I think ObamaCare works on a number of levels.
I'm a supporter of the individual mandate, have been supporting it since Republicans put it forward 20 years ago.
When Gov. Romney said a week or so ago that uninsured people can go to the emergency room for care, that made me scratch my head because we all know that's the most expensive way to deal with this problem. Why would we want to go back to that?
The costs of uninsured folks to insured folks can be felt on a number of levels. With the mandate, tens of millions of people will be forced to take responsibility for themselves. Now, some of the people in that pool will be people that my taxpayer money will be going to, but answer me this: Doesn't it save me money to have some of my pocket change going to insurance policies rather than the huge bills that uninsured folks rack up on the backs of hospitals and the rest of us?
I think the next step is to divorce employers from individual healthcare coverage of employees altogether. A person's healthcare should be their own thing, and it benefits someone's life directly to make sure they're insured even if they're in between jobs.
The only way that this thing could work and be fair, is if the government worked it out somehow where everyone paid the same for their basic health care plan in America by choice, and this by first starting with having a basic plan as offered by the federal government in a base rated/basic federal government offered insurance plan, that would be the foundation or the underpinning/safety net for it all as I will explain better as you read on.
It could be done as a tax that is automatically taken (once a box is checked by the citizen at his or her job or at the social security office, unemployment office etc.), where as it would be taken then from such peoples income checks, social security checks, disability checks etc, and this no matter who you are in this nation as a citizen who would want this done or would need this done as a safety net when nothing else is there for them. The tax could be in the amount of say a set ten dollars a week, that is to be taken out of everyones check that opts into it, in which they would pay for through any kind of income checks that they do gain when working for the private sector, government sector or from government assistance or government retirement checks/disibility in which could be all taxable as far as income goes or is found in any form that it takes in this way. This would create the safety net needed for those who have been wronged in it all, and therefore needs a base coverage until get back on their feet again. The private industry needs to get their act together by therefore meeting a better standard rate as offered to the citizens, and this as far as their rediculous rates go. I think they would be more willing to comply or compete in the face of this new safety net that will be offered as a base plan for the citizens who will need health care also in their lives as Americans do need, especially if it was already out there for us to take advantage of against these tyrants.
The government should expect private insurance companies to sooner or later bring their rates down or at least into the ball park around the government rate as offered for it's standard insurance plan for the citizens, in which will be offered by the feds to the citizens who have no insurance, so if they want to stay private and competitive against the basic medical insurance rate that is offered to all citizens per the federal government, then they must figure it out from there. What the private insurance companies could do then, is offer better insurance plans than this base plan that is offered by the feds, in which could have more services or better options for it's customers etc. and even at a little higher rate to be paid in by those who would choose this route freely, but if they can't or won't offer anything much better than the federal government is garanteeing as a base plan and rate for all citizens ((otherwise they can't get people to change over or go back to them)), then they will either go out of business or get their house in order to compete for those who want more including a better rate, but want it at a decent price not to exceed way far or beyond the base rate as offered by government for all citizens, in which serves as a safety net when the private industry wants to act stupid with their rates as they have been lately (leaving thousands without insurance), because they (the citizens) could no longer afford their rates when that happened, thus causing this whole thing to happen as it has now happened in America.
The feds should only be offering a safety net against bad people running their businesses in a bad way in America, and this is all they should be doing. Right now my friend whom works with me has no insurance on him and his wife, and this because of it becoming to high for him and his wife to get coverage in the private industry, so if the government would have had a box for him to check at his workplace or a form for him to fill out at the social security office, where he could opt for the base plan that could be offered by the feds at a decent rate, then at least him and his wife would have coverage of some kind, and this until the private industry got it's rates back in line for the citizens just as it should be in this nation.
This is how it should be done in America...
For example, the utility I used to work for "contracts" a lot of it's work out to contractors, but it keeps crews of it's own so that the contractors can't form a monopoly on them, where as they (the contractors) would then charge them whatever they want to, so if this happens then the utility will lay them off, and then it will keep the grid up with their own crews until a contractor comes back in with the proper rates and services in which the uility company see's as being fair and in line with their mission and purpose for all.
The feds should be no different in their operations in respect to the protections of it's citizens against rogue contractors or fraudulent companies or companies determined to commit fraud when dealing with the citizens and their government in America.
Why is all of this so hard to get right again I wonder?
