Obamacare? what are your thoughts

PG2018 · Apr 18, 2014

At least you admitted that the Federal Government has an obligation to the people rather than to the profit of industry.
I was never in disagreement with this.
I too would rather that we were not mandating that people purchase health insurance. I would prefer that the government had protected us from the industry by expanding Medicare and Medicaid to allow all citizens access based upon income. I don't expect you to agree with that, and I am really quite okay with that disagreement. You are apparently okay with poor folks having very limited access to health care services and I am not.
The latter sentence is not a matter for the United States government to address referring back to the 10th Amendment. Yep, I hate it that they can't get to the doctor, but I don't feel it's our place to pay an additional tax to get them there or control the doctor's practice and revenues to the point that he quits altogether.
I don't expect to change your mind about that; it is a values thing that reflect differences in what we personally believe to be good vs bad, right vs. wrong, etc.
You can't allow your emotions to patchwork a porous solution together, but that's what happened due to our present democratic stance.

I would rather abort the entirety of the Affordable Care Act, return to the state level, squeeze out the abuse from our present social welfare/insurance programs ranging from unemployment to Medicaid, and with the sudden, newfound funds sit back, study the problem, and act reasonably. Rather, the sitting administration wants to do nothing but throw more and more money at a problem with no idea how to correct it, and that's money we, as Americans, don't have.

My wife is a state auditor. She frequently has to pay site visits to state agencies such as our unemployment division (those that give out unemployment checks) and routinely finds marijuana butts on the parking lots, and has even walked up on groups of "out of work" persons smoking it in the parking lot while waiting their turn to pick up their weekly check. Rather than pay people to sit at home and smoke pot, let's urine drug screen them and if it shows positive then bye bye benefits. That's a simple step that isn't costly but would reap rewards, yet it doesn't tug at the emotional heartstrings of mobocratic America as the dying cancer patient who couldn't qualify for insurance thus couldn't afford treatment. I agree. It's a sad picture. Just as many, if not all states, elicit federal funds to aide in their respective state's unemployment programs why couldn't the federal government immediately stamp out a directive requiring drug tests to qualify for short-term unemployment benefits? In a similar manner, all states enforce a maximum BAC of 0.08 mg/dL among adult noncommercial drivers because that's an included provision of eligibility to receive federal highway funds. Some states may have taken it upon themselves to lower this number further.

heron, ASN, RN · Apr 18, 2014

You're not understanding me. I'm not trying to find a solution. There isn't one. Healthcare and health insurance should be private like any other industries. As I said, do nothing, however, a reduction in abuse of the myriad social welfare programs that we already have in place would be outstanding!

Private, as in the sector that trashed the system to begin with? Do we, once again, do the same thing and expect different results?

Feh! What y'all are dancing around is that the conservative alternative is to let 'em die. Who needs more poor people, anyhow.

PG2018 · Apr 18, 2014

Private, as in the sector that trashed the system to begin with? Do we, once again, do the same thing and expect different results?
Feh! What y'all are dancing around is that the conservative alternative is to let 'em die. Who needs more poor people, anyhow.

I go to work everyday in order to provide for myself and my family. I went to college and received two bachelor's degrees in order to this, and I paid for all of it. I'm furthering my education in pursuit of a master's degree, not for grins and giggles, but to better provide for my family, and I'm also paying for this. We also work in order to have health insurance, money to save for retirement, an employer sponsored retirement plan, and a host of other benefits. As a conservative, if you want it I believe you should have to work for it too.

toomuchbaloney · Apr 18, 2014

It just doesn't matter that drug testing recipients of welfare or UEI has no value, does it? It simply adds a layer of further humiliation to the poor population who are asking for some assistance at a cost to the state. It was a failure in Florida, but hey, why bother with facts when emotional outrage over drug use among the poor works better? Florida didn't save money by drug testing welfare recipients, data shows | Tampa Bay Times

It makes so much sense that some don't want government to meddle in the business of business but really really want the government to meddle in the business of ordinary citizens, you know, like telling them how they may recreate (alcohol not marijuana), if they may access reproductive health care and how (requiring lady partsl ultrasounds just for the spite and humiliation), who you may love and marry (only heterosexual love is allowed), etc. Confused Libertarians should pay heed to Ron and Rand Paul as they clarify what the proper Libertarian positions should be.

As I said before, I don't expect to change your opinion or personal values on the subject of access to health care services for Americans. Your values represent your personal feelings on right v. wrong, good v. bad, etc. You are entitled to them and it is not required that we all have the same values or ethics in our personal lives.

You are more concerned with social welfare for the poor. I am more concerned with the corporate welfare for the wealthy.

heron, ASN, RN · Apr 18, 2014

I go to work everyday in order to provide for myself and my family. I went to college and received two bachelor's degrees in order to this, and I paid for all of it. I'm furthering my education in pursuit of a master's degree, not for grins and giggles, but to better provide for my family, and I'm also paying for this. We also work in order to have health insurance, money to save for retirement, an employer sponsored retirement plan, and a host of other benefits. As a conservative, if you want it I believe you should have to work for it too.

You're still dancing around it ... what you're saying is that the working poor can just die, already if they can't afford health insurance.

PG2018 · Apr 18, 2014

You're still dancing around it ... what you're saying is that the working poor can just die, already if they can't afford health insurance.

To be blunt, I'm not saying that. I am, however, saying don't tax me so they may live.

MunoRN, RN · Apr 18, 2014

I actually agree with this, with the addition of a sliding scale premium based on income. But, that's not what happened.

So you would have been in favor a public option?

MunoRN, RN · Apr 18, 2014

To be blunt, I'm not saying that. I am, however, saying don't tax me so they may live.

Your argument over the last few pages seems pretty clear, it's not a right and people who can't afford it are out of luck.

To actually act on this belief does mean just letting some people die, that's what happens someone comes into the ER, turns out they need acute hospital care to live, and we don't give it to them. I'm not sure what you think happens when healthcare isn't considered a right.

toomuchbaloney · Apr 18, 2014

To be blunt, I'm not saying that. I am, however, saying don't tax me so they may live.

Is that how it works?

I don't want my tax dollars subsidizing fossil fuels then, or war, or corporate welfare. And can we please stop taxing the citizens to pay the salaries of the legislators who do the bidding of the corporate world and wealthy patrons rather than the working class tax payer?

My guess is that profitable corporations and billionaires will fare better without government welfare than sick and dying poor people with no access to health insurance.

As I said before, personal values are being reflected here.

SycamoreGuy · Apr 18, 2014

So you would have been in favor a public option?

Done correctly, yes.

beshacohen · Apr 18, 2014

America is not a civilized nation. Civilized nations have a security net. Civilized nations take care of their own. A civilized nation has a single payer health system.

SycamoreGuy · Apr 19, 2014

America is not a civilized nation. Civilized nations have a security net. Civilized nations take care of their own. A civilized nation has a single payer health system.

False dichotomy