Obamacare Starts today in new Jersey

[sgreger1]

All I know is that something needs to be done about the prices the insurance companies are charging us. It's insane. Even though my employer pays 60% of my health insurance, for which I'm very, very grateful, I still have to pay over $200 each paycheck and, on top of that, pay a $4,000 deductible before my insurance pays for anything. It doesn't even cover prescriptions unless I pay over $4,000 in that year, which never happens. I basically don't have any insurance unless I wind up in the hospital and it costs over $4,000. I'm paying all that money for nothing. It's insane and the system was broken long before the Health Care Bill was passed, so I find it hard to blame it on that.

Wow thats the worst insurance policy of all time man. And your right, its been broken for decades. However, instead of fixing the cost aspect, obama just forced everyone to buy this expensive product. So if you get fired, you now have to pay out of pocket for the full thing. If you dont its like tax evasion and the IRS will come after you. Do you see why i dont think this is a good thing?

[sgreger1]

. At least people who couldn't get insurance before can get it now, if they can afford it, which is doubtful... Sigh...

And if they cant afford it they will be forced to. <----- this is you "something" that is better than nothing. As per the usual, the middle class will be hurt the most. The poor will get subsidies, the rich are, well, rich, and the middle class is stuck with a mandatory huge bill. As cited above, could you afford 700 a month right now if the gov forced you to buy something each month?

[sgreger1]

I dont believe we should all be insured (for anything). Call me calloused but some of us should die... even if it happens to be me. Health care is something someone can provide as a service, in that regard it is no different than a haircut or a massage. (cept those cant save your life I spose) So if I cannot afford a haircut, I either dont get one or I do it myself with a bowl and a pair of scissors. If I cannot afford heath care I should probably do the right thing and die. I will walk off into the hills with my peacepipe (if I am able) and die like a man.

Insurance is the biggest scam ever created anyway, and seemingly everyone on the planet is duped by it. Its almost exactly like a casino, as in no one really wins but the house.... except with insurance you are betting you are going to lose! What a concept. Even the payout is just a reimbursement and rarely a gain, so your probably better of in a casino.

Why would anyone bet they are a loser.

We would all be so much better off if insurance had never been thought of.

My insurance is great. Infact ive only talked to 1 or 2 people whos employer insurance isnt affordable and pretty decent. Hmo, 25-50$ copay, costs only a hundred or two a month for your family etc. Insurance helps a lot of people and is a legitimate service. 80% of americans already had insurance, we are rewriting the system just to help the 20%, which would be okay if it didnt completely **** the larger 80%.

[sgreger1]

WTH? If you can't afford health care you should do the right thing and die? A haircut and health care are 2 different things. A haircut costs about $15.00 and you can do it yourself if need be. You can't really say the same thing about most medical procedures. It's just money or paper and lack of it shouldn't mean you deserve to die.

I agree. I must stray from the republicans on this one. I am actually more in favor of a single payer system than anything else ive heard proposed so far. There are lots of problems with government healthcare but i think medical services is something all people should be entitled to in the modern age. I view healthcare as a necessary social service. I wished gov didnt have to do it because they will inevitably fark it up and make it horrible and expensive, but thats kinda what we already have so if were going to rewrite the books, lets make it count.


Single pay, to me, seems like it is better than our system and waaaaaaay better than obamas system. I dont think gov would do a good job but since this is a "lesser of two evils" type scenario, i think its the only thing that we know will work reasonably well since its already been tried in europe and elsewhere.



Edit: sorry about the multiple posts, but frankly i cant figure out the multiquote thing so my bad.

[MGX]

So is healthcare a right or a privilege? Should the US constitution be amended?

What happens to immigration when/if it becomes a right? Massachusetts has had state socialized medicine for some time but as dreed2 stated being 'covered' isn't the same as receiving 'care'. Many in the UK and Ireland are 'covered' but the quality of the 'care' is questionable. The tax load in the US is much less than these countries and will have to be substantially increased to create a new welfare state.

[GoVegan]

So is healthcare a right or a privilege? Should the US constitution be amended?

What happens to immigration when/if it becomes a right? Massachusetts has had state socialized medicine for some time but as dreed2 stated being 'covered' isn't the same as receiving 'care'. Many in the UK and Ireland are 'covered' but the quality of the 'care' is questionable. The tax load in the US is much less than these countries and will have to be substantially increased to create a new welfare state.

There is no easy answer to that one but I don't think that our constitution needs to be amended in order to provide a good health care plan for people. I think that Obama may have been on the right track in the beginning but the republicans and conservative democrats kept threatening to block health care legislation unless serious compromises were made. I believe we should have a sliding scale system that will charge people for basic medical services based on what they can reasonably afford. Insurance can still be made available for additional services and perhaps to even help with any charges.

I also wonder if we just need to redo our system and focus more on maintenance and preventative care. It's too bad that we can't have a system where you can just pay cash upfront to see a doctor or even go into a hospital. My mom told me that it used to not be such a big deal to receive medical services and you could just work out a plan with the doctor. Now, we have a system where everybody is trying to make it rich. Insurance companies and hospitals need to pay for their very expensive administrators, doctors become specialists so they can make 6 figure + salaries and equipment companies keep making very expensive diagnostic tools. It is quite possible for somebody to ring up a tab in the millions to get treatment. We need to get back to basics. Do we really need to spend a small fortune on someone with an incurable disease or can hospice be the way? Do people really need to get every little ache diagnosed and looked at with a CT Scan? Can people understand that doctors are human and make mistakes without expecting huge malpractice settlements? In the end, can people just realize that they are primarily responsible for their own health care but that the government will be there to help out when needed?