True, the ACA (Affordable Care Act also known as Obamacare) is not perfect. It could use some adjustments but it does provide coverage to people who otherwise would not be covered. In pursuit of the perfect it is best not to throw out the pretty good.
The Republican replacement the DCA (Deplorable Care Act, no also known as because no one wants to put his or her name on it) is not even pretty good. It will put us back to the bottom of the hill where the best health care will be for people who are rich, those over 65, those working in government positions or for healthy business enterprises. Everyone else will have the total freedom to get what they can for whatever coverage they can afford and live on the cusp of falling into the pit of those without health insurance.
That’s called freedom. It is based on the idea the more money you have the freer you will be. That is why the Obamacare tax on the wealthy will disappear. It will give those making more than $200,000 a year more money to buy insurance.
The mentality behind the Republican plan is shown by three recent statements from Congressmen involved in pushing the bill through.
Florida Congressman Ron DeSantis was asked how his healthcare views applied to a Republican named Tiffany who had the ACA to thank for her cancer care. He responded: “I would say though, and people who supported Obamacare used to make this point a lot before it passed, there really is no lack of health care. If people really need it, they show up to the emergency room, they do get care, it just gets passed on to other folks.”
Lose your ACA coverage for your cancer treatments then go to the emergency room. The high cost of emergency rooms was one of the reasons for ACA. So we are going back to that monstrosity. On top of that, emergency rooms do not provide cancer care, so you get cancer and are without insurance, Rep DeSantis just about says: “tough it out.”
Then we have Kansas Congressman Roger Marshall, who happens also to be an obstetrician. He’s one of those people who believes the poor are a different type of person than others. He supports farm subsidies, such as billions of dollars in federal crop insurance plus requiring ethanol to be blended with gasoline. But when it come to the poor fold he says:: “Just like Jesus said, ‘The poor will always be with us There is a group of people that just don’t want health care and aren’t going to take care of themselves. He added that “morally, spiritually, socially,” the poor, including the homeless, “just don’t want health care.”
Apparently unlike the rest of us the poor don’t have the same feelings. They enjoy being sick. They like to live in hovels, drive broken down cars, see their kids addicted to opioids, and be unable to get a decent job for themselves or education for their kids.
Marshall went on: “So there’s a group of people that even with unlimited access to health care are only going to use the emergency room when their arm is chopped off or when their pneumonia is so bad they get brought the ER.”
Rep Marshall would walk back some of that foolishness. He said: “he was trying to explain that a national health care policy around “one segment of the population” does not work because groups of people have varying medical needs and use different health care resources.”
Apparently the congressman is unaware that there are many national programs developed around that “”one segment of the population” which is the less fortunate among us. There’s school lunch programs for poor kids, food stamps for poor families, tax credits for working poor, etc. America once believed that was one of the obligations of a government to help those most in need.
Finally there is the Congressman who told those who may not be able to afford insurance under the DCA that they can give up their cell phones. The poor are used to suffering so adding to it means nothing.
It is galling when a Republican Congressman talks about Jesus while advocating for reducing coverage for the poor and adding to the coffers of the wealthy. Yet it goes along with what we have become as a country when we put into the leadership position a man whose life is consumed by money and where everything has a price tag.
Perhaps the Republicans can be reminded of what Jesus said about that: “No one can serve two masters. Either you will hate the one and love the other, or you will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and money.”
Which makes me recall something I read recently: “Those who think Obama is a Muslim are the same people who think Trump is a Christian.”
Maybe, a one-act minimalist play? You’d only need a work table, and a wheel-chair. Lighting would be the trick; blacked-out stage, only the faces, table, and, chair, would be illuminated. All the action occurs in the dialogue.
All the desperate oldsters working on the chair have purchased small amounts of stock in the health insurance company, enabling them to can show up for the stock-holders’ meeting, at, which, the members of the company’s corporate board, and, the CEO, will be present. The plot thickens.
Bill,
There you again with the Reagan myth. The God of the super deficits. US was the biggest creditor nation when he came in…the biggest debtor when he went out. This is the convenient Nelsonian “blind eye” when their god is attacked.
Nazitad, hmmm…I like it!
wa-llahi! I’m working on a short story about a group of elderly people who meet each week to design, and, build, a special wheel-chair for a young adult with cerebral palsy. As the tale progresses, the reader learns all about the desperation of the un-insured through the conversations of the folks working on the chair. There’s arc to the narrative; the sufferers have secured a meeting with the CEO of a major health insurance provider. All of the folks plan to attend. They’re building the special chair so the the CP sufferer will be mobile enough to go with. Under the seat, the chair has a large square power-pack battery about the size of a forty-pound satchel charge.
(This is work in progress)
Here’s my modest proposal. All government workers and all government retirees should annually give $2000 a year to a fund, from which health insurance for the needy can be purchased.
That way the government taps government workers only for this one modest extra contribution.
2. The top 1% of earners in American contribute about 35% of all charitable contributions. There is @$380 billion in charitable giving annually from individuals, foundations, corporations. The top 1% of wealthy contribute over 80% of total charitable bequests at death.
3. About 35% of Republicans give more than $1,000 a year to charity, while only about 17% of Democrats do so.
We wouldn’t have great hospitals, medical schools and biomedical research facilities without the generosity of charitable Americans.
From everything I’ve read, it seems conservatives are more generous than liberals.
DanC: Yes those hard-hearted conservatives like Reagan created @20 million jobs and reduced the poverty rate to 13%, while those soft-hearted liberals like Obama created only 10 million jobs and left us with a 13.5% poverty rate.
http://www.nationalcenter.org/WCT010804.html A good cite to get good solid facts about how Reagan helped so many Americans to prosper.
Dave: Who wants to eliminate food assistance programs?
Bill:
Sadly you forgot what Clinton did.
Hard-hearted conservatives persuade themselves that if people don’t have health care, it’s their own fault.
You’re wrong. Conservatives know that it is not the role of the government to provide things that people can’t get on their own. Am I hard-hearted if I don’t think the government should provide cars to people who need transportation? Health care is a commodity, it’s not a right.
Please shut up. Driving a car vs. living a healthy life and having access to affordable treatment for illnesses is like comparing apples to elephants. You don’t need a car to survive (well at least in urban areas). You DO need healthcare to survive, and it is a right. If a guarantee of access to a doctor is a not a right, then neither should free speech, reasonable expectation of privacy, or due process. It is a basic element of survival. We have food stamps for those who can’t feed themselves….oh wait we know how the conservatives feel about those programs too.
“Please shut up.” The politest debate point ever uttered from a liberal.
“[H]ealthcare….is a right.” Nonsense. It is nowhere in the Constitution which defines the people’s rights as far as the government recognizes.
” If a guarantee of access to a doctor is a not a right, then neither should free speech, reasonable expectation of privacy, or due process. ” That is a judgement of political philosophy alien to the principles of the government known to the American people and handed down to them by the Founding Fathers. You are entitled to this puerile opinion.
Dave, you have no idea of what Liberty is. Not the slightest comprehension of what the Revolution fought to bring about. Hint, it was not Communism, Socialism or a Nanny State. Nor was it a public arena where “Shut up” is considered a contribution to free discussion.
“It [government provided healthcare] is a basic element of survival.” Silliness. Since 1787 and until Obamacare was rammed through by changing legislative rules the people of the United States survived and prospered without this so-called basic element. Ergo, it ain’t “a basic element of survival.”
Tadzio:
Would you rather have a right to healthcare or a gun?
Of course the answer must be health care.
Nazitad…I’ll start with this. I am not a liberal in the sense I support Bernie or Hillary or whomever the Dems trot out. The Wikileaks hacks have turned me into an independent. I support logic, reason, and human decency.
That being said, illogical and asinine comments are met with contempt. They do not deserve any sort of respect. You guys should listen to yourselves or read your posts out loud hitting enter. $54 billion for the military when we already spend as much as the next 10 countries combined, but those damn poor people can’t have health care or obama phones god-dang it! Gee willickers it must be nice to not die of consumption in the year 2017.
My point is this, if a person cannot be guaranteed treatment for a serious health condition such as cancer, what good does the rest of the bill of rights do them when they are on death’s door? Do you think a person dying of cancer who can’t get coverage really gives a s*** about the exercise of your 2nd amendment right to own a semi-automatic 30 round mag AR-15 or whether the 10th amendment allows for the state of NC to prohibit transgender women from entering a female restroom?
The next time someone who can no longer afford healthcare under the GOP plan is denied access to healthcare, it should be people like you, who have no regard for these individuals as human beings, to be the ones who have to tell them NO. It should come easy to you as you quite clearly believe they have no Constitutional right to treatment.
Further, explain to me how the “free market” is really the answer to this problem. Would you at least agree with me that the government should provide access to the most of basic of human needs, such as clean water, clean air, a clean place to sleep, and at least the basic dietary needs of a human being? Is your answer to let them starve or hope a church or charity happens to opens its doors to them?
I have not heard yet that the free market is the solution to the Flint water crisis. Everyone blames the government and expect the govt. to fix it (and a GOP led MI govt. has yet to do so). The problem was caused because of GOP cost cutting in that state. That should be the 2018 GOP election cycle slogan, Save a Dollar Today, Lose a Life Tomorrow.
How about basic sanitation? Should we allow the free market to decide who gets flushing toilets as opposed to those who must use outhouses? Even those on private septic systems have certain regulations in place to protect them from harm. Healthcare is not something that you can just choose to enter the “free market.”People aren’t “shopping” for doctors when they get a cancer diagnosis, they are struggling with the situation and probably sticking with the one that is the cheapest/and or easiest to access.
At one point or another, you will have to utilize healthcare. As what I hope most would consider to be a decent human being, I believe it is a basic human right. I should have clarified myself since the hypocritical constitutional originalists believe the literal interpretation of the Constitution to be as sacred as the Holy Bible, despite it being written to convey the your sacred rights only to white, male, landowners. The days of slavery, Jim Crowe, and pre-women’s suffrage must bring a nostalgic tear to your eye.
Please tell me what the view is like when you are on your soapbox and are looking down on sick and dying individuals explaining to them that “sorry, we can’t find anywhere in the Constitution that guarantees you the right to see a doctor, it was nice knowing you and good luck in the afterlife.”
The CBO just announced 24 MILLION are set to lose health insurance….that is almost 1/10th of the US population. Bullets > Bone Marrow Transplants. Don’t forget, Save a Dollar Today, Lose a Life Tomorrow! Vote GOP in 2018!
“Nazitad.” A typical liberal argument. Name calling. Grow up.
Your analysis of the Flint, MI, water crisis is another example of liberal reasoning. The water supply is provided at the municipal level. There has not been Republican control of Flint in generations. It has been Democrat after Democrat after Democrat in Flint. The “improvements” in the Flint water system were conceived, built and managed by Democrats. The last 30 years of Flint government has been a disgraceful toxic cocktail of corruption, out of control spending and incompetence. It has also been 100% Democrats.
Gov. Snyder stepped in to rectify the situation. Why is he responsible? He then sought federal aid and Pres. Obama stepped in. Why was he not responsible going forward if Snyder was? Neither was responsible for the public health crisis. Both initiated palliative and corrective measures. They both were trying to clean the local mess which from a partisan perspective, which you brought up, is 100% Democrats.
At this point perhaps I should call you a name in response to your mudslinging. I decline.
A gun.
The question is irrelevant as the right to a gun is in the Constitution. A “right” to government provided health care is not.
Liberty requires the means to defend it. Liberty does not require welfare goodies.
Furthermore, we don’t have a right to a gun in the sense that we must be provided with one. Rather, the right to have one cannot be infringed (though it clearly has).
Tadzio:
Liberty requires healthy people.
Saying health care is a right is absolutely foolish. In fact, it’s beyond that. Tell me, genius, if there are two people who need emergency heart surgery but only one doctor available to do it, has the person who didn’t get the surgery been denied his rights? What about the guy who died awaiting a transplant? Of course not, because it’s a commodity. Nothing that someone has to provide to you is a “right,” no matter how badly you want it.
Joseph:
That’s the nub of the discussion. Is health care a commodity that one can do without? Or is it a right for all to have access to it. I prefer to think a humane society would give all its protections.
See my reply above. A commodity cannot be a right.
Matt:
You stir the pot and I rebut. That is good. I look up stuff. I learn.
It’s funny how liberals spin. As an example: When Sessions asked 49 A.G.s to resign here’s how Politico reported it: Trump “ousts” 49 A.G.s; but in 2009, Politico reported Obama merely “replaced” “a batch” of U.S. Attorneys; and Bill Clinton, the Leftist Media told us, merely “requested” the resignation of 93 A.G.s. So, the bad Repubs rudely oust, and the good Dems politely replace and politely request, according to our Leftist Press.
As far as the Disaster that Obamacare was here’s a good summation from 2016:
http://www.dailywire.com/news/12146/11-biggest-problems-obamacare-aaron-bandler
2. Here’s what Obama said: “If you looked at their cable bill, their telephone, their cell phone bill, it may turn out that it’s just they haven’t prioritized health care,”
Here’s what Chaffetz said: “Americans have choices, and they’ve got to make a choice. And so, maybe, rather than getting that new iPhone that they just love, and that they want to go and spend hundreds of dollars on that–maybe they should invest it in their own healthcare.”
Both are urging Americans to prudently budget, to prioritize health care.
(New Iphone – – – $650-850, monthly plans can run $50/month-+; an inexpensive android for $200 and $30/mo; or a bare bones cell phone for $20/mo.)
3.. It’s a simple fact of life that many Americans refuse to see doctors; highly educated people do so; and many persons, rich and poor, wait for the last moment. This problem is compounded by those who can’t afford insurance; and societal ills: addiction, mental illness, incapacity and, yes, homelessness.
4. The poorest of the poor get treated for cancer in America. . Our society has always cared for the poor and no one is suggesting we stop. Of course, the Dems always try to scare granny.
5. Obamacare is overcrowding our emergency rooms and driving many doctors (young and old) out of the primary care fields. (See article cited above.)
6. Even folks with good medical insurance sometimes go broke: over 600,000 people each year file for bankruptcy due to medical bills; ever notice that employee-related sick days run out! It’s complicated!
And Matt, Holy Cow, the sanctimony!!! But this is what the Left believes: only they are virtuous; Republicans don’t read the Bible.
6. Forevermore, I shall keep reminding folks how Democrats (liberals) think: Here’s Nancy Pelosi sanctimoniously and injudiciously (insanely) opining that the appointment of Justice Neil Gorsuch should alarm people who “breathe air, drink water, eat food, take medicines, (go to court)”.
“If you looked at their cable bill, their telephone, their cell phone bill, it may turn out that it’s just they haven’t prioritized health care,”
The only problem with the “they said it too” argument is that Obama and the Dems actually passed healthcare reform.
Dave:
Yes, they called it “reform”, and many saw it as deformed, with soaring premiums and soaring deductibles! See: above referenced article. (11-biggest-problems-Obamacare):
It’s sort of like the Welfare State: good intentions, disastrous results, destruction of many families.
See the writings of Thomas Sowell:
https://danieljmitchell.wordpress.com/2013/07/03/thomas-sowell-explains-how-the-welfare-state-hurts-the-poor/
Under Obamacare, 11% of adults still remained uninsured (13% of adults aged 18-64.) And projections showed uninsured increasing!
Bill:
“Under Obamacare, 11% of adults still remain unisured.” What is that suppose to mean? Why not say that without Obamacare more than 20% of the adults would be uninsured. The Republicans are going to push us back to that latter figure.
Bill:
It is the Republicans who support taking away health care from millions as their bill will do. One suggested cancer patients use the emergency rooms; another suggested the poor are different from others. Those are their words not mine. They are giving us the new plan not the Democrats.
Don’t understand your Bible reference? Never heard anyone say Republicans don’t read the bible since most of them come from the Bible Belt.
As far as “ousts” vs “resign” I’m sure there were some right wing media outlets who suggested Bill Clinton “ousted” those US attorneys. By the way all the liberal media I read on the issue carefully pointed out that the request was routinely done by both Democratic and Republican presidents.
Herein lies the falsehood that government is the answer to every problem. Once, it was the Catholic Church that took the lead in hospital care in America. There’s no reason why social organizations cannot form their own health care pools…except that the ACA forbids it.
Joseph:
Are you suggesting that by eliminating what the ACA forbids then social organizations will spring up to take care of the health care for those who are taken off the rolls by the Republican plan? That I would like to see but don’t expect it to happen.
Watching friends, relatives, and, neighbors, suffer, and, die from treatable conditions, because, they have no insurance, will help light the fire. The upper-classes, and, the security state that protects them, are the social enemy of the people. Show them the mercy, they would show you. Put’em up against the wall.
All praise to the young cadres. All power to the Dialectic
Just one more reason to eat the rich. Death to the privileged! Take your anger to the streets. All praise to the social levelers. All power to the Dialectic!
A dose of hate a day, keeps reason away. I guess it was Jesus who said that you should pass laws to find out what is in them. After all Obamacare was an Act of Faith. The Republican bill is just a first gambit in devising in a transparent way a workable health care system.
If the GOP is so fixated on helping the Evil Rich, why is that those same Evil Rich donated well over a billion dollars [$1,000,000,000.00+] while tossing chump change at Trump? Were Jesus to go to the temple today and overturn the tables of the greedy, parasitic usurers the number of Hilliary donors upended would be a hundred to one over the number of Trump donors chastised.
Wall Street and the hostile elite own the Democrat party and rent the Republican leadership. Your President and my President, Donald Trump, is trying the break the lease on the party and on Congress. He deserves support.
Except this new health plan breaks about every campaign promise he made regarding health insurance. What is your response to that?
Tadzio:
A lot of rhetoric but the first thing the Trump boys are doing is getting rid of the Obamacare tax on those who make over a quarter million dollars. Hardly breaking the hold the rich have on the government.