Harvey Loc: Pioneer, CA

I have a disabled 60 yr old close friend who is on SS disability and in the need of a hip replacement and has no insurance.

I went to the ACA site - followed the direction, typed in his pertinent information - the rate quotes started at $480 a month and went up - I quit looking when they got above $600. The lowest would be over 1/3 of his income. Not quite what I would call affordable for him and I can imagine many others.

Obummer Care is still a broken program. IMHO
Harvey

harlan Loc: St. Simons Island

i'm sure he would qualify for subsidies. And if Obamacare is so bad, why didn't your friend have insurance before it?

bcheary Loc: Jacksonville, FL

According to Harry Reid this is all lies. :lol: :lol:

Harvey Loc: Pioneer, CA

Again you miss the point of cost - meany folks in this wonderful country of ours have lost all means of income for one reason or another and are caught in that limbo of no where to turn.
Insurance is the first to go because of cost.

harlan Loc: St. Simons Island

cost IS the point. before obamacare, people paying for insurance and people paying taxes also enjoyed paying for healthcare rendered to people without insurance. obamacare is a way to get more people participating to help spread costs around more. there are far more egregious problems in the healthcare industry than obamacare. it was a noble attempt to try to tackle some of these bigger issues. whether it will work or make matters worse remains to be seen. it won't work for sure if certain members of congress and state governments (like the one i live in) do everything in their power to block its implementation. i'm sorry for your friend's travails, but he has a financial and medical problem with or without obamacare (as do most of us).

Harvey Loc: Pioneer, CA

So true - I am so blessed that I have been covered and it seems I will be in the future but not without one heck of a lot of work and thought I put into it years ago.
My union retirement health care has taken a hit over the past couple years but it is still affordable.-$150 pr mo.

Blenheim Orange Loc: Michigan

Your argument contradicts itself.

You say that those with insurance and paying taxes are already paying for the health care for those who do not have insurance, and that forcing the uninsured to buy insurance will spread the costs around better and make health care more affordable for all. But you are looking for the shortfall to be covered by the very people who cannot afford healthcare, and the insurance companies are saying they will be raising the rates under the new plan, not lowering them. At the same time, there are subsidies involved, so the taxpayers are still paying for those who cannot afford healthcare.

You can't have it both ways. There is no free lunch here. If forcing lower income people into buying insurance will lower costs, then that tells us that people without insurance could afford it, which contradicts the entire premise of the Affordable Health Care Act. If, on the other hand, there are many people who cannot afford healthcare, then the rest of us will be subsidizing those people. No way around that.

You cannot just magically make healthcare for all affordable by saying that it will be.

Either we as a society are going to be paying for health care for the needy, or we are not. That is the question. You can't solve the problem by wishing it away.

Mike

Harvey Loc: Pioneer, CA

I have a hard time understanding where these folks are going to get the money to buy this "forced to buy or be fined" insurance when they can barely get by as it is.
Min. wage - is starvation wage
Fill time jobs are dropping like a rock.
I worked in the grocery business for 40 yrs always at full time BUT over the past many years of that I would not if I had not been grandfathered - the fact that people are having to work 2 & 3 jobs to get by is missed by so many. One such person is Obummer who has NEVER held a job other than a political one.

Higher prices to just survive is taking it's toll.
my propane in Sept. $2.59 a gallon Dec. $3.99 - 100 gallon tank $259.00 $399.00 = $140.00 One can only pile on so much cloths & blankets

Blenheim Orange Loc: Michigan

All too true.

Mike

DaveO Loc: Northeast CT

So,is the answer to continue the way we have been or try to do something better? We know what ignoring the issues has brought us, but apparently it's easier to make it a political football. It's a fact that the program will need changes to make it better. What I find appalling is the critique from many who truly do not understand the law. Again,easier to make it a political football...

harlan Loc: St. Simons Island

DaveO: thank you.

Harvey Loc: Pioneer, CA

Again it is my opinion and that of many others that this program was passed without being truly analysed by the folks in congress and senate - they said so at the time - "we don't know what is in these 1,000s of pages so we have to pass it to find out"
OK - now there is a deadline to join - what a stupid thing to do- what about the millions who want and need to find out what is in it for them - the ones who get qualified days or weeks later.Is this too hard for this jerk to understand there are still millions of folks in the USA who don't have computers to look this stuff up or even know how to use one.
Cripes the more I think of the stupidity of the way this is implemented and being forced onto the true poor and lower class, yes the quite often uninsured but to punish them is way out of line morally.

Blenheim Orange Loc: Michigan

That depends upon what we are attempting to achieve. Either we want everyone to have health care, or we do not. Making changes "to make it better" begs the question. Does it even go in the right direction? "Free market" true believers and opponents of the Democrats will say "no," but so will those who support universal health care. This bill is the worse of both worlds.

"We" have not been doing or trying anything about health care, because "we" have no power to do anything about it. "We" have been shut out of the debate.

I know the law inside out. This bill was written by and for the insurance industry and for profit health care industry.

Mike

DaveO Loc: Northeast CT

I rest my case.

Harvey Loc: Pioneer, CA

Thank you!!!

:thumbup: :thumbup: :thumbup: