Health Care

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Another referendum on Obamacare loses

Romney ran on a platform he claimed was a “referendum on Obamacare” and lost. Cuccinelli in Virginia did the same thing and also lost yesterday. This is also after they tried 42 times to repeal it, and after they appealed it to the United States Supreme Court and lost.

How many times do you guys have to be hit over the head until you get it?doctor-obama

Of course, the Cuccinelli crowd is spinning this as if it was a win. “We did better than expected based on the polls,” they say. “Clearly this was because people didn’t like Obamacare.”

Had Cuccinelli won, they would have claimed it was about Obamacare and felt vindicated, saying “See? People don’t want Obamacare.” But he lost, and they’re still saying “See? People don’t want Obamacare.”

When you define the terms so that you win no matter what, you’re being dishonest and hypocritical.

Besides, given the GOP voter suppression going on, there may be another perfectly good explanation as to why the Democratic vote wasn’t as good as pollsters thought it would be.

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Obamacare’s Free Market Problem

To my Republican friends who keep pointing out examples where insurance is going up under Obamacare:

By golly, you’re right! If only we could get the free market out of this, and do a medicare-for-all plan like every other civilized country — oh, right! Keeping the insurance companies involved was your idea! Letting the market decide was what you wanted! Silly me.

Let’s leave aside the webpage problems which are real, do exist, and make Obama look kind of incompetent. Criticism of that is justified.

But many conservatives are complaining that some people are finding their rates increasing — and this has to be Obama’s fault!Paul Miller

First of all, remember that for the vast majority of Americans (around 80%), this isn’t affecting them at all because their employer provides the health care.

Second, Obamacare requires that basic medical care needs to be covered, and some people who had only purchased catastrophic care (that they never used) now have to purchase plans that cover more and yes, those plans do indeed cost more. The fact that you are getting more for your money doesn’t seem to matter to the critics, though. (These people may also be eligible for subsidies to help pay for this.)

Third, it turns out that some insurance companies are lying to their customers and forcing them to buy more expensive plans and blaming that on Obamacare. Shocked! Shocked I am to discover this!

Fourth, rates have been rising for health care for forty years. Apparently, according to the critics, Obamacare’s effect on rates reverberated through time and space.

Here’s the point I was trying to make, though: We wouldn’t be having these problems had not the conservatives insisted on a market-based health system in America. The original plan for medicare-for-all (“single payer”) cut out the insurance companies. We wouldn’t be having these issues had we done what every other civilized nation on Earth had done. We know medicare works. We already have the bureaucracy in place. It would have been so easy to switch to that.

But conservatives insisted (and I am including conservative Democrats in this) and so we ended up with this awful bill. It’s a Republican plan that the Republicans are now trying to deny, rewriting history to their liking. It used to be called Romneycare.

I’ll blame Harry Reid and his 60 vote thing in the Senate though. There were 50 votes for a medicare for all plan, but Obama and Reid thought if they compromised they’d get some Republican votes. And come on, it’s not like the GOP wanted medicare for all. They don’t even want medicare.

I still don’t like Obamacare but it’s better than what we had before, which was nothing.

My dream is that the GOP keeps imploding, the Democrats get to control the House and Senate, and we can do this the right way, like it should have been done way back when Teddy Roosevelt first proposed it.

The bottom line is that Republicans always want the market to decide, and Obama caved in on that. Prices are going up for some, just like they’ve been doing for years without a word of complaint from Republicans. The market is now deciding. Republicans should be thrilled.

Unless, of course, they’re all a bunch of hypocrites who would criticize Obama no matter what happened, and that could never be the case, could it?

Editorial cartoon of the day

Editorial cartoon of the day

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Why can’t we get the health care Congress gets?

I am still seeing this stupid argument, mostly from those who hate Obamacare. “We should make Congress have the same health care plan the rest of us has! How come they’re exempt?” This is so wrong for two main reasons.

First, they’re not exempt. They have to obey the law like everyone else.doctor-obama

Members of Congress have the same federal health care plan as the janitors who sweep their offices. It’s the same plan the postal workers have, and the park rangers, and all federal employees. Because there are so many people who are part of this plan, it’s very cheap for the government and it provides great benefits. It saves us taxpayers money. (After all, the way to keep premiums low is to spread the risks among a huge group. And the best way to negotiate for the best benefits is to say “Well, if you give us what you want, you’ll have 10 million new members” — something only our government can do.)

But here’s the really-stupid, I-want-to-slap-people-who-say-this part: We could have all had the same health care plan as Congress gets. We could have been given the right to buy into that great federal plan. We could have shared in those benefits and paid a small premium.

Why would anyone be against that?

Well, you can guess where this is going. You got it — the Republicans forced the “public option” provision out of Obamacare. We could have all been able to buy into the federal system if we wanted to, but now we’re not allowed to. Why not? Who would it hurt? It wouldn’t cost taxpayers a cent and would probably even save them money because the risks would be spread even greater.

But no — the GOP with its insurance company backers fought against a public option and got it removed.

So the next time some Republican flunky complains that we should have gotten the same health care as the Senators, smack them for me, because the chances are, they are the very reason we don’t.

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Negotiation transcript

Republicans: We want to negotiate concerning the upcoming budget.

Obama: OK.

Republicans: We need you to completely shut down the one program that was your biggest accomplishment, that was passed by both Houses of Congress and upheld by the Supreme Court, and which we have spent the last three years trying to destroy but have been unable to.

Obama: Uh, no, that’s not going to happen.

Republicans: Obama is refusing to negotiate! It’s all his fault the government has shut down!

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How democracy works

This is how democracy works: Sometimes the majority is against you and you lose. Your solution is to work to get people elected who will change the law.

Holding a temper tantrum and shutting down government until you get your way is not how democracy works.vote_ballot_box

Look, Republicans: You lost. You lost in 2008 when Obama had health care as part of his platform and you lost in 2012 after it had been enacted. Your candidate vowed to get rid of Obamacare and he lost. If it wasn’t for gerrymandering, you would have lost the House too since more people voted for Democrats. In fact, in five of the past six Presidential elections, more people voted against you than for you.

You lost. Even the lawsuit you filed to stop Obamacare lost.

Grow up and deal with it.

Senator McCain gets it. He took to the floor last night and reminded his GOP colleagues that the law passed after lengthy debate. McCain said “the people spoke” on the matter when they reelected Obama in 2012 and rejected GOP candidate Mitt Romney — whose main selling point was that he would repeal the health care law.

“We fought as hard as we could in a fair and honest manner and we lost,” McCain said. “One of the reasons was because we were in the minority, and in democracies, almost always the majority governs and passes legislation.”

So, Republicans — don’t like Obamacare? Maybe you might want to try getting the support of the American people and winning an election. I heard that works.

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GOP urges young people to break the law

There are some ridiculous commercials out now urging young people to “opt out” of Obamacare.

The commercials feature a huge Uncle Sam puppet about to give a woman a gynecological exam.

Because, you know, if there’s one thing Republicans are against, it’s having the government force women to have unnecessary gynecological examinations, am I right, ladies?

Uncle sam

But more importantly, it’s the message here: Please, they say, break the law. Don’t buy insurance.

Really?

Can you imagine what they’d say if there was an ad saying “Please don’t allow the evil government to force you to buy car insurance!”?

Apparently they have run out of options, because the law is here and it’s staying. So the only thing left to do is tell people to ignore it.

Yeah, use that as an excuse when you’re paying the fine for disobeying it. “But your honor, my Senator told me to disobey this law!” See how well that works, and then get back to me. I could use the work.

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Cruz in for a Bruisin’

As I write this, Senator Cruz is in some sort of semi-fillibuster mode in a useless and futile attempt to — well, I’m not sure. He says he wants to stop Obamacare, but this won’t do it. Certainly his own party leaders don’t support this. Cruz is just sucking up to the Tea Party crazies who like to bang their heads against the wall and constantly complain, because no matter what Obama does for them, he continues to stubbornly remain black. Or something. I’m not quite sure of their logic.ted-cruz

Obamacare passed both Houses. It was signed by the President. The Supreme Court ruled it constitutional. Forty-two attempts to repeal it have failed. It’s not going away.

Most of its provisions have already gone into effect and are showing to be successful. My insurance rates have risen every year for the past ten years and for the first time, I am able to negotiate (because the companies can no longer turn me down for my wife’s pre-existing condition) and how about that? My rates are going down, and that’s in a state with a Tea Party governor doing everything possible to thwart the law.

What the Republicans are really worried about is not that the program will fail. They are worried it will be successful — that people will like it, and then blame them for trying to prevent it.

After all, they have shown over and over again that they don’t really care about anything except getting re-elected and helping their wealthy donors. That’s why we have seen a grand total of zero job bills passed by the Republicans.

Ted Cruz is becoming the new face of that party, which is not making the party leadership happy. Then again, they invited this. Instead of standing up to the Tea Party extremists, they catered to them. And now they have to deal with it.

And they’re not the only ones suffering because of it.

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If all government services were provided like health care …

by Guest blogger Jesse Hendrix

Bill: I’d like to report a crime! I was just carjacked at gunpoint!

Officer: Certainly sir. Do you have insurance?

Bill: Yes, I have car insurance.

Officer: No, not car insurance. Crime insurance.

Bill: Crime insurance?

Officer: Yes, crime insurance. To pay for the cost of the investigation. You should get it from your employer.

Bill: I work for Walmart.

Officer: So, no insurance then. Right. That will be one hundred dollars to start the investigation, sir.

Bill: One hundred dollars!

Officer: It would only be fifteen if you had insurance.

Bill: But there’s a dangerous maniac on the loose! In my car!

Officer: Dangerous maniacs are expensive to deal with, sir.

Bill: You’re the police! You’re supposed to help everyone!

Officer: We don’t go in for any of that socialist un-American clap-trap in here, sir.

Bill: What?!

Officer: (Stands, patriotic music swells) It’s is the duty of every American to take care of themselves and their families! People who don’t prepare for being victims of crime by buying insurance don’t deserve police protection.

Bill: Look, I just need a police report for my car insurance company.

Officer: (Ignoring him) If we gave free police protection to the poor, who knows what they would ask for next? Food? Healthcare? But we’re compassionate. The uninsured can always go to the emergency desk.

Bill: Emergency desk? Where’s that?

Officer: (Sits, music stops) Well with the budget cuts and all, the nearest one is in Hypothetical Big City.

Bill: That’s thirty miles away. How am I supposed to get there with no car?

Officer: Bus stop is right outside.

(A two hour bus ride, two hours in a waiting room, one hour waiting in a questioning room, fifteen minutes of statement giving, another two hour bus ride, and a week of investigation after that, we find ourselves back in the police station.)

Bill: You said you found my car.

Officer: That’s right, sir. Now there is just the little matter of your bill. (He picks up a phone book sized stack of papers from behind the desk and places it in front of the man.

Bill: (flipping through it) $15,000? That’s outrageous!

Officer: Quality costs, sir. We set up road blocks, questioned suspects, consulted with the FBI, brought in the spy satellites…

Bill: And is that how you found my car?

Officer: Yes, and by “Yes” I mean “No.” We found it abandoned on the highway. Two days after your report.

Bill: Then what was all that other stuff for?

Officer: Better safe than sorry, sir.

Bill: Did you at least catch the man that stole it?

Officer: That would have been extra, sir.

Bill: (flipping through the bill) What’s this? $500 for guns! Did you even use them?

Officer: Got to have guns, sir. You never know what could happen.

Bill: Another hundred for bullets … gas for police cars … mileage … uniforms! Don’t you already have those?

Officer: Got to pay for them somehow sir. Look, sir. Our financial office will be happy to work out an arrangement where you pay a large bill every month for the rest of your life, with complementary threatening phone calls every hour should you miss a payment.

Bill: This is outrageous!

Officer: Beats the alternative, sir. You wouldn’t want socialized law enforcement.

Jesse Hendrix is a writer whose blog is located here.