- Doom and Gloom predictions: Call me too much of an optimist but I just can’t quit believe all these. I really can’t see a whole bunch of employers dumbing the health care coverage that they already offer in order to pay a fine, yea its cheaper but its cheaper now not to offer health care coverage and right now they don’t have to. Yea our premiums might go up but mine have gone up every year for the last decade, so nothing new there.
- General Mistrust of government, ie any additional role of government is bad, I also include extra taxes in this category. This is where I will concede that no amount of talking, reading, writing, arguing, or the like will change anyone’s mind. This boils down to what I call ‘core beliefs’. Its closer to religion than politics. It’s really about how you see the world. For me I just don’t mis-trust the government that much. Yes I know the government is FAR FAR from perfect, it has a ton of things wrong with it. It’s wasteful, sometimes corrupt, misguided, slow to act, etc. But I believe that deep down the government does have my best interest at heart and truly tries to do the most good for the most amount of people. In addition while I don’t WANT to pay more taxes, if the cause for the additional taxes is just enough and good enough, I will.
- Paying for it: This is the only argument against the AHA that sways me. I DO think we need to balance the budget. But the problem I have is where were the republicans for 8 years when Bush was in office? Not balancing a budget. We already spend 18% GDP on health care. The current system is already unsustainable. If we had a balanced budget and this was sending us into the red I would be absolutely against it. But we don’t. And getting rid of this wont magically fix our finical woes. Its way more complicated than that. I know a lot of people say it might not fix the problems but it’s a step in the right direction. But I don’t think it’s a step in the right direction to fixing the major financial problems that DO need fixing.
- Last: Universal Health Care is not necessary and stopping giving stuff to people who don’t work for it and don’t deserve it. First I decided over a decade ago that a Universal Health Care system IS necessary. It’s hard to explain all the reasons I decided this but I did, and nothing new now can change that. This belief has been reinforced by life experiences. I was one of those that didn’t have health insurance because I was working, and made too much money to qualify for Medicaid but didn’t have the insurance through work. I was doing everything right. And it kept me up at night worrying. Simply put there NEEDS to be another option. As to giving stuff to people who don’t work for it, remember most of the people under Obama care would have to PAY for health insurance. We aren’t giving it out for free.
One of the most compelling reasons to support Obama Care is that the big lobby groups that stand to most to lose from this bill aren’t fighting it. I mean the hospitals and insurance companies. They have a lot of political power and are in favor of it.
As you can see, I am in favor of Obama Care as a whole. That being said I read this article about the part of the plan that involves the expansion of Medicaid. I’m a little on the fence about that. On the one had I thinks it is necessary for the overall plan to work, on the other I’m not so sure it’s a good idea.
There are a lot of unknown to this plan but I think our grandchildren will ultimately thank us for it, but time will tell.
Thanks for listening/reading. I hope you tried to keep an open mind as I tried to keep an open mind to the other side.
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