical companies from those questionable profits made from insurance programs that only served to line their pockets a bit more than was right -- my opinion.
But you don't want to hear about any of those sorts of facts...
Clearly. You're being myopic; looking only at your own situation. Whereas, Obamacare has harmed tens of millions of people, mostly the middle class. Many millions lost the insurance plans they liked, lost the doctors they had for decades, got hit with higher premiums, and got hit with MUCH higher deductibles. Even those who qualify for subsidies don't bother to enroll because they can't afford the deductibles.
I've posted link after link with polls STILL showing the majority doesn't like it, research, etc., etc. Not sure why you're ignoring the horror story that is Obamacare. /shrug
Quote:
"Unite Here [a union] warned that due to Obamacare's much higher costs for health insurance than what union workers currently pay, the result will be a pay cut of up to $5 an hour. "If employers follow the incentives in the law, they will push families onto the exchanges to buy coverage. This will force low-wage service industry employees to spend $2.00, $3.00 or even $5.00 an hour of their pay to buy similar coverage," said the union in a new report.
“Only in Washington could asking the bottom of the middle class to finance health care for the poorest families be seen as reducing inequality,” said the report from Unite Here."
I have been suggesting we look at the statistics, not anecdotes. You ask about me personally, and again I remind that the good or bad of the ACA is not found by way of the story of one man or another, and now I'm called "myopic."
I check back for some sign there is hope here, but instead I find only more proof I'm dealing with a closed mind beyond reason.
Btw, just about anyone can pull up the particular link that fits their agenda no matter what the agenda or how misguided. There is something to Google for everybody!
You want to learn the truth, do a little less pushing of propaganda and a little more self-checking of your own facts. To do this, you must understand that there are those facts out there that you may not like to know so much, but facts nevertheless.
With all due respect, I just don't have the time or confidence that I can help you with any of that anymore.
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