Obamacare: "Does The Damn Thing WORK?"

Boston Herald ^ | September 25, 2013 | Michael Graham

[suspects]

I realize the only question the mainstream media want answered about Obamacare is, “When do John McCain and Ted Cruz rip off their shirts and knife-fight on the floor of the Senate?”

But at the risk of being utterly irrelevant and hopelessly out of step, I have another far-less-relevant question about Obamacare:

Does the damn thing work?

Not to be the party pooper — I like a knock-down, drag-out political fight as much as the next guy — but we are talking about people’s health insurance here. And health insurance affects other small side issues of life such as, “Do you have a job” and “Did you get sick and die?”

So amid U.S. Sen. Cruz’s filibuster and Sen. Harry Reid’s cries of “anarchist!” could I bother you just for a moment to talk about how Obamacare is actually performing in the real world?

Item one: “A so-called ‘family glitch’ in the 2010 health care law threatens to cost some families thousands of dollars in health insurance costs and leave up to 500,000 children without coverage, insurance and health care analysts say.” (USA Today)

Item two: “From California to Illinois to New Hampshire ... insurers are driving down premiums by restricting the number of providers who will treat patients in their new health plans ... Consumers should be prepared for ‘much tighter, narrower networks’ of doctors and hospitals, said Adam M. Linker, a health policy analyst at the North Carolina Justice Center, a statewide advocacy group.” (The New York Times)

Item 3: “It was one of candidate Obama’s most vivid and concrete campaign promises: ‘In an Obama administration, we’ll lower premiums by up to $2,500 for a typical family per year.’ Unfortunately...

[grumpygresh]

“Item two: “From California to Illinois to New Hampshire ... insurers are driving down premiums by restricting the number of providers who will treat patients in their new health plans ... Consumers should be prepared for ‘much tighter, narrower networks’ of doctors and hospitals, said Adam M. Linker, a health policy analyst at the North Carolina Justice Center, a statewide advocacy group.” (The New York Times)”

Right. So what if few neurosurgeons or cardiologists are included as providers? This is insane. We really have to hope that some of these liberal apologists experience the bad fruits of their deeds.

[GTM01]

Why is everybody focusing on insurance? Don’t we all just love the insurance we have for our car, our house, our life, etc. Would you agree that among the most trusted people we know are car salesmen and insurance agents? Is your policy for your car insurance a one size fits all policy, if you have one at all? Or is it one that suits your needs and can afford? Do you have full coverage or just the bare minimum? In states that car insurance is mandatory, does everybody have it?
Is your life insurance policy a one size fits all or is it one that you can afford, if you have one at all?
When you bought your insurance, if you did, did you get the one that the insurance salesman wanted you to buy, or did you have a choice?
I guess we no longer have choice. Some of our leaders have become insurance salesmen. Now put all this talk about insurance aside. WHAT ABOUT HEALTH CARE? Is having insurance going to make it more available and better? I doubt it . . .

[Kozak]

First step? Hardly. It’s the penultimate step. The NEXT step is Single Payer...

[Vermont Lt]

In Mass the current wait to see a PCP for an initial appointment is about 300 days.

Good luck America.

[Vermont Lt]

The issue in MA is that there are not enough Doctors.

The ACA is an insurance act, not a health care act. If the Feds spent half the money and beefed up the medical corps by trading med school debt for dedicated service, there would be enough doctors to take care of the uninsured.

So, this act will destroy insurance companies, toss millions out on the streets without full time work OR medical care, and force us into a single payer system.

[ProtectOurFreedom]

“Does the damn thing work?” is the WRONG question to be asking.

The correct question is “Who owns your body? You or the government?” Bastard Obama’s evil work simply you no longer own your own body and you are a slave to government. You WILL soon be crawling to the government to beg for your life (ie, for an operation, for treatment, for medication). You, your doctors, and your insurance company will have no say in the matter. All that will matter is how you voted in elections and how much you contributed to Democrats.

This is an issue of SLAVERY or FREEDOM.

But nobody in Congress will frame it that way.

[Adder]

Its not even an insurance act. Its a power grab by the feds. The provisions in the bill are as chilling as if you were reading Nazi conversations about Jews.

You are not an idividual, you are meat to be pawed over and laid bare for anyone who wants to know about you.You do not own or control your data or have a say in the information collected about you. You are a lab rat in their maze or a test animal in their case. Thats not hyperbole: go read the guts of the bill and sample some of the regulations.

You are correct that the ultimate is to have single payer.

Unless people refuse this now. If the law writers won’t do it, individuals must resist. Don’t know how exactly but there has to be a way to tell these people to shove it. I would rather join an underground system that does not allow federal dollars and the control they bring than submit to this bs.