I would start asking the people who oppose "Obamacare" when are all these terrible things supposed

[Tony_FLADEM]

to start happening.


The health care bill has been law for 9 months. When are all these massive job losses, death panels, people being unable to choose their own doctor etc. supposed to commence?

[Shagbark Hickory]

1. Of course none of that stuff is going to happen but I'm on pins and needles to see what happens when

the mandate kicks in.

My guess is health plans will still be too expensive and people wont buy a plan until they're ill.
I see this being a problem for the health denial cartels.

Then again, it would appear as there is no significant penalty for denying claims either.
So in essence, this whole bill could just kick the can down the road. Same old song. Those that can afford it, may or may not get care. Those who can't.... start packing.

[Tony_FLADEM]

4. My understanding is that it's not really a mandate

There is a tax you have to pay if you don't have insurance. However, the IRS cannot do anything if you choose not to pay this tax. So it's a mandate without any real penalty.

[Shagbark Hickory]

9. Well our gubnuh has vowed to fight the mandate. I'm not sure why repugs are fighting against the

mandate since they are supposedly in the pocket of the insurance cartels and they would be better off with the mandate.

[Catherina]

2. Links please. n/t

[Tony_FLADEM]

3. What do you need a link for? I'm just repeating what people have said about the

health care bill.

[patrice]

5. Perhaps it would be better to avoid giving "Obamacare" currency. These people support . . .

what will be the Repeal of Patients' Rights Act in the 112th Congress.

[Drale]

6. I started challenging people who claim to hate socialism

what socialism actually is. So far I have only had one person who even knew what it was and even then they didn't know why they hated it.

[enlightenment]

7. Given that most of the provisions of the Act do not

start until 2014, you may be jumping the gun with the finger-pointing 'so there' attitude.

What we have seen so far is a combination of the good - some children covered who were not covered before, primarily - and the bad - insurance companies ratcheting up their premiums before the provisions kick in.

You want to think 'Obamacare' (by the way, just because the President appropriated that term doesn't make it sound any better) is all sunshine, go ahead. Some of us have read the fine print and don't really agree with your assessment.

[Maine_Nurse]

8. What about

the large insurers who are already dropping their stand-alone child coverage? You can try to force rules on them, but they are free to just stop selling the coverage altogether. More of that is going to happen. Hell, my state only has 4 health insurance companies that offer coverage here, everyone else pulled out completely years ago. What exactly are we going to do when the last 4 leave?

In rural states, we are already losing docs due to the large percentage of their patients whose state/fed insurance pay less than standard and often less than the actual cost of the care. That is just going to get worse also. Hell, in my state of 1.3 million, we have 300,000 on Medicaid with another 275,000+ on Medicare--nearly half of our entire population. Medicaid alone is expected to jump by another 50k in 3 years. Even more working for a loss for docs/hospitals, especially since our state is already 3-5 years behind in paying for those services. As much as I can't stand our new Governor, at least he is working very hard to pay up the balance owed for the first time in decades. That might preserve some of the medical and nursing jobs that have been lost.

I'm all for major changes in healthcare in this country, but we are already finding that the new laws, as enacted, are causing problems even before those portions take effect.

[beevul]

10. It depends how one defines "terrible things".

Me, I'd say terrible things start the second anyone is compelled by the government to buy something from a private business.