Obamacare Is Succeeding!

How many persons in the US make minimum wage? Have you any idea?

Perhaps surprisingly, not very many people earn minimum wage, and they make up a smaller share of the workforce than they used to. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, last year 1.566 million hourly workers earned the federal minimum of $7.25 an hour; nearly two million more earned less than that because they fell under one of several exemptions (tipped employees, full-time students, certain disabled workers and others), for a total of 3.55 million hourly workers at or below the federal minimum.

Disproportionately young: 50.6% are ages 16 to 24; 24% are teenagers (ages 16 to 19).(all eligible to be on their parents insurance)
Mostly (78%) white; fully half are white women.(most women are on their husbands insurance as are the kids)
Largely part-time workers (64% of the total). (Even the government hires part time workers at minimum wage with no benefits.)

http://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2013/07/19/who-makes-minimum-wage/

 

Those lives would be saved anyway. The difference is expense, and oh boy have the expenses gone upupupup.

 

No, I was being amazed at the stupidity of the discussion over commwealth. It's really really obvious that the other side of the debate doesnt' even know what one is!

 

And for what percentage of the population as a whole... was the old system "ineffective"? (Clue: The numbers are pretty high.)

The ACA isn't perfect, but it is far less 'crappy' than the old system. I see it as a step toward something better; it isn't the final or best thing.

I had my eye on healthcare over 20 years ago. Many insurance policies SUCKED!! There were many corporations writing clever and deceptive policies, designed to DENY millions of people necessary medical coverage. That needed to change... and of course, anyone with decent sense knew then (and should now) that the corporations making big buck off of that SHADY BS, would try to put down ANYTHING that would stand in the way of their ill-founded maximum profits.

Fast-forward to TODAY. The fight I knew was coming is right in all of our faces, including all the stops being pulled out to discredit a more 'humane' system of medical care.

At this point, I put the importance of medical care, right up there with national defense. We should regard the FUNCTION more than the cost. Not saying that healthcare would ever become the seemingly bottomless PIT that war and weapons has become... but that good and decent medical care of the people is a massively good and positive 'investment'. We can only WIN by making people more healthy, both physically and mentally.

Being a man who spent his entire youth to this point as a military man... I know the value of defense, but all I'm saying is that we can reasonably RE-PRIORITIZE things to achieve much more beneficial outcomes. It is not impossible.

 

I think I applied that term (commonwealth) incorrectly; I can admit that.

 

And "upupupup", is the way medical expenses were headed even many years ago... with the added effect of corporations being allowed to provide, less-less-less-less.

That was creating a horrible crisis that seemed to have zero light at the end of the tunnel; people were literally dying... because the "insurance" they thought they had, was not insuring at all.

That had to be changed; I didn't expect that change to be 'painless' and neither did millions of other thinking Americans.

 

Although Romney Care in Massachusetts was an overwhelming success as since 2011 all citizens of Mass have been covered under Universal Healthcare and because of this the amount of money spent to reimburse Hospitals and Ambulance companies for unpaid ER bills as those who were uninsured by Federal law cannot be denied entrance to an ER so such people who could not afford a Doctor visit bill would overload ER's coming in from anything from a COLD to a Hang Nail.

Now because it costs far more for Mass. to reimburse such ER and Ambulance costs than to run Universal Healthcare....Massachusetts now has had a Surplus Budget and although I a wealthy my payments went DOWN.

But since Mass. Universal Healthcare was careful crafted to work a certain way I worry some idiots in Washington might tinker with it and screw up the whole dynamic of how such a program works.

AboveAlpha

 

Good points.

And certainly, America (as a whole) should not have waited so long, to avert the healthcare crisis that led to the ACA. More states should have followed MA's lead, long ago. (Politics, suck!!)

 

Your health care costs have declined the states are on track to break the bank in a very few years, and the number of people going to the Er for everything from the common cold to a hangnail have not declined. They have increased largely because people are no longer concerned about the bill.

Why have, inspite of the promises, ER visits not declined? Because dumbasses who can't be bothered to find a primary care physiciain are still dumbasses who won't take the time to find a primary care physician and now there is no potential economic consequence for that behavior so it is on the increase.

 

Noticed 2 things...

1) Only half that nursing home clapped when she was done ranting.

2) Obama is a bigger plagiarizer than I'd already heard about.

 

The PF glitch-fest.

 

I think most people need to notice that she's right.

 

First-Year Savings From Municipal Health Reform Reach $175 Million
in Health Care Municipal
The Foundation’s latest release, issued jointly with The Boston Foundation and Metropolitan Area Planning Council, summarizes the enormous success of the state’s municipal health insurance law on the one-year anniversary of its passage by the Legislature. First-year savings have now reached an astonishing $175 million statewide as at least 160 cities and towns have taken steps to implement changes in their health plans.

LINK....http://www.masstaxpayers.org/public...ngs_municipal_health_reform_reach_175_million

LINK...http://www.masstaxpayers.org/publications/8

This is actual DATA detailing the savings and complete success of Massachusetts Universal Healthcare Program.

Unlike YOU I can provide actual data of savings.

Your attempts to simply post false statements about this have failed.

AboveAlpha

 

http://www.americanthinker.com/blog...g_in_massachusetts_highest_in_the_nation.html

Per capita healthcare cost in Massachussetts are the highest in the nation.

 

LOL!!!

Yeah...let's not use actual MASSACHUSETTS GOVERNMENT OR MASS. TAXPAYER ASSOCIATION DATA!!!

LOL!!!!

Let's use links fro some outside source that neither pays the bills or knows the actual reality.

JOKE!!

AboveAlpha

 

Even if the data you linked to makes your point... the reality is nevertheless that this nation NEEDED TO EXPAND and improve the delivery of healthcare; we weren't as a nation going to opt for just letting people DIE.

So, I can see costs spiking a bit and then stabilizing after we get out healthcare infrastructure to where it needs to be.

In any case, it is too early to KNOW where the ACA will take us exactly. And more than a few experts KNEW that the old system was due to crash and burn... as so many individual Americans had already experienced personally.

- - - Updated - - -

Good point!!

 

".It does violence to liberty."

Some things are self evident. When a bureaucrat decides what I can or cannot do then my liberty has been violated.

Governments, not businesses, are constrained by constitutions.

If you believe a contract has been violated, then seek out a lawyer and use the law to seek your remedy. As the government has no right under the Constitution to be involved your issue is not a Constitutional issue.

"It is evil in its passing and in its implementation." What became Obamacare was forced upon us using bribery.

It should be easy to show me the enumerated power that allows the government to demand that a private citizen purchase a good or service from another private party.

"If it is not eliminated, then America as a free nation dies."

How can we ever again be free if a government can demand that we buy a good or a service? If this continues then we are doomed to a life of slavery to the state. We might just as well rebel.

Ending this horrid law is a far better solution than perpetual bloodshed.

 

Providing a better vehicle for healthcare to reach millions of Americans, is NOT doing violence to liberty.

Let's just disagree. You won't sell me that one; not likely ever.

 

That there's no class warfare?

That no one got rich on their own?

That there is some sort of "social contract"?

That businesses aren't already "paying forward" to those who choose to work for them?
Not to mention huge tax bills?

Exactly what is she right about, because I can't find anything aside from a successful business creator being allowed to "keep a big chunk".

 

Anytime someone takes governments claims of cost savings at face value they are playing the fool. And lets not forget that it's always easy that costs would have been higher if we hadn't done x. Stating that you saved x doesn't necessarily mean that you actually saved anything. That's why most people laugh at those TV commercials offering to self you something that would normally sell for $100 today for only $25 and then telling you you'll save 75 dollars.

Here's another site reporting the same and using the Massachusetts own data, too.

http://bluecrossmafoundation.org/sites/default/files/Cost Deck March report.pdf

 

I can see that you disagree with her; I don't. So, I guess we disagree.

 

And anyone who doesn't realize that government (the primary voice of the people) serves as a foil against the schemes of greedy capitalists... is certainly a fool.

This society NEEDED the ACA; it's imperfect but better than no change whatsoever.

I await anyone's input to convince me otherwise, and so far it has not.

So be it.

 

Do you pay out of pocket when your car needs repaired? How about for clothing? Or a place to live?

If government had not unconstitutionally involved itself, you would have plenty of options and you could shop for a doctor in the same way you shop for a mechanic.

 

Given that the term has no legal force what is the difference?

 

That has not happened. Nor will it. What did happen is that the government is now positioned to demand that citizens buy things the government wants purchased. This is not freedom and we have lost a substantial portion of our liberties.

And some things are self-evident. To some of us anyway.