Trey Smith
A lot of people are surprised by the US Supreme Court decision to uphold most of Obamacare, including the controversial provision called the "individual mandate." If you've been paying attention to the high court decisions over the past few years, then you would realize that the court consistently comes down on the side of corporations and corporations, not citizens, are the BIG winners today.
Beginning in 2014, we citizens will be forced to hand over gobs of money to an industry that has no interests whatsoever in keeping premiums down. Since this legislation does little, if anything, to contain costs, I'm betting that most of the health care CEOs are dancing in their boardrooms. It's like receiving manna from heaven!
While this is bad enough on it's face, this decision only further entrenches the failed US health care model. It will now be that much more difficult to join the rest of the modern world in providing some form of universal health care. Now that corporations will receive a greater windfall of profits than before, their lobbyists will fight ever harder to keep the system as is. They will do everything in their power to ensure no one kills their goose that lays these golden eggs.
I'm glad the entire Affordable Care Act didn't get overturned. That's what I was afraid of.
ReplyDeleteIdeally, they would have tossed the mandate and left the rest of the law intact. According to some experts -- whatever that's worth -- this would have laid the groundwork for a public option or even a single payer system.
There is no question that there are some good provisions, but in my opinion, the individual mandate negates the pluses by a long shot.
DeleteMy dad argues that socialized medicine would lead to "death panels". Not literally, but that socialized medicine would ration healthcare away from the elderly and those who are very ill, resulting in their deaths (he used my grandfather who is 84 and recently had a mild heart attack and double hip replacement, as an example). In fact, if it is true that socialized medicine rations care, someone like you Trey, (with your chronic heath issues and inability to work) would suffer under a socialized system from healthcare rationing.
ReplyDeleteStill, I believe the benefits of socialized medicine outweigh the costs (a well as the alternatives)
I constantly worry that if I can't find a job with good benefits by age 26, I'll be stuck without healthcare.
Obamacare does nothing to solve the long term problem.
People who live under the "dreaded" socialized health care system prefer it hands down over ours.
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