All the misleading hoopla about the Affordable Care Act, aka “Obamacare,” or as Rick Santorum put it, “Romneycare,” leaves out several actual facts.
1. The law forces insurance companies to insure young adults on their parents' policies.
2. The law prohibits insurance companies from dropping people with pre-existing conditions.
If this is socialism, then I am a socialist.
3. The law requires 30 million of the 50 million Americans without health insurance, to buy it (the same way that the governments of New York, New Jersey, and the governments of many other states require people who want to register an automobile to buy car insurance). This should, over time, lower costs for the rest of us.
4. The law does not replace the health insurance industry with a government run program; it does not expand Medicare to cover all Americans. Similarly, it does not transform the Veteran's Health Administration into a “Citizen's Health Administration."
Actually, expanding Medicare to cover all citizens, perhaps by transforming the Veterans Health Administration into a Citizens Health Administration sounds like a good to me.
However, as President George Bush said, “Every American has access to health care. All people need to do is go to the Emergency Room.” What he failed to mention is that using a Hospital's ER as a primary care clinic is very expensive. When people without insurance do it, the hospitals make up for the loss by charging patients with health insurance for the costs of patients without health insurance. This is inefficient and expensive, and actually is socialism.
1. The law forces insurance companies to insure young adults on their parents' policies.
2. The law prohibits insurance companies from dropping people with pre-existing conditions.
If this is socialism, then I am a socialist.
3. The law requires 30 million of the 50 million Americans without health insurance, to buy it (the same way that the governments of New York, New Jersey, and the governments of many other states require people who want to register an automobile to buy car insurance). This should, over time, lower costs for the rest of us.
4. The law does not replace the health insurance industry with a government run program; it does not expand Medicare to cover all Americans. Similarly, it does not transform the Veteran's Health Administration into a “Citizen's Health Administration."
Actually, expanding Medicare to cover all citizens, perhaps by transforming the Veterans Health Administration into a Citizens Health Administration sounds like a good to me.
However, as President George Bush said, “Every American has access to health care. All people need to do is go to the Emergency Room.” What he failed to mention is that using a Hospital's ER as a primary care clinic is very expensive. When people without insurance do it, the hospitals make up for the loss by charging patients with health insurance for the costs of patients without health insurance. This is inefficient and expensive, and actually is socialism.
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