Elantra66

Serious question.

faithofadragon

with hope and change

Stocker

Not enough change. Hafta rely on hope.



In related (seriously) news, the first attempt to pay for it is $700M cut out of medicare. Which, of course is just rolling in extra cash already bankrupt.



There is not enough money in the entire national economy to pay for the bill when everybody starts going to the doctor who can't afford it, because it is suddenly "free." This will be one of the final straws and the economy will suffer badly.

i8acobra

This is what happens when you you listen to GOP stump speeches. That $700 million "out" of Medicare is from savings by cutting reimbursements to insurance companies and from other cost cutting, not from cutting benefits as Mitt and Paul made it sound. Obama didn't take $700M out of of the pockets of seniors.



Oh and Obamacare is NOT universal healthcare, it's a mandate that everyone PURCHASE health insurance, either through their employers or on their own through their state's insurance marketplace (which states have to have set up by this Friday, or the feds will set one up for them). There is NO US Gov't insurance. There is no "Medicare for everyone".







You guys really have it Bass Ackwards. Obamacare means everyone will have PRIVATE insurance. It fixes the very problem you're b*tching about. Right now, people go to the ER because it's "free". Public hospitals are legally required to treat ANYONE who walks (or gets wheeled) through the door. You and I pay for it through our taxes. Public hospitals get reimbursed by the states. Those bills don't just go unpaid. Now, they'll be paid by the person's insurance and not by you and I.

Visionz

How does Canada pay for it, out of curiosity?

faithofadragon

extremely high taxes



iirc when i went there, i paid somethin like 15% sales tax



i dont know what income tax was

Red Raspberry

We will pay for it the same way we pay for the war machine. It's on the credit card.

Tibbi

This is very true and part of the reason that health care is so damn expensive. (Christ, now you know it's over, we agreed on something.) I can't vouch for other states, but here in Georgia it's all-too easy to file the appropriate paperwork AFTER the doctors visit saying "can't pay, dun wanna." When I come to power you get a damn job and cover the cost of the visit or learn to cauterize a stab wound with a trashcan fire and some discarded tin foil.



The other half of the reason sh*t sucks is because medicare just defines what it pays for a service, whether or not that that even covers cost of the service. Doctors are basically given the option to accept medicare and jack the rest of us, or decline medicare and risk closing doors within 6 months.







Now I do NOT, in my heart of hearts, believe that Obamacare will do anything more than send us all deeper down the tax trail to ruin, and eventually force everyone onto gubmint insurance. Get ready to have Tricare

pas1216

yes we pay for it through our taxes. No, they are not ridiculously high. I have a "health card" that I show at doctors, hospitals, clinics etc.. and treatment is "free". It does NOT cover prescriptions or visits to the dentist, eyeglasses etc... That is paid for by you, or covered by your own private medical insurance (some people get this through their job or pay for it privately)



I had surgery on my neck a few years back. A doctor found the problem during a routine check-up. All visits to the specialist, tests, bloodwork, biopsies and the surgery was covered by the healthcare plan. I just showed up at the hospital/office at the scheduled time.



Listening to you guys (Americans) complain/b*tch/whine about this topic always makes me laugh.

Stocker

You can not explain this to an average murikan. You could probably not also explain that forcing people to buy something is one of the most evil things Congress has ever done. Or what a profit margin is. Or the difference between communism and socialism and why we're headed in that direction and why this is bad.







If you can't afford the superpremium insurance policy mandated by obamacare you will end up with NO insurance, vs. the high-deductible plan of your choice from before obamacare. THAT is bass ackwards. This system was designed to crush the private insurance market right out of business so everyone would go to the government plan.

• citizen: I'm healthy, hell with payin premiums, I'll take the cheaper tax hit in january and roll my health dice!
  
• citizen: (gets sick)
  
• citizen: hey insurance company, insure my sickass
  
• insurance company: f*ck off
  
• citizen: hey no more preexisting condition blahblahs because obamacare!
  
• insurance company: f*ck
  
• citizen: (racks up $1M bill)
  
• insurance company (pays $1M bill, collects no premiums, loses $1M)
  
• citizen: hey insurance company piss off I cancel policy
  
• insurance company: f*ck
  
• citizen: insurance company I got sick again cover me again
  
• insurance company: sorry pal we're bankrupt from last time go talk to obamacare
  
• obamacare: everything is proceeding according to plan!
  
• MSNBC, CNN, CBS, ETC: Unexpectedly! Only government now selling insurance plans!
  
• citizen: whoda thunkit?
  

Also, it only applies to big companies, and the real kick in the balls of the whole setup is that the states that don't set up exchanges are going to ruin the whole thing because the employers won't be withholding the taxes for the people on federal exchange plans, but the employees will be sucking down healthcare like the rest of the country. It's the epitome of unsustainable, and the whole system sucks because they rushed the bill through without any debate (or proofreading?) The sooner this mess implodes due to dramatic lack of free pennies from heaven, the better.



If you make less than an arbitrary number of dollars of income, it WILL be free or at least the costs will be invisible.



Those bills DO just go unpaid, which is why hospitals on our border are going bankrupt and closing their doors. The states only reimburse whatever they say is an appropriate amount, regardless of what it costs to provice services. This reimbursment gap is also why lots of doctors are refusing to take new medicare patients, and why they will soon be refusing to take obamacare patients by retiring in droves.



********



This is another pissing-in-the-wind thread, but this time with added bonus points of people who care deeply about something they don't understand so imma bow out right here. Y'all have fun for the next 3 pages, ok?