While many of my conservative pals consider me a wild eyed lefty, I have been taking a few shots from the liberals too lately for daring to traipse across party lines and take a look at a few of their sacred cows. My welfare blog was "simplistic, stupidly stereotypical and lacked empathy for the plight of the downtrodden", at least according to a few of my liberal friends.
I opened my big mouth again last night. I dared to question this whole Obamacare insurance plan, wondering aloud if it was really such a good idea.
You see, I got a notice last week that my premiums are going up once again this year, another 16% to be exact. I have a PPO for my small business that covers my wife and I and the premiums are now close to tripling in the six or so years that we have had the coverage. We have raised our deductible so high that our policy is almost solely catastrophic coverage at this point.
Because insurers are no longer able to limit pre-existing conditions and are required by federal mandate to cover a whole bunch more conditions, the money has to come from somewhere. Where is it coming from? Apparently me and the many small businessmen like me. Because we are in a financial mess and there are less and less people working, the money for the indigent and unfunded mandates has to come from the pools of the people like me.
One of my hosts last night got a little ticked when I mentioned my angst at the ever increasing costs of coverage. "It's the rich man, the millionaires should be paying for this, those bastards in the 1%." Now that may or may not be true, but at this point they aren't writing the check for it, I am. And while I am glad that more people will now have insurance coverage for life's travails, I have to admit that I am a little suspicious that the cost of providing for said service is going to once again fall on the shoulders of the already struggling small businessman - the one who works on Main St., not Wall St..
There are a lot of things that I think that we can do to bring medical costs down, allowing the government to negotiate with pharmaceutical companies and make deals would be a good start as well instituting some sensible tort reform and caps on abuses of the system like big ass rewards emotional pain and suffering. It will be interesting to see what happens in the Supreme Court now that they have agreed to look at this issue of mandatory insurance. I always thought that the old Oregon plan made a lot of sense, not so sure Obamacare with its attendant high risk pools and exchanges does. The money for all this free stuff is going to have to come from somewhere.
4 comments:
Let them eat Cake.
I wasn't discussing their diet, I was wondering if it was my responsibility to pay their medical bills.
Blue Heron... you are, as one who is insured, paying their medical cots... that is, those without insurance. ( or, as some might say, those eating cake) We, who have insurance, have higher rates to cover the millions who don't have insurance.
One of the things that has been forgotten in this debate is that the individual mandate is a Republican idea from the early 1990s. Newt Gingrich and the Heritage Foundation cooked up the idea. Mitt Romney actually carried it out while Gov. of Mass. It will be interesting to see the Supreme's take on the whole deal.
If FDR hadn't died so soon he may have gotten his "second bill of rights" passed, and we wouldn't be having this debate still. Instead, his staff took this
policy to Germany and Japan, who have both benefitted
from the stabilization and basic modern needs for
society it helps provide.
Everything from weekends, child labor laws, holidays,
minimum wage, etc. have had to come from protest and
bloodshed only because of corporation's lack of humanity.
But this is the true face of america. It's never been about
freedom and liberty and democracy. Those values were only intended for the white landowners who only cared about exploiting the natural resources, and the poor and nonwhite populations to work their fields, then factories etc. It hasn't changed. Slavery and colonization are now called insourcing and outsourcing.
And yes,folks, we are the source. They need us. Despite their rhetoric and positing the opposite. And as the Warren Buffet quote states, there has been an effort in this country to change the laws and policies that have imbalanced this economy and they have gutted our society and not increased wages so now they have created this scenario with torches and pitchforks. And they cry foul.
It will be interesting to see how this all plays out.
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