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And "under GW Bush, the average family premiums (including both what employers and employees pay) went up $4,677 in his last six years in office, from 2002 to 2008, an increase of 58 percent." But under Obama there was a 33 percent increase.
But if Obamacare is abolished the following will happen in Alabama,
"357,000 Alabamans stand to lose their health coverage."
"Alabama stands to lose $15 billion in federal funding for Medicaid, CHIP, and financial assistance for marketplace coverage."
"Approximately 152,000 Alabamans who currently get financial assistance to help pay for their health coverage will lose this help and will no longer have affordable coverage options."
"The now-historically low rate of uninsured people will spike, with the number of uninsured Alabama increasing 74 percent by 2019."
"Approximately 2 million Alabamans with pre-existing conditions like asthma, diabetes, and cancer could once again be denied affordable, comprehensive coverage that actual covers their health care needs."
"Women in Alabama will once again be charged more for health coverage just for being a woman. Prior to the Affordable Care Act (ACA), women in Alabama were charged as much as 53 percent more than men for the same coverage."
"Approximately 2.1 million Alabamans with private health coverage (including 423,00 children) and 968,000 Alabama seniors on Medicare will lose guaranteed access to free preventive care, like blood pressure screenings, immunizations, and cancer screenings."
"The Medicare donut hole will re-open. This will leave Alabama’s seniors and people with disabilities with a gap in prescription drug coverage and forced to pay thousands of dollars more in drug costs."
And I'm not fully defending Obamacare. Clearly Obamacare has problems with hurting small businesses and causing certain Americans and certain states to see increased healthcare costs. But the republican healthcare plan will cause huge numbers of people to lose medical services and increase Americas yearly healthcare cost growth.
I just wish republicans and democrats could sit down and decide what each side wants in Americas healthcare system, and then work together to accomplish those goals. But instead its a total fight and then one parties laws end up controling the entire healthcare system (when each party left by itself does a crappy job.)
I apologize if I appeared to have a callous attitude about the huge healthcare cost increases in your state, that was not my intention.
Chad.
I never said that premiums did not go up, what I'm saying, it went up 220% in a matter of 3 years...not 10 like you stated...So in 10 years it went up 130%....in 3 years it almost doubled that here in Alabama...
I agree dems and repubs should sit down to a point, but remember, yesterday the dems voted NOT to go into discussion about the bill....
And "under GW Bush, the average family premiums (including both what employers and employees pay) went up $4,677 in his last six years in office, from 2002 to 2008, an increase of 58 percent." But under Obama there was a 33 percent increase.
Premiums are half the story. My premiums went up approximately the average, but my share of the premiums went up 2500% since 2010 ad my deductible went from $250 to $5000. If I had dropped my deductible from $250 to $1000 instead of to $5,000, then my combined employer/employee premium would have shot up from $130/month to $900/month. That's over a 650% increase. Individual plans below $1,000 deductible are no longer offered because of the cadillac tax. (I can get a family plan for just myself with a $500/person deductible, but it is $1,800/month.)
As I have mentioned before, the whole problem with this is that I have health insurance. I tick the box for the numbers of insured.
But I don't have healthcare.
The insurance covers nothing until I pay $5k out of pocket. No checkups. No prescriptions. No bloodwork. No urgent care. No physical therapy. I am technically insured, but I am functionally uninsured. (Before anyone chips in about "essential health benefits", employer provided plans that cover more than 50 people are exempt from the essential health benefits requirements. That's a big part of why premium growth has slowed for employer provided plans; they went for deductible increases and stopped covering preventative care before deductibles are covered.)
As a result, I don't go to the doctor anymore. I don't take my statins anymore. I stopped getting treatment for my leg injury.
7 years ago I was insured and had healthcare. Now I am still insured but I do not have healthcare.
Last edited by marigolds6; 07-27-2017 at 09:57 AM..
I'd like to think of my fellow Americans as being bright enough to understand the futility in believing any of the party politicking which has lead us to a kind of nonsensical view of healthcare. But, I see the party friction at work here, and I see it serving the status quo of American corporatized healthcare. Obamacare, and the current Republican offering are both repugnant simply for the fact of their giving the insurance industry the upper hand in our health care.
This has become our main dilemma, how to get out of the noose of a plutocratic government? A government by and for those who have the money to buy legislative benefit will never produce anything remotely democratic, not too big a deal except that this is the daily reality in the largest democratic nation on the planet.
The fact of our representative democracy allowing for corporate citizenship has come home to roost. Blue shield, Humana, the AMA, and a host of "other citizens" are looking out for their own economic interests to the detriment of the rest of America's citizens, what kind of democracy is that? And more importantly, what does this say about the backbone of those we elect to stave off the worst of these assaults on our notions of real democracy. Corrupt politicians produce corrupt government, and corrupt government produces a power construct ran by money. Party politics is the root of the scam, the incessant arguing over party differences makes us think we are actually DOING something, but at days end, it's business as usual, that is to say that--business is REALLY running America--while we only can argue the merit of it's rulings...
I liked Carl Sagan's response to this very real dilemma of divisional American politics and it's natural outcome:
“One of the saddest lessons of history is this: If we’ve been bamboozled long enough, we tend to reject any evidence of the bamboozle. We’re no longer interested in finding out the truth. The bamboozle has captured us. It’s simply too painful to acknowledge, even to ourselves, that we’ve been taken. Once you give a charlatan power over you, you almost never get it back.”
― Carl Sagan, The Demon-Haunted World: Science as a Candle in the Dark
i had a wonderful plan a few years back. now i have a garbage plan. High deductible. It skyrocketed from 300 a month to over 1000+ a month in three years!!!!!!!
The Bush tax cuts cost $3 trillion dollars every 10 years. That's approximately $300 billion dollars per year (that's enough money to fund the Medicaid expansion for over 30 years.) https://www.cbpp.org/research/chart-...-bush-tax-cuts
And did the Bush tax cuts noticeably improve regular Americans lives?
- No, because the 20% of Americans making up the middle class got 9% of the tax cuts, and the richest 1% of Americans got 51% of the tax cuts. Bush Tax Cuts After 2002: June 2002 CTJ Analysis
When republicans give the richest 1% and large corporations TRILLIONS of dollars republicans don't complain, but when democrats give poor Americans BILLIONS of dollars republicans complain and come out fighting.
America already spends more on the military than China, Russia, Saudi Arabia, India, France, United Kingdom, Japan and Germany combined. Do you honestly believe we need more military spending to be safe? U.S. Defense Spending Compared to Other Countries
The amount of money Trump wants to increase military spending by is 2x the cost of state medicaid expansion. And the Washington republicans only want increased military spending because defense corporations give republicans huge sums of campaign money. https://www.opensecrets.org/industri...cle=2016&ind=D
Quote:
Why are you using an old tax plan that had been replaced?
Then post Trumps most recent tax plan. And then we can calculate for how many 100's of years Trumps tax cuts for the richest 1% of Americans could fund the Medicaid expansion for.
I find it interesting that people (like the OP) are fixated on speculating on how may die if Obamacare is repealed and yet are unconcerned with how many are already dying because buying Obamacare is, for them, unaffordable.
Yes, a repeal would have lead to more uninsured, but let's not lose sight of the fact that 11.3% of Americans are uninsured in 2017. Since the repeal is dead, how about some concern for the those who are still suffering and dying despite Obamacare?
Then lets have a conversation that involves both sides. A conversation about saving the lives of the people that democrats claim will die, and a conversation about saving the lives of the people republicans claim will die?
But republicans won't have that conversation. Republicans believe poor people "made the wrong choices" and don't have the right to health insurance. And then republicans will blindly follow their political leaders without question (and that automatically makes them unable to have that conversation.)
Then lets have a conversation that involves both sides. A conversation about saving the lives of the people that democrats claim will die, and a conversation about saving the lives of the people republicans claim will die?
But republicans won't have that conversation. Republicans believe poor people "made the wrong choices" and don't have the right to health insurance. And then republicans will blindly follow their political leaders without question (and that automatically makes them unable to have that conversation.)
Your failed, awful party refuses to have a conversation about the topic. The Democrats don't care about the people suffering and dying under Obamacare. They've killed millions and forced millions more into poverty. Which is right where they want everyone to be, so they are dependent on government (and liberals).
Then lets have a conversation that involves both sides. A conversation about saving the lives of the people that democrats claim will die, and a conversation about saving the lives of the people republicans claim will die?
But republicans won't have that conversation. Republicans believe poor people "made the wrong choices" and don't have the right to health insurance. And then republicans will blindly follow their political leaders without question (and that automatically makes them unable to have that conversation.)
Wait, the dems just voted not to go into discussion about this very thing....yes?
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