I’m sure you’ve all heard about this thing called the Affordable Care Act, and if you’re one of the 37% of Americans who don’t know it’s also known as Obamacare. Now if you’ve been here for a while you know that I’m pretty critical of Republicans, and also of Democrats, and of Independents, and Gr—okay, y’know what I’m just pretty critical of anyone in office, running for office, or voting.
Now during the presidential election I wasn’t too keen on Mitt Romney, because I think there are few things worse than a Republican president.
Unfortunately one of those few things worse than a Rep. president, is a Democrat president. Here’s my philosophy:
I am in the poorer multitudes of the nation. I was born poor, I was raised poor, I am still somewhat poor, I support minority and female equality, and I’m not particularly religious. Republicans come right out and tell you that they hate the poor and non-religious, and especially minorities and women. Everything they say and do suggests that.
Democrats come out and say that they love the poor, non-religious, women, and minorities…and they jump right in line with the republicans to favor giant, fanatical-Christian, corporations and organizations. When a Democratic president appoints a Spiritual Adviser, you know you voted for the wrong person.
Anyway before I start a riot let me to get to my point: Obamacare.
Obamacare sucks. I don’t have health insurance and in the past 5 years I have only been to the doctor once, and it was Emergency Care.
So let’s look at and compare getting insurance versus not getting insurance.
When I wound up in the emergency room, the prices were ridiculous: $230 just to talk to the doctor and another $430 just to be taken to a back room and have a nurse check my pulse. So that’s $660, total.
So I’ll admit, in 5 years’ time, I’m $660 in the hole to start.
So now let’s look at what an Obamacare plan would get me…
If I get a Bronze plan which pays for about 60% it would cost me roughly $119.19 a month, that equates to $1430.28 a year.
So in 5 years’ time that would equal…$7151.40 that I would have paid for insurance coverage. And before you talk about the premium subsidy, my state doesn’t cover my income level for the subsidy, so I have to pay 100% of the premium (trust me, I’ve checked).
But, on the positive side, my $660 hospital bill would have only been about $264.
So in 5 years’ time I would have only spent $7415.40 in medical costs.
Whereas in real life I only spent $660 in 5 years’ time.
However, the Obamacare law makes it required to have insurance. If you don’t, you have to pay a penalty, based on your income. My particular penalty would be, as of 2016…$650 a year. That winds up being $3250 in 5 years’ time, but I’d have to pay 100% of my medical expenditures.
So without insurance, under Obamacare, I pay $3910 in the same 5 years’ time.
Before Law: $660
With Insurance: $7,415.40
Without Insurance: $3,910.00
Cost Difference: $3,505.40 more with insurance
Now the argument I always hear is, “What if you get hurt really bad or really sick?”
What’s it matter? If I get hurt at work, workman’s compensation covers it. If I get hurt in a business, their liability insurance covers it. If I get hurt in the car, my car insurance will cover it. If I fall off a ladder replacing a light bulb, I have medical liability coverage on my homeowner’s insurance.
Basically as long as I don’t get hit by a meteorite while jaywalking in another borough, there’s something out there that covers my injured ass in case of an accident.
Now illness is a real issue, that’s what took me to the ER a few years ago. I had a throat infection (Strep Throat) and it caused my esophagus to swell shut, I began to asphyxiate and had to get antibiotics and steroids to keep from blacking out (and eventually dying).
There’s cancer, strep, hep, food poisoning, malaria, bronchitis, all kinds of things that can go wrong. So let’s go for gold…I get cancer and it costs me $50,000 in treatment.
Well guess what? My Bronze plan only covers 60% of that, so I still have to pay $20,000 out of pocket, not to mention the $7,415.40 for the premiums.
That’s a total of $27,415.40 for 5 years of cancer treatments.
After taxes, that equates to 186% of my yearly income. So that means, if I saved 1% of my post-tax income every year…it would take me 138 years to pay that off, and that’s assuming they aren’t going to charge me interest or up my premiums for having cancer. Remember, Obamacare says that an insurance company can’t refuse me for having a pre-existing condition, but it doesn’t say they can’t charge me higher premiums for having cancer.
So if I don’t have insurance, there’s a chance I’ll wind up broke and penniless. But if I get the insurance, I’m guaranteed to wind up broke and penniless. And now Obama’s stupid law has weighed things down to make sure I wind up broke and penniless a little sooner.
All the Affordable Care Act does is help insurance companies. If the government is going to require a free citizen to own or have something, then it should be paid for by the government.
You can reason the legal requirement for car insurance because owning a car is not necessary to life. If you don’t want to pay car insurance, don’t drive a car. If you don’t want to pay homeowner’s insurance, then rent. If you don’t want to pay health insurance…uhh, then die, I guess?
If health insurance is required, then it should be free; regardless of income. I don’t care if you make ten grand a year or ten million a year, you should be able to walk into a hospital and receive free medical care in a timely and efficient manner. I’d rather just pay an extra 2.5% of my yearly income in taxes and be able to see any doctor, any time, for any reason.
Republicans call Obamacare the worst thing to happen to America since the birth of the Democratic party; Democrats call it a stepping stone to a better system. But in truth it’s somewhere in the middle: It’s certainly not what we need and it’s actually moving in the wrong direction.
~RCS
Richard C. Shaffer 