Agreed, as much as I'm not a fan of increasing taxes on anybody, making that pledge is part of a recipe for disaster no matter how conservative or libertarian he/she wants to sell themselves as.SciMal said:
What is Obamacare?
- Thread starter PureChaos
- Start date
*sigh*TwiZtah said:
We're trying, there are just too many idiots who scream "DAT DER R COMMUNISM! SOCIALIST DICTATOR! TAKIN OURR MONEH!"
I just wish people were more educated on how communism and socialism actually work.
The majority of the Obama care stuff has meant so little to me because I live in MA where health insurance already is massively overpriced and mandatory. If you don't have it, you will be fined.
That is unless you squeeze out babies or just don't work. The less responsible you are, the more the state gives you.
That is unless you squeeze out babies or just don't work. The less responsible you are, the more the state gives you.
I generally stay out of these threads because of the America-bashing these threads tend to dissolve into. But I'll make an exception this time.The Lazy Blacksmith said:
OT: I'm not incredibly knowledgeable about the topic. To my knowledge, its a tax/fine on people without health insurance. They can choose to not by health insurance if they so desire. However, they have to pay a tax so if they do something that their insurance WOULD have covered, they aren't purely a drain. Similar to car insurance.
Obamacare is a law that allows President Obama, regardless as to whether or not he is in office at the time; to personally euthanize any American for any reason he sees fit.
Glenn Beck told me so.
Glenn Beck told me so.
The main problem it seem with ObamaCare is it does a precedents where the state can force individual to buy a product. At the moment it's only health assurence and might not seem a big deal. But what when the State decide everyone need to buy i don't know, huse assurence, a garbage can? It's a weird precedents
It's not as callous as it is practical. The government's job isn't to feed us, it's to make sure that food of a reasonable quality is being produced at an affordable rate for everyone in the country to eat. This healthcare system (which I admit I'm woefully ignorant of) seems like the government handing us our meals instead of just making sure we can get our own meals.Evilpigeon said:
Over the last 2 years, I've been unemployed or working for minimum wage. I don't have a lot of extra spending cash. One of my saving graces is that I don't need to visit the doctor almost ever. Being forced to spend money on insurance kinda pisses me off. Not enough to directly oppose Obamacare, but I don't see it as the right solution. It seems to me the right solution would have pissed off Big Business (insurance companies), and so the laws were made to not piss them off.
Basically the democrats wanted to create a universal healthcare system so that everyone, even the sickly and poor, can get treatment. The republicans didn't want that so they fought it tooth and nail to make it as privatized as possible, the result being a weird deformed system that doesn't really please anybody that the conservative right has dubbed "Obamacare" to further smear it, despite it being completely different than what he envisioned and him having almost no direct input on it whatsoever.
Not sure why I bothered posting to a thread with a thousand replies already, like anyone's even going to read this.
Not sure why I bothered posting to a thread with a thousand replies already, like anyone's even going to read this.
Obamacare is basically the American version of a universal healthcare system, which is a government alternative to private health insurances. With approximately 45 million Americans without any health insurance at all, it's about time really.
Universal healthcare is, in my opinion, a human right which is also way it's utilized in virtually any developed country in the world. America has finally been added to that list.
Universal healthcare is, in my opinion, a human right which is also way it's utilized in virtually any developed country in the world. America has finally been added to that list.
Well, it's expected, that the cost of health insurance will plummet when it becomes mandatory for everyone.Sober Thal said:
Right now health insurance is very expensive. The reason why being that no one wants to buy it until they get sick. So there's a large percentage of people taking more out than what they are putting in. Which drives up the price and makes even fewer people want it until they get sick. It's a self destructive cycle.
Insurance companies tried to combat this by not allowing anyone who's already sick to join them. But that's causes all kind of problems and some very crooked behavior by companies trying to prove someone who is sick was sick before they got insurance.
So only the wealthy and the sick have health insurance. By forcing everyone to get it, it will force the price down because healthy people are paying in and not just people who are sick. It, should, lower health care costs as well because people will be going to the doctors more often and getting treated early rather than waiting for their condition to become life threatening and, more importantly, very expensive.
I'm upset that the government insurance option was taken out because it would have FORCED insurance companies to lower their costs to compete. But conservatives saw this as government taking control of a private business sector. At the same time conservatives put forward no ideas of their own to combat these problems because their ideology is non-interference. They had no theories on how not doing anything would solve this. Besides, it was just poor people dieing. They tend to do that a lot. Why should the government care?
And, yes, I've dreamed of moving to Canada for years.
It's for that reason alone I begrudgingly support it. You know how hard it is to get good insurance when you have hemophilia?Zack Alklazaris said:
... Sometimes I feel like Obama just WANTS to make this pill as hard to swallow as possible. Well he and his cabinet, I'm sure it's not JUST him.
I mean, what do they do if you can't AFFORD the health care? Still try to fine you? Trying to squeeze blood from a stone, yeah?
This [http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/vb8vs/eli5_what_exactly_is_obamacare_and_what_did_it/c530lfx] explains it better than I ever could. You only get taxed for not having insurance if you can afford it, but don't want it. If you can't afford it you are exempt from the tax.
EXEMPTIONS.?No penalty shall be imposed under subsection (a) with respect to?
??(1) INDIVIDUALS WHO CANNOT AFFORD COVERAGE.?
??(A) IN GENERAL.?
Any applicable individual for any month if the applicable individual?s required contribution (determined on an annual basis) for coverage for the month exceeds 8 percent of such individual?s household income for the taxable year described in section 1412(b)(1)(B) of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act. For purposes of applying this subparagraph, the taxpayer?s household income shall be increased by any exclusion from gross income for any portion of the required contribution made through a salary reduction arrangement
??(1) INDIVIDUALS WHO CANNOT AFFORD COVERAGE.?
??(A) IN GENERAL.?
Any applicable individual for any month if the applicable individual?s required contribution (determined on an annual basis) for coverage for the month exceeds 8 percent of such individual?s household income for the taxable year described in section 1412(b)(1)(B) of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act. For purposes of applying this subparagraph, the taxpayer?s household income shall be increased by any exclusion from gross income for any portion of the required contribution made through a salary reduction arrangement
