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Medicare is not ill-run, it's well funded going on well into the future. Although there are some challenges ahead as the baby boomers continue to retire. Your making the mistake many make of lumping Medicaid and Medicare together.
With the ever increasing incidence of chronic diseases (cardiovascular, diabetes, cancer etc) that are especially prevalent in the medicare population today, it is a matter of time before the crisis alarm rings. How do you solve it, I have no clue.
Your points on heath risks are well taken, and the decision/option can vary from person to person. Now the OBCare deprives the option for individual americans to decide for themselves but this government makes the decision for all citizens (not sure how this affects the illegals). Like mentioned above, $1,700 (after tax money) a year OBCare premium for a $25,000 pretax job is a substantial amount for folks who are young and healthy. It is another way to squeeze money out of the young working class to subsidize the deficited and ill-run medicare/medicaid program.
a single visit to the ER often costs an uninsured person more than $1700 and can happen to anyone who is "young and healthy"
you completely misunderstand the point of health insurance from both an individual and group perspective
do you think that 25 year old making $25,000 is in a good position to evaluate for himself whether he should have to carry auto insurance? can he realistically participate in a shared system of roads without insurance? should he accurately evaluate the importance of insurance based on how much it costs him versus how much he typically pays for minor fender benders? should he have to make such a painful decision?
now replace "auto" for health and "roads" for "medical care"
the argument that people who forego insurance can simply pay out of pocket or not use medical providers goes out the window the first time a relative of yours makes that choice and then has to deal with a serious medical condition. unless of course you are prepared to look your young cousin/daughter/best friend/etc in the eye and tell that person to go f*ck off and die because they chose not to carry health insurance and were unlucky enough to develop leukemia or get struck by a hit and run driver
at that point you'll be complaining about the lack of access to affordable health insurance just like everyone else who understands the situation
as far as medicaid/medicare... when your parents are receiving (or did receive) end of life care or in some sort of nursing home are you going to stick to your guns about medicare and medicaid? will you leave assets in their names and allow medicare/medicaid to pursue repayment of the hundreds of thousands of dollars in medical bills and nursing home fees from the estate upon their passing?
or will you, like so many others, hide the assets in your own name or your siblings, choosing to find loopholes and reap the benefits of the system all while decrying how expensive it is?
but apparently you know that it's better for some low income americans to have no realistic access whatsoever to health care than to force them to participate in a system that, despite its flaws, at least provides basic coverage at a better price than in previous years. coverage that could save their life should they have an accident or contract an illness through no fault of their own
what is your experience with the health care system? how do you know so much?
leo, let's say you had a niece who just graduated college and got some temp admin job without benefits
she likes rock climbing. takes a trip out to some cliffs, falls, needs medivac and a leg amputation. this could happen to any bright, otherwise responsible young adult
so now your niece, who elected to save $1700 since her temp job only paid 25k, has the choice of foregoing medical care (and dying) or having hundreds of thousands of dollars of debt (that could cripple her finances for life). moreover, she can't have physical therapy - since it's not critical care they are not obligated to provide it to her without insurance, so she never learns to get around after her accident or properly adjust to her disability
what's your choice? your niece should die? it's her fault she's crippled? send the bill to obama and blame him? she shouldn't feel bad, cause gosh darn it at least no one took her "freedom" away?
a single visit to the ER often costs an uninsured person more than $1700 and can happen to anyone who is "young and healthy"
you completely misunderstand the point of health insurance from both an individual and group perspective
do you think that 25 year old making $25,000 is in a good position to evaluate for himself whether he should have to carry auto insurance? can he realistically participate in a shared system of roads without insurance? should he accurately evaluate the importance of insurance based on how much it costs him versus how much he typically pays for minor fender benders? should he have to make such a painful decision?
now replace "auto" for health and "roads" for "medical care"
the argument that people who forego insurance can simply pay out of pocket or not use medical providers goes out the window the first time a relative of yours makes that choice and then has to deal with a serious medical condition. unless of course you are prepared to look your young cousin/daughter/best friend/etc in the eye and tell that person to go f*ck off and die because they chose not to carry health insurance and were unlucky enough to develop leukemia or get struck by a hit and run driver
at that point you'll be complaining about the lack of access to affordable health insurance just like everyone else who understands the situation
as far as medicaid/medicare... when your parents are receiving (or did receive) end of life care or in some sort of nursing home are you going to stick to your guns about medicare and medicaid? will you leave assets in their names and allow medicare/medicaid to pursue repayment of the hundreds of thousands of dollars in medical bills and nursing home fees from the estate upon their passing?
or will you, like so many others, hide the assets in your own name or your siblings, choosing to find loopholes and reap the benefits of the system all while decrying how expensive it is?
If you prefer to have your mind clogged by the worries of serious diseases and unexpected incidences in life, it is your choice and you go pay for it. But for many others, they cannot care less about such low probability risks in future while they are struggling to make ends meet just to survive today. It is ideal for everyone to having health insurance but the option should be left to each individual to calculate the risk/reward for their own and make appropriate decisions.
If you prefer to have your mind clogged by the worries of serious diseases and unexpected incidences in life, it is your choice and you go pay for it. But for many others, they cannot care less about such low probability risks in future while they are struggling to make ends meet just to survive today. It is ideal for everyone to having health insurance but the option should be left to each individual to calculate the risk/reward for their own and make appropriate decisions.
please answer my questions
what will you do regarding your parents end of life care and repayment medicaid/medicare estate? this is not a worry, it is a certainty, everyone dies eventually
what would you tell your niece? this may not happen to you, but again it certainly happens to some families as accidents are inevitable. right now the system utter fails for about 15% of such people. how does your "plan" do any better for such folks?
for the record, these are not just "worries" to me, as i mentioned previously i have dealt extensively with medicare/medicaid as it relates to end of life care, as well as being uninsured and had to go to the ER, etc. the problem with your reasoning is that these are not rare or unexpected, in fact most people deal with these sorts of things eventually. the fact that many people choose to stick their head in the sand about the fact some americans don't have any remotely fair or humane access to health care to help them in such circumstances doesn't make something "unexpected"
hopefully you'll outgrow the notion that health care is something to play roulette with before something happens to you or a loved one
i hope that if you ever find yourself caring for your aging parents medicare/medicaid allows them to have a dignified and compassionate passing with adequate medical attention, as it did for my mother. if you choose to put their assets in a trust, or transfer $5000 a year to each of their children, or any of the other myriad of ways people get around the estate repayment laws, please think more deeply about the role these institutions play in our lives as americans rather than just parroting how some talking head trashed M/M as a crutch for the lazy and poor
My husband is currently unemployed, with a pre-existing condition. Months ago we had to drop his COBRA coverage because it was nearly $600/month so now he has horrible "catastrophic" insurance for $200/month. Under ObamaCare, he will be able to get "normal" coverage for probably around $200, $400 less than what he was paying before for the same coverage. Sorry, but I see no downside to this as far as we are concerned.
And I totally agree that if you opt out and decide to just to pay the fine, then you get nothing if something happens. You want to gamble, fine but I'm not paying for it when you lose.
My husband is currently unemployed, with a pre-existing condition. Months ago we had to drop his COBRA coverage because it was nearly $600/month so now he has horrible "catastrophic" insurance for $200/month. Under ObamaCare, he will be able to get "normal" coverage for probably around $200, $400 less than what he was paying before for the same coverage. Sorry, but I see no downside to this as far as we are concerned.
And I totally agree that if you opt out and decide to just to pay the fine, then you get nothing if something happens. You want to gamble, fine but I'm not paying for it when you lose.
what will you do regarding your parents end of life care and repayment medicaid/medicare estate? this is not a worry, it is a certainty, everyone dies eventually
what would you tell your niece? this may not happen to you, but again it certainly happens to some families as accidents are inevitable. right now the system utter fails for about 15% of such people. how does your "plan" do any better for such folks?
for the record, these are not just "worries" to me, as i mentioned previously i have dealt extensively with medicare/medicaid as it relates to end of life care, as well as being uninsured and had to go to the ER, etc. the problem with your reasoning is that these are not rare or unexpected, in fact most people deal with these sorts of things eventually. the fact that many people choose to stick their head in the sand about the fact some americans don't have any remotely fair or humane access to health care to help them in such circumstances doesn't make something "unexpected"
hopefully you'll outgrow the notion that health care is something to play roulette with before something happens to you or a loved one
i hope that if you ever find yourself caring for your aging parents medicare/medicaid allows them to have a dignified and compassionate passing with adequate medical attention, as it did for my mother. if you choose to put their assets in a trust, or transfer $5000 a year to each of their children, or any of the other myriad of ways people get around the estate repayment laws, please think more deeply about the role these institutions play in our lives as americans rather than just parroting how some talking head trashed M/M as a crutch for the lazy and poor
What exact answers do you want to hear from me about these made-up gloomy scences? I have clearly stated above that each person has his or her own priority in life. Your personal experience taught you that life is not worth living without health insurance in place so you go with it. That may or may not apply to others' situation so you do not need to force your view/value on others just because you fear all these uncertain situations. Of course all these scary events seem so eminent in your experience but others have their own physical/psycho/mental way of dealing with such probabilities. It sounds like that once you saw that someone drown in a river, you will stand on the bank to stop all others from swimming in that river. It is also like the law that one cannot ride a bike without a helmet because someone in the past fell from the bike and crack the head. I am not against having health insurance, but one should have the option to balance prioritize his own small budget when there are other more important things to spend the money on. Safety measures are good to have, but living in fears of low probability events should not be forced upon other adults.
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