Obamacare not affordable

[Zazzy]

Okay, I do have an opinion on this.

I am strongly in favour of universal healthcare. However, the Fed. govt. of the USA cannot afford it, and I do think it should be instituted at State levels.

Ideally, this would be good, but there are the Southern states to contend with. Texas, Mississippi, Alabama... these states cannot be trusted to run ANYTHING. Look at how they run their schools and that's a good indicator of how they'd run their healthcare systems.

With that said I think it's sad and pathetic that a nation such as the USA cannot afford a world-class healthcare system.

Right? It's shameful.

[Optimistic Mysanthrope]

I think it's funny how the people who say that the government can't afford it are generally the ones who pay less than their fair share of tax.

(n.b. that's not aimed you, Aractus)

[TheBeardedDude]

My costs went down. My health insurance now costs less than my cell phone plan. And that is a family plan for both health insurance and cell phones. And those are smartphone plans.

So, what was that about affordability?

I also have a friend who has been unable to get health insurance on her own, who has benefited from the changes the ACA made to how long a child can remain on the parents policy (now 26), but she just turned 27 and is an adjunct faculty member at a university where she cannot get healthcare on her own and could afford it before the exchange. Now, there are plans she qualifies for that are free and less than $50 a month for some of the better ones. That is pretty fucking affordable.

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Also, I live in Connecticut and she in Tennessee. And there are clearly things in the Courant that indicate its not exactly a liberal newspaper.

[Aractus]

Funny how the government always seems to have issues coming up with money when they're providing health care, schools, roads and food, but they never seem to have trouble coming up with money for guns and prisons.

I think universal health care shouldn't be hard; just cut military spending and roll back the Bush tax cuts and problem solved.

I think, and you can correct me if I'm wrong, that prisons are handled at the State level not the federal level, so that point is moot - the US Fed government can't take from the State government's revenue!

I actually agree with you with military spending - especially on chemical and biological weapon development, storage, etc. The USA should destroy all their WMD's other than nuclear weapons, and cease chemical and biological weapon development. This would save a huge chunk of money better spent elsewhere, as it is that money gets you nothing except very expensive WMD's that you cannot ever use but pose a very real and serious risk if they fall into the wrong hands, or are accidentally leaked.

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Ideally, this would be good, but there are the Southern states to contend with. Texas, Mississippi, Alabama... these states cannot be trusted to run ANYTHING. Look at how they run their schools and that's a good indicator of how they'd run their healthcare systems.

Then you would have citizens of those states travelling to northern states with universal healthcare to get cared for, and that's an unavoidable situation since you're right there are plenty of states that would not be interested in providing it. But at least it would be affordable, and provide coverage for everyone in the country (even if people do have to travel).

On a technical note, in Australia, sometimes patients do have to be transported from one region to another for emergencies. Do you know what happens to people who have no one to contact once they're released from hospital? They have to find their own way home - often they do not have their identification - bank cards, mobile phone, etc, as they're left in their homes, and our government does not return them back to where we collected them from! It's left to church-run charities to get these people a. accommodation and b. a bus ticket home!

[Raeven]

My costs went down enormously, too. And I can actually now get comprehensive coverage. Like over $500/month went down. That's just to insure me alone. And no preexisting conditions clauses, either.

But then, I live in a sane state (Oregon) that didn't fight the ACA, took the offsetting funds offered for Medicaid expansion and set up their own exchange. (By the way, we didn't have web access, either, but I managed to apply and get my application in before the deadline of December 4th so my coverage will commence in January. So did a lot of other people.)

[Minimalist]

I think, and you can correct me if I'm wrong, that prisons are handled at the State level not the federal level, so that point is moot - the US Fed government can't take from the State government's revenue!

There are federal prisons too, Danny. Thanks to republicunt idiots we are still paying a fortune to keep Guantanomo Bay open so, in a sense, it really isn't about the money...except when they want it to be.

http://news.yahoo.com/new-report--gitmo-...48004.html

The United States government spends about $2.7 million per prisoner per year to operate the Guantanamo Bay detention facility in Cuba, the Washington Post reports.

That estimate comes from a recent study by the Miami Herald’s Carol Rosenberg, who has covered Gitmo since 2002. According to Rosenberg, the U.S. will spend $454 million this year to maintain the facility and pay troop salaries, among other fees — a little under half a billion dollars.

With only 166 prisoners, that works out to an annual cost of about $2.7 million per detainee. For a point of comparison, California spends an annual $47,000 per prisoner, according to a 2010 study from that state’s government.

[Aractus]

That's just one prison Min, I'm talking about regular prisons for regular yanks.

[Ryantology]

I can actually afford health insurance now. I work freelance, mostly as a transcriber. It will cost a little more than when I got insurance through my job (a previous job), but the coverage is so much better that it hardly matters to me.

A lot of people who are paying more for their insurance are actually getting insurance worth paying for.

[Jackalope]

That's just one prison Min, I'm talking about regular prisons for regular yanks.

We have plenty of ordinary Federal prisons in addition to state-run prisons. Where one ends up depends on who's doing the prosecuting - federal DOJ or the corresponding state authority.

[Manowar]

A few here say they can afford Obama care but they don't say how much it costs them. In 2008 I believe, Jodi Rell former governer(REP) started an insurance that anyone can get regardless of any preexisting conditions( preexisting conditons was defined as seeing a doctor within a year for that condition) This is from memory so i might way off but the premiums was based on income, if making $16.000 a year or less it would be $75 a month and only one time deuctable for the year of $150.00 and premiums would go up from there , the top price I remember was like $240.00 I forget the income level for that price, but it going to be ending in Dec, I assume because of Obamacare. Why can''t the states do this? Who wants the gov!

manowar