Obamacare!
Submitted Wednesday, July 11, 2012 - 8:42:21 PM by Klaitu
So, it's been awhile since I wrote anything here on Special K, sorry folks. I've been busy what with my upcoming wedding and the job and all.
Today is different though, I'm sitting in front of my computer, unable to sleep because I have bronchitis.. what better introduction to talk about this Obamacare whatnot?
According to Facebook, Twitter, and the rest of the internet, if you're not in favor of Obamacare, you must be some kind of evil, greedy money man or else just want everyone to suffer. After all, who doesn't everyone to get free health insurance forever?
So I thought I'd talk a little bit about why *I* don't like Obamacare. I'm not going to sling mud around and get all dramatic about it, I'm just gonna be up front about it. You know, like an adult.
1. I think that anyone who wants health care should be able to get it.
Obviously, the pre-obamacare system wasn't working. People who wanted and needed health care could not get it. That's a problem that needs fixing.
However, there are a sizeable amount of people who do not want health care for whatever reason. Now, these people have had their right to choose their health care taken away. Now they are required to have and pay for health care unless they qualify for an exemption. "I don't want it" isn't an exemption.
America is supposed to be a place where am I free to make my own fortune, to blaze my own path. Uncle Sam wants to put my path on rails so that it ends up where everyone else's does.. poorly managed.
2. Obamacare is not 'free"
Every time I talk to someone about this it inevitably comes down to "Who doesn't want free health care?" but the thing is, it isn't free. You're paying for it. I'm paying for it.
Do you have health insurance right now? Most everyone does. what changes for you? Not much. You're still paying for your health care.
If you don't have health insurance, now you are required to pay for it. If you don't do it voluntarily, they tax you so that you're still paying for it.
So, where's all that free insurance? It doesn't exist. If you can prove that you don't make enough money to afford insurance, then the cost of your insurance is paid by the community. In all cases your health care costs money.
That's not to say that I disagree with how they've set this up, I'm just tired of hearing this argument over and over.
3. But it's like the local taxes for police and firemen!
I can get behind that.. except it's not like that at all. If Obamacare were funded by property taxes, or added to sales taxes. I could get behind the funding part of it.. but it isn't. It's a service that's paid out of your gross income.
If anything, Obamacare is like Homeowner's association dues. You pay your fee every month so that Mrs. Gertle can earn a cool $15,000 a month for driving around once a week and gossiping about all your neighbors lawns.. Oh, and she also prints out bi-monthly newsletter reminding you to separate your recyclables... and if you don't pay Mrs. Gertle, she gets all pissed off and puts a lien on your house.
4. The Government administrates it
Have you ever been involved in a legal proceeding? Ever been in the Military? Worked for the Post Office?
Ask anyone. The Government SUCKS at administering things. They fill programs with bloat and run them into the ground. Why does anyone want to give these people more money? They are absolutely awful with money and have no sense of how to spend it wisely.
The Post Office? nearly bankrupt.
Remember how there were all those soldiers without body armor in the Iraq war? It's because someone somewhere decided that all office chairs with 4 wheels were unsafe and required the military to replace all their perfectly good chairs with ones that have 5 wheels. The question isn't "Why aren't we arming our troops?" it's "Where did the Army lose all the money we gave them to arm all our troops?"
These are not the kind of people I want to manage my health care. If you're okay with it, try getting a new social security card sometime and then say to yourself "I'd like to repeat this experience while deathly ill"
And speaking of Social Security, see how well that worked out? It's a government retirement plan that's severely broken and will drive even more extreme debt trying to meet its obligations.. Something all sides have agreed on for decades, and yet have done nothing about it.
Yes, please, give me some of that on my health care.
5. The Politicians run the Government
Insurance is a numbers game. Statistics. BS statistics that don't mean anything to you or me.
Don't get me wrong, pure statistics are quite helpful, they can help us understand things that are happening on a wide scale.. but the problem is that they can be easily manipulated by politicians to promote their wacky ideas.
Here's how it might work with this system:
- People are having car accidents
- People in car accidents use their health care
- The use of health care costs Insurers money
- Insurers want people to have fewer accidents
- Insurers discover the people who drive sports cars are more likely to be in accidents
- Insurers lobby to raise taxes on owning sports cars to discourage consumers from buying them, while also arguing that sports car drivers should pay a disproportionate amount of health costs because they are more likely to use it
I'm not conspiracy theorizing here. I'm not saying "OMG this is totally going to happen", but this kind of manipulation is precisely what politicians love to do. It's not just sports cars, you can politicize any statistics you want and then try to manipulate people into your agenda.
Not driving a green car? Higher insurance rates! You're contributing to skin cancer!
Own a gun? You're more likely to have gunshot injuries! Higher insurance rate!
These are just a few ideas, but my point is that someone, somewhere is going go try to manipulate this system to promote their own agenda.
The idea to mix politics with health care is not appealing.