Upside and downside of obamacare

Granny says when somebody tells ya dey from the gov't. an' dey gonna help ya - don't lissen to `em...
:eek:
Seven million will lose insurance under Obama health law
February 5, 2013, President Obama's health care law will push 7 million people out of their job-based insurance coverage — nearly twice the previous estimate, according to the latest estimates from the Congressional Budget Office released Tuesday.
CBO said that this year's tax cuts have changed the incentives for businesses and made it less attractive to pay for insurance, meaning fewer will decide to do so. Instead, they'll choose to pay a penalty to the government, totaling $13 billion in higher fees over the next decade.

But the non-partisan agency also expects fewer people to have to pay individual penalties to the IRS than it earlier projects, because of a better method for calculating incomes that found more people will be exempt. Overall, the new health provisions are expected to cost the government $1.165 trillion over the next decade — the same as last year's projection.

With other spending cuts and tax increases called for in the health law, though, CBO still says Mr. Obama's signature achievement will reduce budget deficits in the short term. During the health care debate Mr. Obama had said individuals would be able to keep their plans.

Read more: Seven million will lose insurance under Obama health law - Washington Times
 
That's the same conclusion a former member of the Reagan Administration and WSJ editor presents:

"Paul Craig Roberts is a former Assistant Secretary of the US Treasury and Associate Editor of the Wall Street Journal (Editorial Page)..."

Roberts republishes a very long and detailed assessment of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act that comes to the conclusion that "(m)any Americans will find themselves not only with a policy they can't afford, but also with one they cannot afford to use."

"Obamacare was formulated on the concept of health care as a commercial commodity and was cloaked in ideological slogans such as 'shared responsibility,' “no free riders” and 'ownership society.' These slogans dress the insurance industry’s raid on public resources in the cloak of a 'free market' health care system."

Any legitimate solution to the US health care catastrophe won't be found by "choosing" between Democrat OR Republican in the voting booth.

"addendum:

"Obamacare architect leaves White House for pharmaceutical industry job
Obamacare architect leaves White House for pharmaceutical industry job | Glenn Greenwald | Comment is free | guardian.co.uk

Obamacare: A Deception » Counterpunch: Tells the Facts, Names the Names
 
That's the same conclusion a former member of the Reagan Administration and WSJ editor presents:

"Paul Craig Roberts is a former Assistant Secretary of the US Treasury and Associate Editor of the Wall Street Journal (Editorial Page)..."

Roberts republishes a very long and detailed assessment of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act that comes to the conclusion that "(m)any Americans will find themselves not only with a policy they can't afford, but also with one they cannot afford to use."

"Obamacare was formulated on the concept of health care as a commercial commodity and was cloaked in ideological slogans such as 'shared responsibility,' “no free riders” and 'ownership society.' These slogans dress the insurance industry’s raid on public resources in the cloak of a 'free market' health care system."

Any legitimate solution to the US health care catastrophe won't be found by "choosing" between Democrat OR Republican in the voting booth.

"addendum:

"Obamacare architect leaves White House for pharmaceutical industry job
Obamacare architect leaves White House for pharmaceutical industry job | Glenn Greenwald | Comment is free | guardian.co.uk

Obamacare: A Deception » Counterpunch: Tells the Facts, Names the Names

If we were living in a sane society, I'd expect to see criminal charges brought up on the entirety of Congress - or at the very least the jackasses who signed off on this (including the president).
 
That's the same conclusion a former member of the Reagan Administration and WSJ editor presents:

"Paul Craig Roberts is a former Assistant Secretary of the US Treasury and Associate Editor of the Wall Street Journal (Editorial Page)..."

Roberts republishes a very long and detailed assessment of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act that comes to the conclusion that "(m)any Americans will find themselves not only with a policy they can't afford, but also with one they cannot afford to use."

"Obamacare was formulated on the concept of health care as a commercial commodity and was cloaked in ideological slogans such as 'shared responsibility,' “no free riders” and 'ownership society.' These slogans dress the insurance industry’s raid on public resources in the cloak of a 'free market' health care system."

Any legitimate solution to the US health care catastrophe won't be found by "choosing" between Democrat OR Republican in the voting booth.

"addendum:

"Obamacare architect leaves White House for pharmaceutical industry job
Obamacare architect leaves White House for pharmaceutical industry job | Glenn Greenwald | Comment is free | guardian.co.uk

Obamacare: A Deception » Counterpunch: Tells the Facts, Names the Names

If we were living in a sane society, I'd expect to see criminal charges brought up on the entirety of Congress - or at the very least the jackasses who signed off on this (including the president).
I would settle for one with a wall of separation between private wealth and government.
Somehow, I'm not expecting many elected Republicans OR Democrats to agree.
 
That's the same conclusion a former member of the Reagan Administration and WSJ editor presents:

"Paul Craig Roberts is a former Assistant Secretary of the US Treasury and Associate Editor of the Wall Street Journal (Editorial Page)..."

Roberts republishes a very long and detailed assessment of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act that comes to the conclusion that "(m)any Americans will find themselves not only with a policy they can't afford, but also with one they cannot afford to use."

"Obamacare was formulated on the concept of health care as a commercial commodity and was cloaked in ideological slogans such as 'shared responsibility,' “no free riders” and 'ownership society.' These slogans dress the insurance industry’s raid on public resources in the cloak of a 'free market' health care system."

Any legitimate solution to the US health care catastrophe won't be found by "choosing" between Democrat OR Republican in the voting booth.

"addendum:

"Obamacare architect leaves White House for pharmaceutical industry job
Obamacare architect leaves White House for pharmaceutical industry job | Glenn Greenwald | Comment is free | guardian.co.uk

Obamacare: A Deception » Counterpunch: Tells the Facts, Names the Names

If we were living in a sane society, I'd expect to see criminal charges brought up on the entirety of Congress - or at the very least the jackasses who signed off on this (including the president).
I would settle for one with a wall of separation between private wealth and government.
Somehow, I'm not expecting many elected Republicans OR Democrats to agree.

Not those in the beltway, in any case. The gravy train rolls on.
 
I guess what gnaws at me in all of this is the disgusting hypocrisy from both sides of the aisle. Several of us have suggested that if McCain had won in '08 we'd have seen something very much like PPACA from the Republicans, and that seems plausible to me. And if it had gone down that way, we'd see Democrats arguing vehemently against the individual mandate, calling it out as the corporate giveaway it is. But because their guy is in charge, they give it a pass.

I don't know how anyone with any genuine convictions, left or right, can defend PPACA. Authoritarians and corporatists are the only people who can consistently defend it.
 
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I guess what gnaws at me in all of this is the disgusting hypocrisy from both sides of the aisle. Several of us have suggested that if McCain had won in '08 we'd have seen something very much like PPACA from the Republicans, and that seems plausible to me. And if it had gone down that way, we'd see Democrats arguing vehemently against the individual mandate, calling it out as the corporate giveaway it is. But because their guy is in charge, they give it a pass.

I don't know how anyone with any genuine convictions, left or right, can defend PPACA. Authoritarians and corporatists are the only people who can consistently defend it.
Speaking of authoritarians and corporatists...

"When the legislation that became known as 'Obamacare' was first drafted, the key legislator was the Democratic Chairman of the Senate Finance Committee, Max Baucus, whose committee took the lead in drafting the legislation.

"As Baucus himself repeatedly boasted, the architect of that legislation was Elizabeth Folwer, his chief health policy counsel; indeed, as Marcy Wheeler discovered, it was Fowler who actually drafted it.

"As Politico put it at the time: 'If you drew an organizational chart of major players in the Senate health care negotiations, Fowler would be the chief operating officer.'

"What was most amazing about all of that was that, before joining Baucus' office as the point person for the health care bill, Fowler was the Vice President for Public Policy and External Affairs (i.e. informal lobbying) at WellPoint, the nation's largest health insurance provider (before going to WellPoint, as well as after, Fowler had worked as Baucus' top health care aide).

"And when that health care bill was drafted, the person whom Fowler replaced as chief health counsel in Baucus' office, Michelle Easton, was lobbying for WellPoint as a principal at Tarplin, Downs, and Young."

Hypocrisy may be too mild a pejorative to apply to the revolving door between rich politicians and their much richer "policy counsels." The public option was DOA in that environment, in spite of Obama's pretty speeches.

Obamacare architect leaves White House for pharmaceutical industry job | Glenn Greenwald | Comment is free | guardian.co.uk
 

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