Note: This thread is in the structured debate zone. If this is your first visit to this forum please review the special rules.
Today, March 23, 2015, is Obamacare's fifth birthday.
Sally Pipes summarizes some realities and perceptions about Obamacare that was signed into law five years ago today and the report card is not good.
She writes: "When he signed his signature piece of legislation into law, President Obama guaranteed lower health-care costs, universal coverage and higher-quality care. Americans wouldn’t have to change their doctors if they didn’t want to. Five years later, the health law has failed to fulfill those grandiose promises. . . ."
The facts now seem to be (from her piece and elsewhere)
- More people are insured than were insured before Obamacare but more than 30 million people remain uninsured. 89% of the people who signed up for coverage under Obamacare, mostly to get the subsidies, already had insurance.
- Millions of people are paying less for their healthcare insurance than they were paying before Obamacare but at the cost of the taxpayers who are having to pick up the difference.
- Obama had promised the average American family would be paying $2500 less for healthcare, but the reality is that in 2014 the average American family was paying 24.4% more.
- On Obamacare's third birthday, we were promised that prescription costs would be sharply reduced as more of the plan went into effect. Instead these have skyrocketed.
- Obama promised that the plan would increase competition and thus lower costs for all. Instead insurers have abandoned healthcare coverage en masse. In 2013 there were 1.232 carriers offering healthcare coverage. Now there are 310 and that number is expected to drop even further exacerbating Obama's broken promise that if we liked our healthcare plan we could keep it.
- Further . . ." roughly two-thirds of the hospital networks available on the exchanges were either “narrow” or “ultra-narrow.” That means that these insurance plans refuse to partner with at least 30% of the area’s hospitals. Other plans exclude more than 70%. . ." It is a problem when your healthcare plan won't cover you at a hospital located conveniently to you.
- Doctors may be harder to come by too as roughly 60% of doctors currently practicing have reported that they intend to take early retirement because of Obamacare. Nearly 10,000 according to a recent survey consider Obamacare to be a failure.
- Obama promised that Obamacare would not add 1 penny to the deficit. The CBO now estimates 1.4 trillion added to the deficit over the first 10 years and some economists think that is really low. And that doesn't include the higher taxes, deductibles, premiums, co-pays, and uncovered items that most will pay.
Sally Pipes Unhappy birthday Obamacare - NY Daily News
And when the full plan is finally implemented next year, it is predicted by some that things will get much worse.
RULES FOR THIS DISCUSSION
1. No ad hominem. Affirm, criticize, or comment on statements made by Obama, politicians, commentators, writers, or other members, but do not comment on the character, credibility, motives, intent etc. of the person making the statement.
2. Please note the specific focus of this discussion in the question to be answered below, and relate your comments to that as much as possible.
3. Links or sources may be useful but are not required to express your opinion. If you do use them to reinforce your argument or to rebut somebody's argument, provide a short excerpt or your own short summary of what we will see or learn if we click on your link.
THE QUESTION TO BE ANSWERED:
Do you still support Obamacare in its entirety or are you ready to support those who want to repeal it in favor of a different and potentially better system? Why or why not? If you choose to repeal, what would a better system look like?
Today, March 23, 2015, is Obamacare's fifth birthday.
Sally Pipes summarizes some realities and perceptions about Obamacare that was signed into law five years ago today and the report card is not good.
She writes: "When he signed his signature piece of legislation into law, President Obama guaranteed lower health-care costs, universal coverage and higher-quality care. Americans wouldn’t have to change their doctors if they didn’t want to. Five years later, the health law has failed to fulfill those grandiose promises. . . ."
The facts now seem to be (from her piece and elsewhere)
- More people are insured than were insured before Obamacare but more than 30 million people remain uninsured. 89% of the people who signed up for coverage under Obamacare, mostly to get the subsidies, already had insurance.
- Millions of people are paying less for their healthcare insurance than they were paying before Obamacare but at the cost of the taxpayers who are having to pick up the difference.
- Obama had promised the average American family would be paying $2500 less for healthcare, but the reality is that in 2014 the average American family was paying 24.4% more.
- On Obamacare's third birthday, we were promised that prescription costs would be sharply reduced as more of the plan went into effect. Instead these have skyrocketed.
- Obama promised that the plan would increase competition and thus lower costs for all. Instead insurers have abandoned healthcare coverage en masse. In 2013 there were 1.232 carriers offering healthcare coverage. Now there are 310 and that number is expected to drop even further exacerbating Obama's broken promise that if we liked our healthcare plan we could keep it.
- Further . . ." roughly two-thirds of the hospital networks available on the exchanges were either “narrow” or “ultra-narrow.” That means that these insurance plans refuse to partner with at least 30% of the area’s hospitals. Other plans exclude more than 70%. . ." It is a problem when your healthcare plan won't cover you at a hospital located conveniently to you.
- Doctors may be harder to come by too as roughly 60% of doctors currently practicing have reported that they intend to take early retirement because of Obamacare. Nearly 10,000 according to a recent survey consider Obamacare to be a failure.
- Obama promised that Obamacare would not add 1 penny to the deficit. The CBO now estimates 1.4 trillion added to the deficit over the first 10 years and some economists think that is really low. And that doesn't include the higher taxes, deductibles, premiums, co-pays, and uncovered items that most will pay.
Sally Pipes Unhappy birthday Obamacare - NY Daily News
And when the full plan is finally implemented next year, it is predicted by some that things will get much worse.
RULES FOR THIS DISCUSSION
1. No ad hominem. Affirm, criticize, or comment on statements made by Obama, politicians, commentators, writers, or other members, but do not comment on the character, credibility, motives, intent etc. of the person making the statement.
2. Please note the specific focus of this discussion in the question to be answered below, and relate your comments to that as much as possible.
3. Links or sources may be useful but are not required to express your opinion. If you do use them to reinforce your argument or to rebut somebody's argument, provide a short excerpt or your own short summary of what we will see or learn if we click on your link.
THE QUESTION TO BE ANSWERED:
Do you still support Obamacare in its entirety or are you ready to support those who want to repeal it in favor of a different and potentially better system? Why or why not? If you choose to repeal, what would a better system look like?