Those of us who had decent health care in 2009 have been ripped off
- Thread starter Tom B
- Start date
The most harm was caused by medicaid not being expanded in most of the States with Republican Governors. You'll recall that the Republicans went to the Supreme court to get a ruling that allowed them to do this.
Obamacare was structured so that those who made too little to qualify for Premium supplements would be picked up by expanded medicaid. When the Republicans balked on expanding medicaid, they left huge numbers in the gap between qualifying for un-expanded medicaid and not making enough to qualify for a premium supplement. It sounds too bizarre to be believed, but this is exactly what happened and the Republicans knew exactly what they were doing. It was diabolical in the extreme, because most people, such as yourself, would not figure out what had happened.
The Republican Governors did this to wreck Obamacare, despite all claiming their States could not afford to expand. That was a lie of course, since the expansion was 100%, dropping down eventually to 90%, federal taxpayer funded. Who in their right mind would not jump at the chance for full medical coverage at a 90% discount!*
When the Republican governors blocked medicaid expansion they left millions in the gap without coverage. Some of those purchased expensive or very high deductible policies with out any help with premiums, or risked going without coverage. Naturally this experience left them less than enthusiastic about Obamacare. They didn't realize what had happened to them, and this is exactly as the Republicans had planned. Republicans refused to expand with the intention of wrecking obamacare by leaving millions in the gap. And of course the Republican Governors' actions amounted to political malpractice, since their State's taxpayers were paying for the expansion in other states without getting any of the benefits!!!
Obamacare is badly flawed, and not all of those flaws can be laid at the feet of Republicans. But certainly blocking of the public option, a cost control feature, can be blamed mostly on the Republicans, and failure to expand medicaid is 100% the fault of the Republicans. On the other hand, taking repeal of McCarran-Ferguson off the table was bi-partisan. One "democrat" in particular put up a very good show of trying to appear even handed while not having any intention of letting the public option get a green light, and that was Max Baucus of Montana. It turned out that Baucus had taken more campaign money from big pharma than any other Senator, and of course both the Insurance Companies and Big Pharma solidly opposed the public option... https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-fix/wp/2013/04/24/why-max-baucus-made-democrats-angry-in-5-easy-steps/?utm_term=.4c236e6e3ea7
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*A number of economic studies have concluded that the additional State revenues accruing from expansion would cover the States' ultimate 10% share.
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Have you been to Columbia recently?? Have you sampled the healthcare there? Just curious.
I'm curious if you have.
I haven't. Would love to go. Have heard very positive things from colleagues about the changes there. I have made three trips to South America in last twenty years and am yearning to go back . Very likely this next year. It's a spectacular continent with spectacular and wonderful people. I think the U.S. is making a mistake to be quite so Eurocentric. Not that I don't love the British isles and Europe, but believe me, South America has every bit as much to offer.
Same polls had hillary up 12 points a few weeks before the election.
as I have said many times before those rankings have perverse results.
For instance NICU care.
The US has extraordinary capability to save pre term babies and we use it.
Sometimes these babies die as children. The US score gets hammered for saving babies.
While other countries either don't try to save the babies or can't... Yet those countries get much better scores.
On top of that our NICUs get these high risk pregnancies from all over the world when the parents can afford it or the moms can walk across the border with a long coat on.
For instance NICU care.
The US has extraordinary capability to save pre term babies and we use it.
Sometimes these babies die as children. The US score gets hammered for saving babies.
While other countries either don't try to save the babies or can't... Yet those countries get much better scores.
On top of that our NICUs get these high risk pregnancies from all over the world when the parents can afford it or the moms can walk across the border with a long coat on.
2 weeks prior to the election RCP had Hillary +5.1
4 weeks prior to the election RCP had Hillary +4.6
2 weeks prior to the election RCP had Hillary +5.1
4 weeks prior to the election RCP had Hillary +4.6
http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/stressed-election-youve-company-poll/story?id=43024209
This is the poll I was talking about.