Republicans secretly love big government
By louisehartmann
At least, 26 Republican-leaning states sure do. Despite over 30 attempts to repeal Obamacare, and Tenth-er arguments for social programs to be run by the states, 26 states haven't set up their insurance exchanges – leaving it up to the federal government. As of last Friday's deadline, only 17 states submitted plans for their own healthcare exchanges, and seven states declared they'll partner with the federal government.
Twenty-four of the 26 states that remain are led by Republican governors, many of whom have railed against the new healthcare law. Florida Governor Rick Scott has been one of Obamacare's loudest opponents, and even ran his own anti-Obamacare group, Conservatives for Patients' Rights, to pressure Democrats to oppose the legislation. But now I guess he's just fine with the federal government stepping in to administer healthcare exchanges in his state.
Harvard Professor Theda Skocpol, an expert on healthcare policy and politics, said, “all of this has a political side, too, and the GOP states are surely trying to situate their officials to cry blame against the national government every time any little glitch happens.” The Republicans think it's a win for them either way. When things go well, they'll take credit for allowing the exchanges to be set up, and whenever something goes wrong, they'll use it to attack Obama, and the federal government.
As more benefits from Obamacare roll out over the next two years, we need to remind people that it was Republicans that tried to repeal it more than 30 times. But this isn't just about a political win. This is about 30 million people having access to healthcare – something that should be a basic human right. No matter who takes the political credit, the American people win when it comes to Obamacare.
Comments
#2
In part I agree with Palindromedary; insurance mandates drive up premiums. When I was a teenager, I could get liability insurance on my car for under $100.00 per YEAR; after Indiana passed its mandatory auto insurance laws, my liability insurance costs shot up to over $400.00 per year. Insurance mandates without price controls is giving the insurance companies free license to screw everybody.
Frankly, Obamacare attacked the healthcare problem from the wrong end. When you have a leaky pipe, you don't increase the water pressure!
#3
Quote stecoop01:When you have a leaky pipe, you don't increase the water pressure!
Excellent analogy, stecoop01!
I've been reading about the comparison of medical cost payment systems: the current 'Fee for Service' payment system and the newest concept called 'Bundled' payment system. Medicare has been grossly abused by both patients and those in the medical care system. It currently uses Fee for Service where they itemize every single thing from the cost of Q-tips to major operations which also can be broken down to itemized charges which ends up as a very large bill in the end.
The newer (but not always or necessarily better concept, the Bundled system, ostensibly charges fees on the basis of a history of overall 'normally expected' fees encompassing everything that it took to make you well again. I really don't understand how they will not itemize in order to come up with a cost. Unless it is like an all you can eat buffet...the owners know how much a typical human is likely to engorge him/herself and charge accordingly rather than charge for every bite. I really don't understand it all just yet.
On the one hand it sounds like it might put some reigns on a runaway and corrupt system. The Rand think-tank seems to like it...which alone may be an indicator that you'd better read the fine print. But there are lots of caveats.
I understand that the Obama administration has favored the Bundled system and that some of that has been included in Obamacare. And that may or may not be good.
One thing that is good about Obamacare is that the insurance companies can't turn you down for pre-existing conditions. But, that is not to say that you won't be paying a lot more, because of your pre-existing condition, in increased premiums. I have not seen anything in Obamacare that says that insurance companies cannot increase their rates because of a pre-existing condition. They can still discriminate using increased premiums..that we have to pay!
Insurance companies would almost always insure anyone for any ridiculous and risky thing providing the insured paid enough money for the coverage. Most people would just not pay the exorbitant premiums out of choice but now that our government is acting as a collection enforcer bully boy that will break legs if your don't pay the protection money we have no choice but to pay up...or pay the fine (the symbolic breaking legs part).
There is a rather lengthy study of 'Bundling' with all kinds of charts and graphs that is interesting...at least the Executive Summary in the beginning is more understandable to those averse to charts and graphs.
But a quicker understanding might be better seen on the Wikipedia description. Especially, look at the
Advantages and the Disadvantages sections. It seems to me that corruption will take place no matter what kind of system they come up with. Whether they nickel and dime you to death on tiny things or whether they obscure it all in one package sum. Just another gimmick! As long as they don't take away my Medicare, I don't really care how they work the books. But, the quality of care we get under Medicare may depend on how they 'rig the system'.
Medicare Payment Bundling: Insights from Claims Data and Policy Implications
Analyses of Episode-based Payment
www.aha.org/content/12/ahaaamcbundlingreport.pdf
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bundled_payment
Insurance is gambling. The insurance company bets that they will make money on you and you are betting that you will prevent your losses (money or health, etc). The insurance company, like any casino, is rigged to win. Some healthy people may feel they have led a very healthy life, eating all the right foods, exercising, or whatever. Some of those people may feel that they want to gamble that they will save a bundle of money by not throwing it all on the insurance company roulette table. Do they not have the right to gamble as much as the insurance company does? What the government is doing is forcing everyone to throw their money down on the insurance company roulette tables...forcing them to gamble. Once they throw their money down...they won't get it back...it's gone...the only way you will win (if you want to call it winning) is to get sick...you may lose some of the money you didn't gamble in the first place by having to pay out of your own pocket directly to the medical establishment...but at least you are not making some insurance casino CEO wealthy.
#4
Palindromedary - I couldn't agree more! I voted for Obama in 2008 when he had been campaigning on single payer health care (along with all his other broken promises). Do you recall his statements about conducting open meetings with big pharma on CNN? The very first thing he did with the drug companies was to hammer out a sweet deal for them behind closed doors - no apologies. He blew right past a single payer system like he'd never mentioned it in his campaign and came up with another 30 million (many unwilling, like you) mandated customers for the insurance companies. Talk about a sellout!
I genuinely fear for the future of Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security under Obama. This latest Simpson-Bowles thing, like sequestration, is the perfect foil against which Obama can point to an extreme position and then meet it half way in the name of "compromise". In my estimation, Obama has never been anything but a deep cover mole for the powers that be and I don't trust a word that comes out of his sweet talking mouth any more.
Did I mention that I didn't vote for the slime ball last time?
#5
It’s funny thing with thoughts and words. Listening to Thom Hartmann the other day make a confession that he was wrong encouraged me to challenge electronic Journalism across the board even further. The interesting thing is the straight forward effort to say I stand corrected is incredibly great. Too many politicians know they are not perfect yet when caught with lies tend to swindle our minds into forgiveness with the media’s unkind censorship.
Adding fire to the stove the kitchen is heating up. This is exampled by cheering the news Bush and Company cooked the books per MSNBC the ED show, and the new news Hubris by Rachel Maddow took courage to expose what the media glossed over for decades, or that was just persuaded for a time to ignore. When I found out that Bush and the Ben Laden family has been business partners for decades anyone could figure now who was placing the dots because they could not be connected.
Thom Hartmann and many of this blog are filled with overwhelming intuitive feeling that 911 is truly a crime of intended deception. And my own thoughts are pointing in that direction. The frequency of implication to complicity in a hoax, fraud, war crimes, and outright criminal profiteering is now in the mainstream media. As never before in the history of the United Stated one President has the opportunity to seal that famed “Moment” to cleanse or flush out the horrible political rot that is infested in the American system. To be sure those who perpetrated the crime will surely need to fight to unordinary limits to avoid the most devastating conviction in modern history. To be condemned from the so called greatest country ever formed, the most perfect union, the American dream?
The one single thing that could be done with this mess of 911 being a hoax is to bring out the truth which would likely bring America to the first real Golden Age. Universal Healthcare would be a breeze; incredible strides could occur in Mexican American relations, paths to citizenship with fair benchmarks. Imagine instead of a wall or a flight of drones, America has fast track Metra systems, instead of climbing a wall of barbed wire people go through a turn style with respect coming all the way from Aruba or Argentina.
Incredible, yes and likely to happen.
Home ownership released from the Gaussian grip of banks, New type of education for all free to include High school graduates that have the equivalent of a master degree in science. And gasp no unemployment with a livable pension for all. New energy, no fossil fuel. No war. All this means a Republican and Democratic repentance to the inevitable long term peace.
Yowee
#6
Campaign finance reform first
Megalomaniac:You utopian vision of a futre with a perfect Democracy is admirable. But flushing out those behind the (supposed) False-Flag attack of 9-11 won't be the mechanism to achieve it. The ONLY way to regain representative Democracy is to get the government out of the control of the vested interests. The ONLY way to do that is for the politicians to be free of the corruption of campaign donations. Unless and until this is done, NOTHING else will be achieved in regard to nation building unless the major corporates and the 1% directly benefit in the process. Unfortunately this will be a long hard battle as the vested interests will fight like cornered animals to retain control over the government and the politicians will be equally resistant to giving up their lucrative corporate graft.
We are already so far down the path of corruption of our Democracy that it appears unlikely that it can be rescued short of some kind of revolution. Politicians on both sides of the ideological divide are now heavily dependant on big donations to have any chance at re-election. This is evident from both sides trying to appear more "corporate friendly" than their opponents. Neither the Democrats nor the Republicans seem willing or able to tackle the 1% or the large corporations on contentious issues. There was a time when they would, but not any more.
Campaign finance reform NOW.
#7
ScottFromOz, you wrote in response to Megalomaniac's utopian vision that "....NOTHING else will be achieved in regard to nation building unless the major corporates and the 1% directly benefit in the process" (of campaign finance reform). Do you have some idea of how to make campaign finance reform palatable to the very people who benefit so heavily from the current corrupt system? Or how to put the legislators or their challengers that are so dependent on a corrupt system to win a term under enough pressure to introduce such legislation? Shame them into a change of heart by writing letters, maybe? Just curious....
#8
Quote Outback: Obama has never been anything but a deep cover mole for the powers that be and I don't trust a word that comes out of his sweet talking mouth any more.
Well said, Outback! So true! Wish it wasn't so but all the evidence points in that direction. If it quacks like a duck......
#9
While I can't stomach the Opposition, seems to me as I remember from the Healthcare back room battles, The President was AWOL from the Legislative process. It was a battle of Democrats, with Republications sabotaging the process with poison-pill amendments. After passage there was a period of confusion, as Dems, Repubs and The President considered whether to claim parentage of another bastard camel legislated by committee. Eventually, for different reasons the label "Obama-Care" more or less stuck -- despite the reality of the process.
I wonder how many supporters crying "Medicare Off The Table"-- actually have any experience with it? Ever tried to explain Part-D to Grandma?
Into my 70s, I'm a huge fan of Social Security. Every month the bucks come in; the checks go out, with only some 3% Admin-costs, I'm told. Pretty damn efficient. As I see it, the COLA, and other algorithms are rational and straightforward. It works well, I think.
Consider for example the lines of shopping-carts on every street across the US in the last Recession, were it not for $1000 checks going out to millions of folks every month -- stimulus-money headed immediately to the grocery-store, rent and utilities -- (not off-shore tax-haven bank accounts). Coulda been a hellova-lot worse.
But "Social-Security Off The Table"??? Rational demographic tuning of Social Security doesn't bother me a bit. Let the demographers fine-tune it; while keeping the politicians grubby fingers out of it. Nuff-said on that.
MEDICARE is a whole nother story. I've never seen such an abominable mish-mash mess in my entire life. It is the wost conglomeration of regulatory counter-productive clutter immagenable. Bastardized by every self-interest imagenable, it is utterly out-of-any-control or comprehension by the ultimate consumers, the patients themselves. There is no cost awareness, or cost controls -- other than whatever leaks through the Insurance and Governmental bureaucracies.
Billing is insane. I had some recent cardio tests billed from 5-sources. One bill was over $7,000, settled for $1500, leaving me a $200 copay. So, what did it really cost? What tax-credits came from the $5,500 declined charges? As taxpayer and patient, I have absolutely no idea what my healthcare costs. Or, is Medicare solvent or not?
I hear folks saying "Hey it's free, take the most expensive treatment or device." Well, it ain't free folks. It's a totally incomprehensible mess needing serious overhaul -- but NOT by today's self-serving lying misrepresenting clowns in politics, NO-WAY. And the way it's designed, People (patients) have no control of the process.
I have no idea any real-world answer; but more of the same "Hog-trough Healthcare" ain't the solution. Legislative futzing by Legislators beholden to their corporate patrons can do no good.
I'm lucky I've got access, I just feel sorry for those with none -- sitting in ER waiting rooms is pathetic. A young working couple suffering bankruptcy from a childbirth difficulty -- isn't right in any society. (Have we no shame?). Yet it happens, too much.
Bottom line: US "HealthCare" can generally be good in practice; but our Healthcare Delivery and Finance Systems are an abomination -- and I see no political solutions possible. On the table; off the table; what's the difference? We have no idea what's going on. Like "Defense" -- "Healthcare" is designed for something alltogether different.
#10
http://historycommons.org
interesting things to search for at this data base site:
thermite
wtc
911
Rahman
terrorist
Khalifa
Bojinka
Northwoods
And click on the Timelines at the top of the page...lots of timelines.
#11
Best thing to happen in a long time -
Last year I received a $275 refund from my health insurer -- never happened before Obama stepped up to bat against the insurance lobby. As some of you may have forgotten, the law now includes a maximum overhead and profit clause which is why I, and millions of others, got a refund. Is this fair for the companies? Must be, they've been limiting thier home insurance damage payments to include the same overhead and profit limitation to the repair contractors for 40+ years.
Number two benefit - cannot be turned down for pre-existing disease or cancelled for the same reason. I know people who have been mal-treated by health insurance companies for these two reasons. Nice business they had until now -- hey, if you're healthy sign with us, if you're sick, too bad sucker.
Numer three benefit - low income people get decent federal assistance, not that cheap, poorly handled state medicaid garbage.
Number four benefit - the local charity (county) hospital, financed by my property taxes - will be able to actually collect for their services since insurance will be mandatory. Maybe, just maybe, my "hospital district" taxes will stabilize now. No more medical freeloaders.
Number five benefit - as it has already happened, medical rip off schemes will be federally prosecuted becase Uncle sam has a bigger interest in the bills.
Number six benefit - most people apparently have forgotten that the cost of health insurance has been 2-3 times the cost of living averages for ten plus years now. I bet that rip-off crap diminishes with more FBI cases opened for medical fraud as well as with the profit limitation law.
#12
Of all the states receiving more in federal spending than they pay in federal taxes, 76% are red states!.... How interesting that it's THEIR teabag representatives kicking, screaming, and bawling their eyes out, about out of control spending. Go figure!
President Obama got a letter from a woman that read, " I don't want government-run healthcare. I don't want socialized medicine. And don't touch my medicare.".....Huff Post
This all reminds me of a Thomas Jefferson quote, "An educated citizenry is a vital requisite for our survival as a free people."....The Stupid Party, headed up by a handful of billionaires, wants nothing to do with free people. They want dumbed down unionless wage slaves.
As long as we have Fox and their corp. cousins acting as the echo chamber for the Stupid Party, our survival as a free people is in serious doubt.
#13
PALINDROMEDARY! ~ Where is Ugly Fluffy? Hopefully, he will return by March 2nd.
I've missed you. See you then.
#14
Thom mentioned the great Galbraith quote that
The modern conservative is engaged in one of man's oldest exercises in moral philosophy; that is, the search for a superior moral justification for selfishness
Here's the Jerold Block (podcast name Jack Clark) corollary:
Everything the right-wing does is designed to accomplish one of two things, either:
(a) transfer wealth from everyone else to the already rich, or,
(b) distract everyone else from the fact that (a), that wealth transfer, is occurring
#15
The mere mention of this "uniquely American" healthcare piracy friggin' nightmare is enough to make my blood boil. Forcing private insurance down our throats is tantamount to government-sanctioned extortion. They can take those bloated premiums and shove 'em up their slimy posteriors, 'cause they're not getting one dime out of me. Higher taxes for a universal healthcare system I would gladly pay; but for private insurance in a for-profit system?! NO WAY. Those blood-sucking parasites have ruined what was already a second-rate system, compared to healthcare systems throughout the rest of the developed world. Even some third-world countries deliver better healthcare than we get. The private insurance industry is responsible for the deaths of millions of Americans, and I'll be damned if I'll reward them with my hard-earned cash.
At my age, I'm not quite old enough for Medicare. But I'm old enough to get charged a mighty hefty sum; high enough to compete with food and other necessities. Please correct me if I'm wrong, but I don't know of any provisions in "Obamacare" to control prices, or prevent insurance hacks from raising the cost of their premiume even higher. Were I to opt for a government subsidy to help us pay those premiums, I'm certain it would entail a labyrinth of rules & restrictions and a mountain of paperwork. We'd have bureaucrats' noses in all our private business, just so they can scrutinize us and decide if we "qualify". No thanks! They can just kiss my royal A$$.
For-profit healthcare is a goddam joke. They don't want us to die, because then it's the funeral hacks who reap the "reward". But they don't really want us to be healthy either, because healthy people don't need their services. It's all about symptom management, not wellness; keeping us sick and dependent on doctors and pharmaceuticals is their game! Why do you think these quacks are so ignorant about nutrition?! If Americans weren't so malnourished and strung out on junk and empty calories, the Cancer Industry would shrivel up and die... HORRORS! You might think of that next time the Cancer Society comes to your neighborhood with their stupid "Relay For Life" parade. - Aliceinwonderland
#16
DAnneMarc says: "PALINDROMEDARY! ~ Where is Ugly Fluffy?" And I second that, PD... Bring back Fluffy, please!!
#17
HalFonts, you wrote that Social security serves as a very efficient stimulus to the economy, and you're right on. Even better, in theory at least, it isn't even "government stimulus" as the funds have been set aside by workers and their employers for decades. And I don't know of many Social Security retirees well off enough that they can afford to stick the money in the bank; it goes out for food, gas, groceries, health care expenses as fast as it comes in. For the wealthier retirees that collect their SS checks and regard the petty cash as additional expendable income, I say "more power to them", as that's still stimulus. Further, it's "their money" and I don't think they should be subject to any "demographic tweaking", if that's where you were going with that.
You also wrote: "MEDICARE is a whole nother story. I've never seen such an abominable mish-mash mess in my entire life." and I'm with you there as well. I had a similar experience to yours a couple of years ago. I was hauled to the local ER with what "could have been a stroke" but apparently wasn't. After a battery of tests including multiple MRI's, EKG's, EEG's, ultrasounds, etc., I was presented with a bill of only a few hundred dollars. The actual bill was staggering and most of it was written off. I was of course grateful for the attention at the time, and like you, I thanked my lucky stars that I have Medicare, but the thought occurred to me that the charges for these services must be grossly inflated to allow this kind of a write-off. That, or the amount of money being collected from insurance companies for these procedures (which in turn is paid by working people with health insurance or private plans) offsets these write-offs. Or perhaps some combination of both. Of course, everyone in the system (except the insured) gets to pad the numbers to pay for their overhead. Pretty soon, nothing is real (like the concept of "trillion dollar deficits").
But from what I've read, the single biggest problem facing Medicare is the number of people soaking up long term terminal care, as in rest home care. It's in this area that we, as a society, need to examine our priorities. If an individual has the personal means to keep him or herself alive indefinitely, and I'm thinking of Dick Cheney, then that's fine, let 'em blow their wad on bionic gizmos. But that's not the natural course of things. Societies right up until recently provided for the dignified departure of their elderly and infirm, and I believe that's the way it should be. Speaking just for myself, I have no intention whatever of living ten or twenty years beyond the point where I have any quality of life. When the time comes I hope I have the capacity to find my way to Oregon or some other state with a civilized view of euthanasia. If not, I've left instructions for my sons to handle it for me (short of breaking the law). But if we could do just one thing to get this Medicare wagon out of the weeds and back onto the road, it would be to give up the notion of living forever and sticking our neighbors and kids with the bill.
#18
Outback says "But if we could do just one thing to get this Medicare wagon out of the weeds and back onto the road, it would be to give up the notion of living forever and sticking our neighbors and kids with the bill." And I disagree. I'm not encouraging anyone to prolong the dying process in the way you've described, as that benefits nobody; least of all the dying. But I believe one of the most important ways to pull Medicare out of the ditch is to give them negotiating power for the price of pharmaceuticals, which the Teapublicans and Blue Dogs have been blocking for years. This is why we pay higher prices for prescription drugs than anyone else in the world. Thanks to the neo-cons, Big Pharma keeps ripping off Medicare with impunity. - Aliceinwonderland
#19
A.I.W., I don't disagree with you that extending bargaining power to the Medicare Part D program would go a long ways toward helping out with the cost of Medicare. Of course, that's one of the key issues Obama was going to thrash out publicly with the pharmaceutical companies .... before he didn't. So it's not just the Blue Dog Democrats, the Republicans, the Tea Party, the Better Business Bureau, or whomever; even the President is complicit in maintaining the status quo. I'm afraid that we're going to wait a very long time for the reform of BIG Pharma by the usual suspects.
I was simply suggesting that there's one thing that people do have control of, and that's their attitude about how to interface with the system. That little tale I related about my medicare experience had an ending I didn't relate in my post. My doctor wanted to continue running tests, even though everything they'd done had turned up nothing. I declined, as my symptoms had been fleeting and exhaustive testing had turned up nothing. Some people would have probably said "why not, it's virtually free!". My doctor got short changed, unfortunately, as the only way the poor G.P. can make a buck off of a Medicare patient any more is through sheer volume of frequently unnecessary procedures. (He confided to me once that only the specialists, like radiologists, are making any "real money" these days - meanwhile, let's order up another MRI).
If you're interested, here's a link to a pretty cogent assessment of the state of Medicare today:
http://www.americanprogress.org/wp-content/uploads/issues/2011/06/pdf/me...
#20
Wow without Global and Kend around (Kend really doesn't count...that maple syrup kanook!) We all seem to rationally see eye to eye when it comes to Health Care...When it comes to "Obama care" the devil is in the details.
The only names anyone needs to know when it comes the truth and poop on healthcare is first: Wendle Potter. Google his name and read up on his back ground and experience as Vice President of communications for Cigma. Also read his book "Deadly Spin". And second Australia's Dr Helen Caldicott, A practicing phasician, Gandhian peace activist, and Universal Healthcare advocate; as well as speaker, and author.
There certainly is a divide amongst tax paying voters on many issues is this country, and Health Care is certainly one of the top 3. But when it gets right down to the bone; The only reason the U.S. doesn't have a Single Payer Health Care For All system is because Insurance companies, Pharmasutical companies all need to show 1/4erly growth so their share holders remain happy with fat pockets. Their ain't no profit saving everyones life, just those that can afford it...
Every see the Master Card commercial where a man is rushed into the E.R. having a heart attack and before the doctor can save his life he waits to see if his card clears...Ha!
It isn'r so much a sick and twisted "world"...Just the United Nation of Elite Capitalist (U.N.E.C). t-hehe! ;)
#21
NACHOS says "The only names anyone needs to know when it comes the truth and poop on healthcare is first: Wendle Potter." That name rings a bell. I learned of him on Democracy Now and have seen him interviewed on that show several times. I think I may also have read an article or two about him. He's a very courageous man, with a unique perspective as an ex-honcho for Cigma. I really like the guy and am grateful to him for switching sides and calling a spade a spade. It takes a lot of character to do that.
I'm also very familiar with Dr. Caldicott, from the anti-nuke movement of the 1980s. It does not surprise me at all to learn she is also an advocate for universal healthcare.
It never ceases to amaze me that here in the U.S., the richest country in the world (as Thom and others keep referring to it), people's lives are literally and routinely sacrificed on the alter of Big Money. Just blows my mind that someone like your daughter Krissy, a child suffering with cancer and desperately needing treatment, would be pitted against some no-count corporate shareholder's desire to make a profit. Just blows my mind, how sick and twisted that is. Don't reckon I'll ever get used to it. What's more, I don't want to get used to it. Back in 2009 when Obama took single payer "off the table" - before the discussion had even begun! - I was so upset, I e-mailed him literally dozens of times, expressing my outrage. A lot of good it did... (SIGH...) - Aliceinwonderland
#22
I shudder to say - ALICEINWONDERLAND - that in order for The People of America to establish a Universal Health Care System...We the People will have to collectively Revolt!
Now I say "shudder" because Americans a lazy and don't have the gumption to collectively organize to the degree of having enough strength to overthrow a Corporate Government run by Plutocratic society.
We are no longer the UNITED States of America...A country whoes government was once For, By, and Of the People...As you know it has quickly turned into a country thats government is; For the Coporations, By the Corporations and Of the Corporations. Dividing "us", the pawns, into two groups; scabs and bruses. Both groups "need" their shitty low wage dead end jobs, (we're all in some kind of debt) and both groups agree that "someone should do something", but everytime the bruses try to organize and take a stand through collective barganing, boycotting, striking, Picketing, etc...The scabs undermine our efforts and trip us up by crossing the picket line. But it has always been this way...No???
The problem today is most Americans don't realize that "this" system is artificial...We the People are not obligated to the Government...We do not have to oblige ANY company that behaives carelessly and profits by unethical and immoral means.
I have experienced the worse experience a parent can experience...The death of a child...Not by accedent, but by neglagence brought about by greed! What is it going to take for us to change our way of thinking? How many more 8 year old girls and boys will have to die - unnecessarily - before We the People collectively start to value ALL life - young and old, poor or rich, etc. - over making a dollar?
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And many of those 30 million people being forced to drain what little they have of their life's savings in order to pay the exorbitant healthcare premiums that the government will be forcing people to pay for. The healthcare industry has already raised it's rates, knowing that people will no longer be able to have a choice. They have a monopoly and they will fully exploit us all with it.
I am all for universal healthcare...a single payer system...but not for the abomination that is about to befall us...which is nothing but a government enforced racket that benefits the healthScare insurance companies and the medical and pharmaceutical industries. And there are so many loopholes in the new law that many people will use to get out of contributing...last I read...something about using some kind of religious loophole. Many people will even prefer to pay the government penalty for not having healthcare insurance because the penalty is much, much less that the exorbitant healthcare premiums.
If you are on medicare (and you don't even need the ridiculous extra insurance the healthcare bandits try to sell you on top of medicare), VA..Veterans Administration healthcare, or any other kind of healthcare...you don't need to buy any extra...from any other source in order to avoid being fined.
If only they had included a government option so that the monopoly of profit hungry healthcare CEOs would have some competition....and provide a relief for those of us who don't want to pay the expensive health care premiums.
Don't give Obama credit where credit is not due. He is only doing the bidding of the wealthy. Obama is a sell out to the insurance companies and Wall Street and to all the other criminals in the banking industry and corporations. Obamacare is an abomination.