The Great Health Care Reform Debate
Oh great. Here we go. More politics. More debates. More arguing. No seriously though. If you know me, you know that I’m not a massive political guy. I don’t pay attention as much as I probably should, and probably don’t care as much as I probably should. Sorry about that, to everyone who I just offended.
This morning on our morning walk Kristin and I started talking politics. One thing that came up was this whole Health Care Reform thing. Seems like most people that ‘hate’ Mr. Obama, also think his “ObamaCare” is a terrible idea and will ruin the world. The other side thinks Mr. Obama is great and (I assume) agrees with what he’s doing. Then his wife blogs about it and it’s a big confusing mess.
Now, if I’m honest I haven’t really given the subject it’s due attention, or even really thought about it at all, but it got me thinking. What’s the deal with this thing? I mean what are the nuts and bolts of this plan? What are we getting ourselves into? What’s the good the bad and the ugly with this plan. Does anyone know? And I’m not talking about the slanted Republican, or the slanted Democratic views, but what’s actually happening?
Then we found this video and it sort of explains it, but again, I feel a slight Democratic slant even from this ‘objective’ video. Unless it truly is a good idea:
So there’s the deal. I wanna know. What are your thoughts on this health care thing? What’s the negatives? What’s the benefits? Do you care?
And for real, don’t turn the comments into an “I hate (insert candidate)” stream. Then later we can talk about Mormonism.
Ready? Go.
This is an interesting video. I will not talk about Republicans and Democrats, as you requested, but rather I will approach this topic from the government vs. private sector standpoint. The beginning of the video frames the problem very well, affordability, acccess and pre-existing conditions results in a system that has 30-44 million uninsured, underinsured in the U.S. The private sector has fallen short of offering affordable coverage for all for many reasons including the increasing costs of providing health care services. To be financially viable insurance companies have to contain costs or create a price level that so few could afford that insurance would only be for the elite. So in defense of the insurance compainies they are business enterprises that have to sustain but could not absorb the worst insurance cases and still be a viable business enterprise. This is where Obama care comes in…Some in our society (Largely Democrats) believe that government and its services are for the good of mankind. Others (Largely Republicans) feel that government does almost nothing effectively or efficiently. So Obama care stirs up emotions of those who oppose partially because there is an objection of government being the provider (or at least the director of the rules) of health care in the U.S.
This Obama care outcome is not hard to predict. When enough of society is unprotected an economic problem transforms itself into a social problem…which usually has a political outcome to it. In this case Obama-care.
My personal view. I like many of the elements of Obama-Care…especially the pre-existing condition element. My concern is how will it be paid for? If you look at the elements of the ‘Affordable Care Act’…Kids stay on parents insurance, no pre-existing conditions, and the uninsured will now have access to universal health care. None of these reduce costs in the system. In fact, probably the biggest argument is that is creates more government cost in a system that is already on the brink of financial collapse. There are more taxes on providers but it is nieve to think those costs will not be passed along regardless of whom is paying.
This is a very complicated social issue of our time and warranted way more oversight of how adding 40 million uninsured people will be funded. With that being said the status quo was not acceptable either.
My personal opinion of Obama care is that, like all government programs, it needs to be fully funded before enacting it. There was way too much politics and way too little debate on this bill that will change the U.S. Govt fiscal landscape for decades.
Obama care has good and bad points but like you said how are going to pay for it. Look at Canada they have kinda the same health care. I have a relative in Canada, he broke his back and it took over 3 months before he could get in for surgery. He didn’t have to pay for anything but he had no choice who he went to and when he could get in. To me that is scary.