Can we be honest? The fight over the effort to repeal and replace Obamacare is about one thing and one thing only: the number of people who were given a freebee, added to the roles of Medicaid.
Liberals want single-payer, government-run, one size-fits-all health care for everyone. It doesn’t work well anywhere in the world, but that’s beside the point. They want something for nothing. If they can’t achieve it in one fell swoop, they will try to do it bit by bit until the door to socialized medicine slams shut and everyone is locked into a system where there is no individual control.
So, let’s just repeal Obamacare and have a debate on the real issue: Do we really want to expand Medicaid beyond its original stated purposed, a heath plan to care for the poor and those who truly cannot care for themselves?
Meanwhile, like so many Americans, I am willing to trust the free market for health care. If you are one of them, you need to deliver that message to your elected representatives today!
When have you ever seen costs come down by limiting choices and destroying the free market?
If that were the case, why not tinker with the marketplace and allow only one grocery chain to exist? Seriously, does anyone really think groceries would be cheaper? Get real!
“Yes, but health care is a right, and everyone should have it,” liberals argue.
Oh, really? Most of us can live another month, or even a year or two without health care, but can we live without food? No! So let’s have socialized, free, one-size-fits-all grocery stores.
Imagine that for a moment. If our government-run grocery stores offered all the products we now have available, there would be a rush to load up on steak and lobster. Why not? It won’t be long before steak and lobster will just disappear, along with premium brands of other products we know and love. In no time at all, we will be eating beans and rice. We might have ration cards for things like meat, milk and eggs, but look around you. Isn’t that what is happening now in health care?
How long do those on Medicaid have to wait for an appointment? How many doctors actually take Medicaid patients? How many drugs and treatments are off-limits? If we keep expanding Medicaid or Medicare, it will be the VA on steroids!
Under the unAffordable Care Act, premiums have risen from an average of $2,784 in 2013 (the year before Obamacare kicked in) to $5,712 in 2017. This represents an increase of $2,928, or a hike of 105 percent. Not only that, unless you are on Medicaid, you are paying these outrageous prices for something that offers benefits many don’t need, and most cannot even use, with deductibles in the $6,000 range.
It’s little wonder that in 2016, 6.5 million Americans chose to pay the penalty rather than buy one of the government-mandated plans (another 13 million were granted an exemption). Why? Because it is such a bad deal!
Two popular aspects of Obamacare that Trump has sworn to protect are the mandate to cover those with pre-existing conditions and the provision that allowed young people to stay on their parents’ plans until age 26. Both rubbish!
The idea that you can allow people to wait until they have a serious medical problem before they buy insurance is insane. That’s like waiting until your house is on fire before buying homeowner’s insurance. There has to be a penalty for waiting! Before Obamacare, people were not dumped off their insurance plans when they got sick unless, of course, they failed to keep up their policies. Also, those with congenital conditions, like my husband, were automatically covered under their parents’ insurance plans. As adults, those people were covered by high risks pools. Obamacare makes those risk pool rates look like a bargain!
As for keeping young people on their parents’ plans until age 26, it’s a bad deal because, once they reach that age, their rates skyrocket. They are forced to subsidize older Americans who can better afford those higher rates.
What about all those people now being subsidized? They will no longer need those subsidies. With a free market, there will be a plan they can afford.
Obamacare was 2,300 pages of mandates, red tape and hidden tax increases that have put an undue burden on individuals and the economy. Get the government out of health care and take your chance with the free market. It’s a much better deal!
Media wishing to interview Jane Chastain, please contact [email protected].
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