Obamacare
I refrain from talking politics with others. I tend to encounter two very extreme types in the world : the bleeding heart liberals and the adament conservatives, they jump down your throat at every given moment. Just the other day, I happened to mention the name of Mitt Romney to someone. I said I wondered if the name "Mitt" is actually his name or if it's a nickname, and if it is in fact his birth name that is a rather odd name. Although that observation was/is a rather harmless one, the person in question (whose name I will not name because I AIN'T CRAZY) proclaimed me to be a Republican before all before them. To this I was rather taken aback. But, we are bent on labling people and proclaiming ourselves to know more than others around us do. But I digress ...
As we saw today, Obamacare passed in Congress. To this, I felt rather ... Taken aback. Having been on the inside of the healthcare industry and having seen one atrocity after another go down, I must explain to others how things are really going to go down for all of us with this. Here I will review a list of bullet points given in a Facebook update today, what they say and what will really happen:
1) Access to healthcare for over 30 million Americans and lower premiums
In order to achieve this, we must be willing to pay higher taxes somewhere. Insurance companies will pay lower R&Cs on basics, and we will end up shelling more money that we don't have out of our pockets. We are not talking about the poor and lower class here, we are talking about mostly middle class people who have disabilites or preexisting conditions who were unable to get insurance commercially to begin with. Will the door be open to them? A crack at best.
2) The ability of businesses and individuals to purchase comprehensive coverage from a regulated marketplace.
Not true on the part of businesses. Businesses before and after the economy crashed were able to provide some kind of coverage to their employees, they just choose to be cheap and act out of paranoia. NOW businesses and corporations are broke? No they weren't. They were just as much in debt as the next business or individual, they are just as poorly managed now as they were then. Out of fear, however, they will not provide commercial coverage to their employees and might even fire them a week or so before their health care coverage will kick in. Don't believe it? It happened to me. I was fired for having a very cavalier attitude about things that went on in an office, not a discipline problem by any means.
3) Insurers cannot descriminate against people with preexisting conditions.
Oh really? Then how come when someone finds out that they need a big ticket procedure (ex. knee surgery), the individual did not before sign up for the plan, have the surgery, drop it and then go back on Medicaid? It happens. This is why insureres descriminated against them to begin with. Say you discover you have diabetes, but you did not know you had diabetes until after the initial tests came back positive saying that you did, in fact, have it. That is, unfortunately, a sad state when this happens and you suddenly have your premiums shoot sky high. What we are not considering is that the direct costs of a condition such as diabetes (just the direct) have increased 200%, without considering the indirect costs. We are living in a world plagued by denial and a million things that we do not do to prevent something bad from happening. All caused by the obesity problem.
4) Tax credits for small businesses the offer insurance. Small employers who purchase insurance for their employees will receive tax credits to providing more coverage.
I worked for a small company for a hot minute that did not offer insurance coverage for their employees. I was determined that I was going to get out of debt after a while, eventually being able to purchase my own health insurance. However, the guy I was working for said to me that he could no longer afford to keep me in the position, as well as saying he wanted the woman who had quit and left this position vacant to come back to him. He determined that the job could be done in an afternoon or so. Other than the two contradicting statements, the man could afford to buy me Starbucks coffee every morning but he could not afford to pay me a salary. Perhaps he will get a tax credit and be able to offer said coverage to his employees, but if he could take all the money he spent on Starbucks coffee he might have a lot of extra cash for other things.
Also, should the higher ups be aware of how hard middle management works to keep their heads burried in the sand over how deep in debt they really are, they would probably be horrified. The reason so many businesses are in debt is because they refuse to send delinquent customers to collections, partly because they don't want to spend money and partly because they refuse to acknowledge that they don't know how to do something. So they would rather hide behind a "we don't want to hurt anyone's feelings" moniker than tell the truth.
5) Assistence for businesses to supply benefits for retirees.
Now that's just nonsense. Since when do businesses care enough about their employees to supply this for them? There are two types of people in the business world based on ages : Dispendable and Indispendable. The Indispendable are the older people who may or may not be close to retirement, but the employer is just holding onto them because they are waiting for them to say "I am going to retire", or "I only want to work part time because I am getting up in years". The Dispendable people are the eager, go getter types who come into a business hopeful and innocent. They are the ones who do the real work in the office, then they step out of line, and they are kicked out the door for another who is just as idealistic that they are going to make some kind of difference in this mess. And even if the individual does retire as an Indispendable, they are just out of the office, done with it all, and could care less about the stupid company that they just left after how many years of hell.
6) Affordable health care coverage for low income Americans. Obamacare will extend Medicaid to those who fall into the 138th percentile of the poverty line, making the most vulnerable of the population able to have health care.
Someone who said this is a good thing never had a job working a Medicaid line in their lives. While on the Medicaid lines, I had people screaming at me left, right and sideways because they could or could not get something for nothing from Dr. So and So. They live in houses that are practically crumbling down, have no bank accounts or credit cards, have no money to pay their bills, buy groceries or supply things to themselves and/or their children. But they do, however, have enough liquid cash to buy new cars, rims on the new cars, designer clothes, drugs/alcohol, take vacations, jewelry, buy techno junk, etc. Once I was out grocery shopping, a woman ahead of me in the self check out line bought her groceries with a Directions card, then paid cash for alcohol and cigarettes. Makes me angry. And now that Medicaid is extended, now we will be supplying even more people to cover their expenses with more money we don't have.
7) Investments in women's health. Obamacare will not allow charges for women to be substantially higher than men's and offers preventative services.
It is a proven fact that women go to the doctor more than men do, whether or not they give birth to children or take their children to doctor's offices, because the vast majority of children will be taken to the doctor by their mothers until they reach their teens or early twenties. Fathers simply do not do it. That's why women have more charges to be aquired than men do. Women are also more likely to partipate in prevention practices and are less likely to get into tramatic accidents than men. That's why we live longer, have lower car insurance rates, and are less likely to speed or get into accidents. This will not change whether or not this investment is made.
8) Young people will be able to stay on their parents' insurance plans longer, some up until age 26.
This does have a certain benefit to it, to be sure. But, the majority of young people who hit age 18 and suddenly have no insurance are not because their parents no longer wish to cover them, but because the parent's employer stopped covering them. Also, I have encountered something that is rather hysterical among said young people even when I was one of those young people and not a post skinny hipster. A lot of young people do not want to work full time jobs to begin with. Some want to take time out to find themselves, and when they are extending said time until they are about 40 is when you have to start thinking. This is what we call Selective Memory.
9) Discounts for seniors on brand name drugs.
A majority of seniors are learning how to use the Internet so they can order their prescriptions online from Canada. They refuse to pay their bills because they feel that they are not being treated fairly. Well, this is not something that is new nor exclusive to seniors. The key here is to simply pay off as much as possible, then twenty minutes after you die your relatives will have it written off with your death certificate. We are overmedicated already on just about everything from prescriptions to alcoholism to pot smoking, you just choose your poison and stop whining about it.
10) Coverage for the sickest Americans.
Who are the sickest people? The disabled? Those who suffer from tramatic accidents? Go on Medicaid or a Medicaid HMO, and they also threaten to cut off your coverage. Why? Because the state / county level is going broke just like everyone else. The answer is, as it seems, is to scream your head off, threaten others with violence and suicide, and file lawsuits and cry foul on all those around you. I have become the sickest of Americans. I kept trying. I kept trying to succeed in a hopeless, obnoxious system that is fractured on all levels. If we cooperate, keep things on an even keel, and hire workers who are good and caring people, we will have a good time. But instead I had to keep the peace and tried not to get uppity.
I am semi-out of it now, attempting to change careers. Nothing is perfect, I understand, but the dysfunction makes me sick. People do not like problem solvers, do not want change, and just ignore it and hope it goes away. And it will go away. Just like everything else does.
As we saw today, Obamacare passed in Congress. To this, I felt rather ... Taken aback. Having been on the inside of the healthcare industry and having seen one atrocity after another go down, I must explain to others how things are really going to go down for all of us with this. Here I will review a list of bullet points given in a Facebook update today, what they say and what will really happen:
1) Access to healthcare for over 30 million Americans and lower premiums
In order to achieve this, we must be willing to pay higher taxes somewhere. Insurance companies will pay lower R&Cs on basics, and we will end up shelling more money that we don't have out of our pockets. We are not talking about the poor and lower class here, we are talking about mostly middle class people who have disabilites or preexisting conditions who were unable to get insurance commercially to begin with. Will the door be open to them? A crack at best.
2) The ability of businesses and individuals to purchase comprehensive coverage from a regulated marketplace.
Not true on the part of businesses. Businesses before and after the economy crashed were able to provide some kind of coverage to their employees, they just choose to be cheap and act out of paranoia. NOW businesses and corporations are broke? No they weren't. They were just as much in debt as the next business or individual, they are just as poorly managed now as they were then. Out of fear, however, they will not provide commercial coverage to their employees and might even fire them a week or so before their health care coverage will kick in. Don't believe it? It happened to me. I was fired for having a very cavalier attitude about things that went on in an office, not a discipline problem by any means.
3) Insurers cannot descriminate against people with preexisting conditions.
Oh really? Then how come when someone finds out that they need a big ticket procedure (ex. knee surgery), the individual did not before sign up for the plan, have the surgery, drop it and then go back on Medicaid? It happens. This is why insureres descriminated against them to begin with. Say you discover you have diabetes, but you did not know you had diabetes until after the initial tests came back positive saying that you did, in fact, have it. That is, unfortunately, a sad state when this happens and you suddenly have your premiums shoot sky high. What we are not considering is that the direct costs of a condition such as diabetes (just the direct) have increased 200%, without considering the indirect costs. We are living in a world plagued by denial and a million things that we do not do to prevent something bad from happening. All caused by the obesity problem.
4) Tax credits for small businesses the offer insurance. Small employers who purchase insurance for their employees will receive tax credits to providing more coverage.
I worked for a small company for a hot minute that did not offer insurance coverage for their employees. I was determined that I was going to get out of debt after a while, eventually being able to purchase my own health insurance. However, the guy I was working for said to me that he could no longer afford to keep me in the position, as well as saying he wanted the woman who had quit and left this position vacant to come back to him. He determined that the job could be done in an afternoon or so. Other than the two contradicting statements, the man could afford to buy me Starbucks coffee every morning but he could not afford to pay me a salary. Perhaps he will get a tax credit and be able to offer said coverage to his employees, but if he could take all the money he spent on Starbucks coffee he might have a lot of extra cash for other things.
Also, should the higher ups be aware of how hard middle management works to keep their heads burried in the sand over how deep in debt they really are, they would probably be horrified. The reason so many businesses are in debt is because they refuse to send delinquent customers to collections, partly because they don't want to spend money and partly because they refuse to acknowledge that they don't know how to do something. So they would rather hide behind a "we don't want to hurt anyone's feelings" moniker than tell the truth.
5) Assistence for businesses to supply benefits for retirees.
Now that's just nonsense. Since when do businesses care enough about their employees to supply this for them? There are two types of people in the business world based on ages : Dispendable and Indispendable. The Indispendable are the older people who may or may not be close to retirement, but the employer is just holding onto them because they are waiting for them to say "I am going to retire", or "I only want to work part time because I am getting up in years". The Dispendable people are the eager, go getter types who come into a business hopeful and innocent. They are the ones who do the real work in the office, then they step out of line, and they are kicked out the door for another who is just as idealistic that they are going to make some kind of difference in this mess. And even if the individual does retire as an Indispendable, they are just out of the office, done with it all, and could care less about the stupid company that they just left after how many years of hell.
6) Affordable health care coverage for low income Americans. Obamacare will extend Medicaid to those who fall into the 138th percentile of the poverty line, making the most vulnerable of the population able to have health care.
Someone who said this is a good thing never had a job working a Medicaid line in their lives. While on the Medicaid lines, I had people screaming at me left, right and sideways because they could or could not get something for nothing from Dr. So and So. They live in houses that are practically crumbling down, have no bank accounts or credit cards, have no money to pay their bills, buy groceries or supply things to themselves and/or their children. But they do, however, have enough liquid cash to buy new cars, rims on the new cars, designer clothes, drugs/alcohol, take vacations, jewelry, buy techno junk, etc. Once I was out grocery shopping, a woman ahead of me in the self check out line bought her groceries with a Directions card, then paid cash for alcohol and cigarettes. Makes me angry. And now that Medicaid is extended, now we will be supplying even more people to cover their expenses with more money we don't have.
7) Investments in women's health. Obamacare will not allow charges for women to be substantially higher than men's and offers preventative services.
It is a proven fact that women go to the doctor more than men do, whether or not they give birth to children or take their children to doctor's offices, because the vast majority of children will be taken to the doctor by their mothers until they reach their teens or early twenties. Fathers simply do not do it. That's why women have more charges to be aquired than men do. Women are also more likely to partipate in prevention practices and are less likely to get into tramatic accidents than men. That's why we live longer, have lower car insurance rates, and are less likely to speed or get into accidents. This will not change whether or not this investment is made.
8) Young people will be able to stay on their parents' insurance plans longer, some up until age 26.
This does have a certain benefit to it, to be sure. But, the majority of young people who hit age 18 and suddenly have no insurance are not because their parents no longer wish to cover them, but because the parent's employer stopped covering them. Also, I have encountered something that is rather hysterical among said young people even when I was one of those young people and not a post skinny hipster. A lot of young people do not want to work full time jobs to begin with. Some want to take time out to find themselves, and when they are extending said time until they are about 40 is when you have to start thinking. This is what we call Selective Memory.
9) Discounts for seniors on brand name drugs.
A majority of seniors are learning how to use the Internet so they can order their prescriptions online from Canada. They refuse to pay their bills because they feel that they are not being treated fairly. Well, this is not something that is new nor exclusive to seniors. The key here is to simply pay off as much as possible, then twenty minutes after you die your relatives will have it written off with your death certificate. We are overmedicated already on just about everything from prescriptions to alcoholism to pot smoking, you just choose your poison and stop whining about it.
10) Coverage for the sickest Americans.
Who are the sickest people? The disabled? Those who suffer from tramatic accidents? Go on Medicaid or a Medicaid HMO, and they also threaten to cut off your coverage. Why? Because the state / county level is going broke just like everyone else. The answer is, as it seems, is to scream your head off, threaten others with violence and suicide, and file lawsuits and cry foul on all those around you. I have become the sickest of Americans. I kept trying. I kept trying to succeed in a hopeless, obnoxious system that is fractured on all levels. If we cooperate, keep things on an even keel, and hire workers who are good and caring people, we will have a good time. But instead I had to keep the peace and tried not to get uppity.
I am semi-out of it now, attempting to change careers. Nothing is perfect, I understand, but the dysfunction makes me sick. People do not like problem solvers, do not want change, and just ignore it and hope it goes away. And it will go away. Just like everything else does.
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