Obamacare -- My Two Cents

I got really tired of hearing "Obamacare this" and "Obamacare that" so I decided to go find it and read myself. Which many of our state representatives apparently did not do. As expected, it is an incredibly cumbersome document nd is expressed in more legalese than anyone should be subjected to but if one can read above an 8th grade level, it is not outside the realm of understanding. If you are interested, it is available at the link below.

I have not finished reading it. It is HUGE and it is also a cure for insomnia. Government documents often are. However, it is a pdf and so you can do word searches to find out stuff like, oh, must Congress and the POTUS use the mandated structure? (Yes they do, by the way, see Sec1312(d)(3)(D) (p81)) and are illegal immigrants eligible for coverage? (No, they are not, see Sec1312(f)(3) (p82)).

While I disagree with the idea of government mandated insurance, I know the system as it now is needs an overhaul (kind of like our Congress, but that is another post). There are huge numbers of folks who fall through the cracks because they make too much to qualify for Medicaid, but not enough to pay for living and going to the doctor and getting their medication. I'm one of them and it isn't fun trying to decide if I am going to pay a bill or pay for my meds in any given month. Usually, I pay the bill and suffer the consequences (which ain't pretty, let me tell you). Not having to do that would be awesome.

Imagine it...Paid bills while being properly medicated. The mind boggles...

Oops, sorry, my mind wandered. Anyway, if I did not have to have the meds and medical care, I have many, many things I would much rather use the money for besides paying for insurance. However, under this bill I'm forced to use the money to pay for medical insurance anyway or be fined, and I find that disturbing.

I am also still curious about how they plan to pay for this behemoth because it is not going to be cheap and is going to affect many people more negatively than positively. It's inevitable--it's called "unintended consequences" and with a change of this magnitude, the proportionate consequences will be equally as huge. However, it is SOMETHING which, IMO, is better than nothing. If nothing else, the fact that it was voted through forces us all to talk about the problem rather than kicking it further down the road like we've been doing to this point. I would love to see the discussion go from demonizing polarization to an actual conversation but I don't see that happening anytime soon, so this rather quickly cobbled together bill may be the only thing we can get until we collectively grow the heck up and quit bickering like little kids on a playground.

And no, I still have no idea who I am voting for. Voting for the lesser of two evils is still voting for evil and I have issues with this as a way of choosing the leader of my country.

JMO YMMV. Happy reading.

Lord have mercy on me a sinner.

Relevant Reading
Compilation of Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act