I would rather set my own hair on fire than admit it, but I agree with Ken Cuccinelli on this one. The reason is simple. Obama took a bad system and fucked it up even more.
The huge megatrillion dollar reform package did not reform health care and did nothing to make it more affordable. It was a half-assed patchwork of insurance reforms that did nothing to control the actual cost of health care. It did not include an affordable public option for people to buy into at what could have been a huge group discount rate. All it did do was make you and me a criminal if we lose our jobs and our insurance and can't afford to buy insurance on our own.
If you've ever lost a job due to downsizing like I have in the past, you know all about COBRA, which allows you to continue the coverage provided by your former employer, provided you pay the full, non-group rate, which can be hundreds of dollars or more every month. About twenty years ago, when my former boss told me about COBRA and the cost involved, after informing me that I no longer had a job, my first response was, "How the hell am I supposed to afford that with no job?"
Faced with the "choice" of continuing my health insurance or eating and paying my rent, I chose the latter. Subsequently, I got very sick that winter with some kind of flu that wouldn't go away. As scary as it was to get sick without insurance and as hard as it was having to pay the full cost of the doctor's visit and the meds, at least I wasn't thrown in jail or fined for not having insurance.
The real winners in Obamacare are the insurance companies, who hardly needed any help in fleecing the American public.
I've heard the argument that the government makes you buy insurance when you buy a car, but that doesn't hold water. The government can't make you buy a car. If you've ever been hit by an uninsured driver and had to pay for repairs or a new car, or medical bills out of your own pocket, then launch an expensive lawsuit against someone who doesn't have any money in the first place, you know what I'm talking about.
Don't get me wrong. I still think Ken Cuccinelli is a bigoted, homophobic, hate-monger with delusions of grandeur, but on this one isolated subject ~ and no other ~ I have to agree with him. Got a match?
When I think of our A.G...I want to vomit. Be there no mistake I admittedly take the opposite stance,by gag reflex, to whatever position he takes on whatever issue it may be.I do however look at the facts before jumping on him with both feet.
ReplyDeleteObamacare is grossly misnamed as belonging to Obama. In fact it resembles his actual wants for health care revision very,very little. Mandatory Healthcare insurance in Massachusetts has not resulted in arrests and jail time. It has resulted in some 97% of residents being unsured with very little impact to the State budget(Boston Globe Aug '09)and a nearly 70% approval rating for the new law there. It can be argued that the opposition effectively,once again, has used fear based tactics (this time with the word.."socialism"...as though we don't already have many examples of that already here.) The simple truth is,in my opinion, that the repubs and others simply do not want to help fix the system whatsoever...they have NO constructive plan ,or even a desire to cover the 17% uninsured in the U.S., or the many with pre-existing conditions etc. They simply think that things will get better by leaving things alone....after all they have their excellant coverage, and this is a matter of free enterprise,unhindered capitalism etc. Once again, instead of looking at the actual benefits from States where buy-in was mandated...Cooch would rather spread fear and exalt himself on the bash-Obama train to further his political ambitions. He is consistently not for the well being of the people, and this is yet another example.