Obamacareless begins...

[Farbin Kaiber]

^Healthcare becomes an inalienable right, and then minimum wage becomes the provision of housing (en masse owned by FDA/USDA/HUD/RD/etc.) and provision of foodstuffs in trade for compartmentalized manufacturing work. Modern day creation of the proletariat to churn out labor at low cost.

Sounds a lot like the existence of people in "The Island". Then they use their organs for the well off class.

[keeler]

Delusional if u think single payer is the fix....let the market do the fixing and end nobamacare

It's already bad enough that some third world countries have better healthcare than us. The Obamacare/Romneycare/Affordable healthcare are just stepping stones. No one has proposed a better solution to our healthcare issues so we get the best of the bunch which is the affordable healthcare act. I wholeheartedly this is a step in the right direction. It's not perfect but there is no reason we cant fix the issues as they become apparent and pass bills to resolve them.

Here is another tin-foil theory:

We are cutting education funding at an alarming rate. The next generation will likely have the worst public education ever and they will be hitting the streets for the next 20 years.

For those that can afford to go to private school, and for those that can afford health care, will the advantage of not being born into poverty help them individually or help our country at large? Lower taxes, cheaper workers, less restrictive laws.... we are pretty much turning our country into mexico... which would allow us to bring manufacturing back.... which would allow the USA to be the export king to all these up-and-coming muddle class countries. We just have to destroy ours first since we cant compete with no-environmental regulation child workers currently.

Back to obamacare- if we break the healthcare system either by destroying the for-profit groups OR by implementing a badly-executed single-payer system would the net loss of those groups help make our labor cheaper somehow?

The next generation will have the worst public education by far but they'll also have access to more and better information than any generation before them thanks to the internet. You can take accredited Yale classes online for free now. While I do NOT agree with cutting education funding, there are alternatives that will help resolve some of the issues that will arise from poor funding.

Cheap labor isn't the issue. It's automation. We're slowly becoming an automated country and will continue with this trend. The main issue is what happens when your fast food, walmart, street departments, etc all become automated. We will see a huge loss in jobs but a huge gain in productivity. We'll become a service country and unless something comes up to replace all of the current jobs we're gonna lose we will need to have a basic income for our citizens. The question then is where do we get this money.

[Javier h]

Agree

10-20 years from now, it will be like medicare. No one ever talks about repealing it etc.

I say improve it. For years, the insurance companies have been out of control, at the very least, lets have a discussion on improving delivery etc.

There is still wasteful spending. Hopefully in efforts to make this Obamacare work they will take serious measures on issues like food stamps, disability, etc. That whole business needs to be carefully looked at.

[Vedubin01]

IRS issues final rules on Obamacare's 'individual mandate'



(Reuters) - The Internal Revenue Service issued final rules on Tuesday for the individual mandate of President Barack Obama's healthcare overhaul, one of the most contentious elements of the U.S. law set to go into effect next year.
A centerpiece of Affordable Care Act, also known as Obamacare, is a requirement that all individuals carry some minimum health insurance or pay a tax. The new system aims to provide insurance through state marketplaces and subsidies for tens of millions of Americans who lack it.
If individuals choose not to carry insurance, they are subject to a penalty, starting at $95 per person per year or 1 percent of income in 2014, whichever is greater, and eventually reaching $695 per person or 2.5 percent of income by 2016.

http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/08/27/us-usa-irs-obamacare-idUSBRE97Q10T20130827

[phillipj]

I am looking forward to October when I can look at my state's health exchange and examine every company's plan, clearly, side by side and pick the one that best suits me at a cost that will be less than what I pay now.

I am very much looking forward to fuller implementation of the healthcare law and really tired of all the misinformation going around.

[mrsleeve]

^
That is 180* of what is happening to us.

[Q5Quint]

I am already paying $120 a month~ there is a lot of talks of rate hikes and more expensive healthcare etc... but I don't see how it is possible if we are forcing the pool to increase. They could do it to politically motivate you though~ Same as duke energy did when they hiked rates 'because of solar energy requirements we enacted in the state'. Joke is on them when 5 years later they are required by law to reduce rates since it didn't actually cost anything more- they were just lying and trying to twist people into feeling a certain way so they could make more money.

We broke up Bell because they had a monopoly on phones, we broke up microsoft because they had a monopoly on software, it doesn't seem like much of a stretch that we break up the energy or the healthcare systems if we find they are taking advantage of people and making way too much profit.

People think wind turbines give you cancer and make your eyes bleed, all while they are eating radioactive tuna from the pacific. Why do they think crazy thoughts like this and ignore actual issues? Because the tv told them so.

Basic healthcare is a right~ but we don't need to pay people to not work.

[Farbin Kaiber]

I know wind turbines are killing endangered birds in droves, and they are given passes. Bullshit. Someone wants a racetrack, can't build it because of sage grouse, then, someone wants to put a wind farm in an unspoiled rural mountain canyon, and kill bald eagles and they get a pass and a tax break. Bullshit.

[M-technik-3]

What makes me a bit nervous is all the new employee's that have no background checks nor fingerprinting with all your information.

The are regional workers and the implementation of their new computer system that gets tested in late Sept but the system is is supposed to be ready for Oct 1st in time for the fiscal year.

We are staying with our current system. I have enough gov't interference with my life.

[z31maniac]

I am already paying $120 a month~ there is a lot of talks of rate hikes and more expensive healthcare etc... but I don't see how it is possible if we are forcing the pool to increase.

Because at the same time they are also forcing insurance to cover more things (not a bad thing necessarily).

And they aren't doing anything to address the ridiculous pricing schemes that people aren't privy to.

[phillipj]

I actually registered for the Health Insurance Marketplace today, here:

https://www.healthcare.gov/

While the marketplace doesn't go live until October 1st, I was able to have some of my questions answered and now I'm linked for email updates and more info as it becomes available and as it pertains to me.

I'm a self-employed Architect who doesn't work for an employer that can offer me their plan, so in my case the exchanges are a big help to me.

[Kershaw]

[Dozyproductions]

Likey that video. I need to read more into this obama care but I would see it hard to believe that our bargaining power will be any better under it since so much money is tied into ripping us off and the power of the medical industry lobby.

[nando]

it will be funny after all the BS the conservatives have pulled if it actually ends up reducing healthcare costs (or even stopping their meteoric yearly rise) they will look like total asses. well, they already do - they just don't appear to care.

if you actually read the stories about companies dropping some employees or spouses from their coverage it's because the employees will be able to get it cheaper after ACA is implemented, and it saves the company money. Win/Win.

It's the insurance scam lobby that stands to lose, but they've got the uneducated convinced that multi trillion dollar conglomerates and their billionaire owners care about the little people.

[z31maniac]

if you actually read the stories about companies dropping some employees or spouses from their coverage it's because the employees will be able to get it cheaper after ACA is implemented, and it saves the company money. Win/Win.

Hypothetical:

In my case, I pay roughly $150 a month for health/dental/vision (for the wife and I) and the company pays $375 a month. If they dropped us, it would be nice to see that $375/month added to my bottom line toward insurance, but I seriously doubt it will be, and the people will be screwed as usual.

I realize there are a bunch of formulas for pay/benefits/subsidies, but I have a feeling that this will again reduce the purchasing power of the lower/middle classes.