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Lawsuits could force feds to pay Obamacare insurers (Politico)
- Thread starter Piecake
- Start date
Zap Rowsdower
Banned
Will the winning never cease for Donald J. Trump Sr.?
tearsintherain
Member
Not sure how anyone, liberal or conservative, could be happy about this - literally your tax money going to go pay private insurance companies to fuel their profits.
Yeah, it was a bit of a double-edged sword to do that, but this seems to be the good edge.
smokeandmirrors
Banned
im not but if the alternative is more people are uninsured then ill take it.
Because this will also help to keep our not-so-great-but-still-than-nothing universal healthcare from imploding as the President has threatened to do on multiple occasions. It's pretty simple, even if it's not ideal and never has been. Of course, I figure you probably already know this, but just want to spout some bullshit.
JonnyDBrit
Member
Or to put it another way, given how much Republicans love to talk up the free market, the previous admin's plan was to do their best to have the market agree with keeping the ACA in place.
What doesn't rile up the GOP base?
It's this or let the insurance markets implode. So, I'd prefer we prop up the markets so people can continue to have healthcare, personally.
You know what else is going to rile their base more, as we've seen? Losing their healthcare. I think just about everyone knows that the way Obamacare is structured is not ideal, this isn't news, but until Republicans can come up with an alternative that doesn't fuck over millions of people, they are stuck. They can shout out to their base, 'see, see,' but when their alternative is, 'you are going to lose any healthcare you have to begin with,' it doesn't matter. It's the ultimate quagmire.
PrivateWHudson
Member
I'd prefer to see them implode. Unfortunately this won't fully happen until insurance is decoupled from employers.
So millions can suffer? We don't need to let them implode to get to singlepayer, if thats what your hoping for.
Then millions lose their insurance and many die.
As Trump is seeing it's hard to maintain momentum on lies because it's purely defensive. The base is seeing the benefit and so they aren't buying the GOP narrative that it needs to be taken away. But anything remotely factual they can use offensively they will cling to.
Electric Eye
Banned
They'll win too because it's written law and I actually hope they win because it further anchors the law from defunding. The insurance companies have billions of dollars to go up against this current government that can barely function.
Dubbedinenglish
Banned
In each of their shitty replacements more money was going directly to insures, without the coverage.
I have no idea what you mean. I think most people are aware the federal government pays into the ACA. Even if they aren't, I don't know why that fact would matter all that much. As the Trumpcare Saga has shown, people don't want to lose their health insurance. Like I said, it's a catch-22. Even if the GOP can say, 'look, we're right about how much we pay into the ACA, how awful,' it doesn't matter when their alternative is, 'Well, we're going to take away your health insurance.' The massive outcry and backlash to basically every version of the GOP's healthcare bill has been testament to this.
PrivateWHudson
Member
Yes, to get to single payer, or a true free market. Either will do, but with the real cost of premiums and deductibles hidden from those not looking, and insurance lobbies pulling strings, we are fucked for the foreseeable future.
Silent Chief
Member
Well, the American way is that the state has to step back and let private companies run the health care system. These companies are not going to operate at a loss. I sense some hope from the so-called conservatives that the premiums will rise so that the poor can no longer afford them. My head office is in Texas, so I know many companies would have no problems passing some of those higher costs down to their employees, one way or another. Would that be such a great outcome? Whatever tax money is funneled to insurers is negligible anyway.
There's no guarantee we will get to single payer just because this happens, though, and there's no guarantee that we won't eventually get it down the road anyway. You're basically saying we should roll the dice on millions of people's lives and suffering. And if it were all just deep red GOP voters, I guess we can all say just fuck'em, but the effects will reach more than that, even if those people will be the ones hurt the most.
Wag
Member
And what happens to all those uninsured in the meantime? And who's going to give you that single payer insurance? The Reps?
PrivateWHudson
Member
What we're doing now isn't working, so why not. Is there a whole lot of difference between no insurance, and paying a ton of money for an insurance you don't use because the deductible is too high? It's already broken, period.
The Greek Freak
Member
If the DNC wasn't full of chicken shit centrists we'd be working towards a first world healthcare solution.
Plenty of first world countries don't use Single Payer to provide universal healthcare and "The DNC" wasn't the reason that the public option failed in '09!
excelsiorlef
Member
It's working better than just saying fuck it and blowing it all up
Right on cue to somehow blame the Democrats
If the populace wasn't full of holy thou voters looking for a savior they wouldn't be letting the RNC control everything from the bottom up while yelling at the chicken shits for not getting what they demand done. Not saying that's the DNC's aim right now...but I can't help but laugh when y'all keep blaming them for not getting anything done as if the right isn't showing people you can keep your party in power while still getting the bullshit you want passed.
Turbo Killer
Member
I'd rather my tax money goes to insuring healthcare for people than build a fucking wall or another missile.
Oh so your an idiot. K
Damn. Didn't know the DNC was instrumental in crafting policy.
PrivateWHudson
Member
What are your premiums and deductibles for a family of four?
I've had to resort to DIY healthcare while paying something like $1300/month (combination of payroll deduction and employer contribution) for the privilege. It's really not working unless you are in a union, or a government employee. Or maybe work for an outstanding company.
smokeandmirrors
Banned
excelsiorlef
Member
Never said it was perfect just that it is better than blowing it all up... especially while the GOP controls everything.
CampbellzSoup
Member
This is not a victory - health care is out of control your going to force the federal government to basically subsidize outrageous healthcare cost???
My friend had an 8,000 bill from pretty much nothing we were aghast at this.
Why don't congress members have Obama care????
My friend had an 8,000 bill from pretty much nothing we were aghast at this.
Why don't congress members have Obama care????
mugurumakensei
Member
Actually, the members of congress do have Obamacare. They purchase their insurance through the DC Insurance exchange. 72% of the premium is subsidized by the federal government though.
PrivateWHudson
Member
Maybe the GOP will lose control if it blows up...
Because it stuck and with Obama's popularity back to being high Dems are cool just rolling with it.
mugurumakensei
Member
The ACA isn't the problem. The problem is the lack of a public option, the failure of Republican state governments to accept the medicaid expansion, and the penalty for not having insurance is too small( however, it can't be increased because of point number 2 resulting in low income households being penalized for being poor ).
If Republican's actually cared about a better healthcare plan, they'd do the following.
1) Legalize marijuana federally.
2) Create a national sales sin tax on Alcohol, Cigarettes, Marijuana, and other tobacco products.
3) Use the revenue to pump money into the exchanges and medicaid expansion.
If they want further revenue:
1) Legalize prostitution.
2) Require strippers to be recognized as employees of the strip clubs. As such, they fall under minimum wage rules.
3) Make prostitution subject to the national sales sin tax which again pumps money into healthcare.
If Republican's actually cared about a better healthcare plan, they'd do the following.
1) Legalize marijuana federally.
2) Create a national sales sin tax on Alcohol, Cigarettes, Marijuana, and other tobacco products.
3) Use the revenue to pump money into the exchanges and medicaid expansion.
If they want further revenue:
1) Legalize prostitution.
2) Require strippers to be recognized as employees of the strip clubs. As such, they fall under minimum wage rules.
3) Make prostitution subject to the national sales sin tax which again pumps money into healthcare.
No, if the voters actually voted for supporters of the things you're convinced they support, the US would be working toward that.
Their base is riled up by waking up in the afternoon and remembering liberals and black people exist.
HoodWinked
Member
law firms take about half of the revenue from these lawsuits and the government also has to pay for their defense of said lawsuits. so basically tax money going right into the pockets of lawyers this is just asinine.
So you're going to absolve all the people that voted in Republicans knowing full well they don't support a public option or single payer health care? This is not a DNC issue.
One of the reasons #2 is so pernicious is that people are generally undervaluing the importance of catastrophic health care coverage (especially poor and/or young people) and those poor/young groups are the most likely to refuse that coverage due to viewing it as "too expensive". This occurs in part because the paid coverage is displacing "free" healthcare (via charity, their parents, etc.) that they prefer to rely on, since they only look at the immediate and don't comprehend what the safety net does for them.