Obama Care.

RBeckom

Let us not forget to praise Mr. Obama for the forethought to look out for our health care.
Without his great plan for our welfare, I would be figuratively left out in the cold right now.
A sincere thank you Mr. President.
God bless and long life.

Imgembo

Second. I have my critiques of the law that passed and the problems it neglects. However in my opinion it is a start and I hope provisions such as the pre- existing condition and no more recision are here to stay.

pross

I read this and almost didn't post, but feel I have to give the flip side of the equation.

I run three small businesses, and have watched my healthcare costs spiral out of control. Healthcare costs are now the my number one consideration as to whether I will hire, or terminate employees. Average annual increases have been 23-30% annually, while co-pays have increased, and coverages dropped.

There have been years when I have spent well over $100k on premiums alone.

Yesterday, I cut my hand and required stitches. My co-pay was $150.00 for the visit. That co-pay was $25.00 five years ago, same plan....

While I am happy for anyone who needs and receives benefits, I feel that you should know where they came from, and it is not Obama. It is from your neighborhood grocer, your barber, and all other small businesses struggling to survive.

beatnic

pross:

I read this and almost didn't post, but feel I have to give the flip side of the equation.

I run three small businesses, and have watched my healthcare costs spiral out of control. Healthcare costs are now the my number one consideration as to whether I will hire, or terminate employees. Average annual increases have been 23-30% annually, while co-pays have increased, and coverages dropped.

There have been years when I have spent well over $100k on premiums alone.

Yesterday, I cut my hand and required stitches. My co-pay was $150.00 for the visit. That co-pay was $25.00 five years ago, same plan....

While I am happy for anyone who needs and receives benefits, I feel that you should know where they came from, and it is not Obama. It is from your neighborhood grocer, your barber, and all other small businesses struggling to survive.

I would agree that just "praising Obama" leaves those who actually paid for it unrecognized.

james40

pross:

I read this and almost didn't post, but feel I have to give the flip side of the equation.

I run three small businesses, and have watched my healthcare costs spiral out of control. Healthcare costs are now the my number one consideration as to whether I will hire, or terminate employees. Average annual increases have been 23-30% annually, while co-pays have increased, and coverages dropped.

There have been years when I have spent well over $100k on premiums alone.

Yesterday, I cut my hand and required stitches. My co-pay was $150.00 for the visit. That co-pay was $25.00 five years ago, same plan....

While I am happy for anyone who needs and receives benefits, I feel that you should know where they came from, and it is not Obama. It is from your neighborhood grocer, your barber, and all other small businesses struggling to survive.

On a humorous side, if you ever want to sell that Bitchin' Camaro, let me know. I'm glad you are getting help Mr. Beckhom with your back.

phobicsquirrel

pross:

I read this and almost didn't post, but feel I have to give the flip side of the equation.

I run three small businesses, and have watched my healthcare costs spiral out of control. Healthcare costs are now the my number one consideration as to whether I will hire, or terminate employees. Average annual increases have been 23-30% annually, while co-pays have increased, and coverages dropped.

There have been years when I have spent well over $100k on premiums alone.

Yesterday, I cut my hand and required stitches. My co-pay was $150.00 for the visit. That co-pay was $25.00 five years ago, same plan....

While I am happy for anyone who needs and receives benefits, I feel that you should know where they came from, and it is not Obama. It is from your neighborhood grocer, your barber, and all other small businesses struggling to survive.

It's no secret that costs have skyrocketed, but it's hardly this admin or the "people" around you who are at fault. It's the system and the way the healthcare "INSURANCE" companies want to use people as coins and numbers. If it was really due to costs then everything would be HUGE-ly expensive. NO, it's because of the amount of money few people can make off of all of us. We are the only country that have this stupid system in the developed world. My healthcare has gone up too, and it's really retarded, however hopefully Vermont will get a waiver to start up their single payer system before 2014 (already been passed and signed by the gov) and more states will follow. Until then we are all gonna be screwed more and more by the insurance companies.

pross

james40:

pross:

I read this and almost didn't post, but feel I have to give the flip side of the equation.

I run three small businesses, and have watched my healthcare costs spiral out of control. Healthcare costs are now the my number one consideration as to whether I will hire, or terminate employees. Average annual increases have been 23-30% annually, while co-pays have increased, and coverages dropped.

There have been years when I have spent well over $100k on premiums alone.

Yesterday, I cut my hand and required stitches. My co-pay was $150.00 for the visit. That co-pay was $25.00 five years ago, same plan....

While I am happy for anyone who needs and receives benefits, I feel that you should know where they came from, and it is not Obama. It is from your neighborhood grocer, your barber, and all other small businesses struggling to survive.

On a humorous side, if you ever want to sell that Bitchin' Camaro, let me know. I'm glad you are getting help Mr. Beckhom with your back.

Please don't take my post the wrong way, there are people with genuine needs who have given in to the system, and deserve every benefit they get.

The last two decades have seen the burden shifted from large, often corrupt, corporations onto small businesses. The result of this is truly tragic. Everybody gets hurt except those with the means to lobby.

It is no more fair for Rodney to have to fight for his benefits due to bureaucratic ineptitude than it is for small business to bear the burden. All the while mega corporations pay zero in taxes and have shifted retirement responsibilities to the individual.

I am now officially off my soapbox .

P.S. you will know for sure when I have hit the skids when you see my car for sale. I think I would live in it before selling....

james40

pross:

james40:

pross:

I read this and almost didn't post, but feel I have to give the flip side of the equation.

I run three small businesses, and have watched my healthcare costs spiral out of control. Healthcare costs are now the my number one consideration as to whether I will hire, or terminate employees. Average annual increases have been 23-30% annually, while co-pays have increased, and coverages dropped.

There have been years when I have spent well over $100k on premiums alone.

Yesterday, I cut my hand and required stitches. My co-pay was $150.00 for the visit. That co-pay was $25.00 five years ago, same plan....

While I am happy for anyone who needs and receives benefits, I feel that you should know where they came from, and it is not Obama. It is from your neighborhood grocer, your barber, and all other small businesses struggling to survive.

On a humorous side, if you ever want to sell that Bitchin' Camaro, let me know. I'm glad you are getting help Mr. Beckhom with your back.

Please don't take my post the wrong way, there are people with genuine needs who have given in to the system, and deserve every benefit they get.

The last two decades have seen the burden shifted from large, often corrupt, corporations onto small businesses. The result of this is truly tragic. Everybody gets hurt except those with the means to lobby.

It is no more fair for Rodney to have to fight for his benefits due to bureaucratic ineptitude than it is for small business to bear the burden. All the while mega corporations pay zero in taxes and have shifted retirement responsibilities to the individual.

I am now officially off my soapbox .

P.S. you will know for sure when I have hit the skids when you see my car for sale. I think I would live in it before selling....

Pross, I was only kidding about the Camaro and I wasn't making light of your situation. My apologies if you were offended, which it sounds like you were.

pross

Sorry if I came off that way. I was not offended at all. I just wanted to be sure that I did not offend anyone receiving benefits, as that was not my point.

You have first dibs on the car.

Gaetano7890

I agree with points on both sides of the argument the only issues I have is the first thing Obama did before passing the bill is make sure the Kennedy healthcare would stay. My thoughts are is his plan good enough for my family but not his?

RBeckom

My post was not only to praise Obama per say, but for him having the aptitude to start the ball rolling when he knew it would draw a lot of fire in his direction.
That took real guts in in my opinion.

Amos Umwhat

Skyrocketing health care costs are the reason the Affordable Healthcare Act was enacted, not the other way around.

Will it work? dunno, but what we've been doing has damm sure screwed a lot of people.

Maybe we should be more interested in seeing that it works well, rather than just complaining that someone at least tried to fix what was broken.
.

JDH

Amos Umwhat:

Skyrocketing health care costs are the reason the Affordable Healthcare Act was enacted, not the other way around.

Will it work? dunno, but what we've been doing has damm sure screwed a lot of people.

Maybe we should be more interested in seeing that it works well, rather than just complaining that someone at least tried to fix what was broken.
.

Thank You.

webmost

Where's the money for it?

Simply inserting the word "affordable" in the bill's name does not make it so. We're broke. Hello. Anyone awake in there?

If the complaint is that ordinary health insurance is not affordable to everyone, then how do we fix that by mandating that everyone buy a new flavor of health insurance which virtually no one can presently afford?

Guy came by the house the other day selling meat door to door from a van. We got to admiring my motorcycles. He said he is riding a Chinese 49cc scooter to work because he can't find a clunker (guess who destroyed them?). Winter is here; he's cold. Shall we pass a law requiring the fellow to buy a Chevy? ... No, no, wait... I know ... Let's pass a law requiring him to buy a Chevy Volt. We'll call it the Affordable Transportation Act. Where does he get the money?

Bernanke can print all he wants, but sooner or later any Ponzi scheme collapses.

I tell you if baffles me. Jaw dropping. You'd think that in such a technical and scientific age people would have a better grasp of simple arithmetic. Instead, anyone who attempts to apply simple arithmetic to public affairs is today characterized as mean, stingy, and troglodytic, while a charismatic smiling liar gets hero worship because of supposed pure motive. News flash: Motivation does not make progress achievable. Math does.

You and I could sit down over a beer and before the foam even subsided we could come up with a baker's dozen sound achievable ways to reduce the cost of health care. Here, let me see how far I can get without even having to stop and think about it: 1) End the war on drugs, 2) Reduce medicare paperwork, 3) Buy drug patents and make them available free, 4) Reduce the regulatory cost of bringing new drugs to market, 5) Devote some of our idle manufacturing capacity to producing durable medical goods at less obscene prices, 6) Tort reform, 7) ... okay I had to stop to answer the phone at number 7.

Not a one of these measures to make health care affordable is contained in the affordable health care act. Nothing. Nothing whatever to make health care affordable. Instead, we got an act written by those who profit from it. Instead, layer after layer of more bureaucracy for the doctor's office to deal with. Those gals don't work for free, you know, nor do they contribute to medical care. Instead we got 16,000 new IRS agents, 168 new agencies, and by last summer 70,000 pages of new regulations (I don't know what it's up to by now). How does any of this make health care affordable?

$250 some billion in new Obamacare taxes swing into effect at the New Year. They include $20 billion in taxes on medical devices, another percent payroll tax, a ten grand threshold before you may itemize medical deductions... Here's the cruelest: a $2,500 cap on the deductions a family may take for care for care for what are euphemistically termed "special needs children". So if you have a crippled child, after the first wheel chair you are on your own. If a Republican had proposed that he would be excoriated.

$250 billion in taxes. All take effect well before Obamacare. All swing into effect at the same time that the well intentioned are complaining about a fiscal cliff. All that money will be squandered long before anyone benefits from the bill. Where's the money come from then?

Wake up. The road to hell is paved with good intentions.

"We have to do something" is no excuse for doing the wrong thing.

Amos Umwhat

webmost:

Where's the money for it?

Simply inserting the word "affordable" in the bill's name does not make it so. We're broke. Hello. Anyone awake in there?

If the complaint is that ordinary health insurance is not affordable to everyone, then how do we fix that by mandating that everyone buy a new flavor of health insurance which virtually no one can presently afford?

Guy came by the house the other day selling meat door to door from a van. We got to admiring my motorcycles. He said he is riding a Chinese 49cc scooter to work because he can't find a clunker (guess who destroyed them?). Winter is here; he's cold. Shall we pass a law requiring the fellow to buy a Chevy? ... No, no, wait... I know ... Let's pass a law requiring him to buy a Chevy Volt. We'll call it the Affordable Transportation Act. Where does he get the money?

Bernanke can print all he wants, but sooner or later any Ponzi scheme collapses.

I tell you if baffles me. Jaw dropping. You'd think that in such a technical and scientific age people would have a better grasp of simple arithmetic. Instead, anyone who attempts to apply simple arithmetic to public affairs is today characterized as mean, stingy, and troglodytic, while a charismatic smiling liar gets hero worship because of supposed pure motive. News flash: Motivation does not make progress achievable. Math does.

You and I could sit down over a beer and before the foam even subsided we could come up with a baker's dozen sound achievable ways to reduce the cost of health care. Here, let me see how far I can get without even having to stop and think about it: 1) End the war on drugs, 2) Reduce medicare paperwork, 3) Buy drug patents and make them available free, 4) Reduce the regulatory cost of bringing new drugs to market, 5) Devote some of our idle manufacturing capacity to producing durable medical goods at less obscene prices, 6) Tort reform, 7) ... okay I had to stop to answer the phone at number 7.

Not a one of these measures to make health care affordable is contained in the affordable health care act. Nothing. Nothing whatever to make health care affordable. Instead, we got an act written by those who profit from it. Instead, layer after layer of more bureaucracy for the doctor's office to deal with. Those gals don't work for free, you know, nor do they contribute to medical care. Instead we got 16,000 new IRS agents, 168 new agencies, and by last summer 70,000 pages of new regulations (I don't know what it's up to by now). How does any of this make health care affordable?

$250 some billion in new Obamacare taxes swing into effect at the New Year. They include $20 billion in taxes on medical devices, another percent payroll tax, a ten grand threshold before you may itemize medical deductions... Here's the cruelest: a $2,500 cap on the deductions a family may take for care for care for what are euphemistically termed "special needs children". So if you have a crippled child, after the first wheel chair you are on your own. If a Republican had proposed that he would be excoriated.

$250 billion in taxes. All take effect well before Obamacare. All swing into effect at the same time that the well intentioned are complaining about a fiscal cliff. All that money will be squandered long before anyone benefits from the bill. Where's the money come from then?

Wake up. The road to hell is paved with good intentions.

"We have to do something" is no excuse for doing the wrong thing.

You make some very good points. These are exactly the kinds of things I meant when I said maybe we should try and see that it works well. What was passed was a pitiful excuse. Kind of like a baby's first steps. Now, let's get him up, walking, running, and realizing his full potential. The biggest obstacle? We're broke! No contest there.

webmost

"We have to do something" is no excuse for doing the wrong thing.

MTuccelli

RBeckom:

Let us not forget to praise Mr. Obama for the forethought to look out for our health care.
Without his great plan for our welfare, I would be figuratively left out in the cold right now.
A sincere thank you Mr. President.
God bless and long life.

I am interested in what type of coverage you will be receiving. Are you going to be on Medicare? I understand you were approved for disability is that SS Disability (Federal). If yes to both questions then Obama had nothing to do with it. I have been on SS Disability and Medicare since 2007, long before Obama put forth his health care plan.

Some might say I am in good shape with the Medicare and I would say to them try and find a doctor in Katy TX that is taking new Medicare patients. If it wasn't for the Tri-Care For Life I have due to my military retirement I wouldn't have any coverage at all. Obama couldn't even leave that alone, he raised my co-pay and yearly deductible. Rodney I hope you have better luck with your new health care then I am having.

jadelt

MTuccelli:

RBeckom:

Let us not forget to praise Mr. Obama for the forethought to look out for our health care.
Without his great plan for our welfare, I would be figuratively left out in the cold right now.
A sincere thank you Mr. President.
God bless and long life.

I am interested in what type of coverage you will be receiving. Are you going to be on Medicare? I understand you were approved for disability is that SS Disability (Federal). If yes to both questions then Obama had nothing to do with it. I have been on SS Disability and Medicare since 2007, long before Obama put forth his health care plan.

Some might say I am in good shape with the Medicare and I would say to them try and find a doctor in Katy TX that is taking new Medicare patients. If it wasn't for the Tri-Care For Life I have due to my military retirement I wouldn't have any coverage at all. Obama couldn't even leave that alone, he raised my co-pay and yearly deductible. Rodney I hope you have better luck with your new health care then I am having.

Its all about choices folks. Some choose to pay for health insurance, others feel toys are more important. The truly poor have always been treated free. No change there. Only change is the several small businesses that I personally know that are cutting staff to under 50 and not growing or are moving everyone to part time. Now THAT is who is paying for O Care. Remember the big O dont have no money..... it is all YOUR MONEY.

jadelt

Don't y'all just love the guy waiting in line at Starbucks for his $5 latte chatting on his iPhone ($1,200) driving his huge SUV idling outside so he stays (warm or cool) (8 mpg) complaining how expensive insurance and health care is?

Now lets just take a look at rising health care costs compared to other price increases like the nickle cup of coffee, or the rotary party line home phone, or the 10 cent phone booth, or 15 cent bus rides to work, or 29 cent gas, .... it is still all about choices and what I can get someone to give me so I dont have to pay for it.

(dang I must be real old)

RBeckom

MTuccelli:

RBeckom:

Let us not forget to praise Mr. Obama for the forethought to look out for our health care.
Without his great plan for our welfare, I would be figuratively left out in the cold right now.
A sincere thank you Mr. President.
God bless and long life.

I am interested in what type of coverage you will be receiving. Are you going to be on Medicare? I understand you were approved for disability is that SS Disability (Federal). If yes to both questions then Obama had nothing to do with it. I have been on SS Disability and Medicare since 2007, long before Obama put forth his health care plan.

Some might say I am in good shape with the Medicare and I would say to them try and find a doctor in Katy TX that is taking new Medicare patients. If it wasn't for the Tri-Care For Life I have due to my military retirement I wouldn't have any coverage at all. Obama couldn't even leave that alone, he raised my co-pay and yearly deductible. Rodney I hope you have better luck with your new health care then I am having.

I hope so too, my point was to raise a discussion about what is wrong versus what should be done.
Some good ideas will be brought up is such a discussion as this making it worthwhile in my opinion.
I am truly sorry to hear of your misfortune and sincerely hope that new legislation might very well work also in your favor.