As we approach the advent of a new presidency, some GOP candidates are taking a hard line position on the Affordable Care Act, with at least two threatening to repeal it altogether. What none of them seem to acknowledge or care about, is how many Americans now genuinely depend on the ACA for survival. For many, the ACA is the only hope they have for getting the care they need from a medical system that has failed to serve them. The pain, misery and destruction to our economy that would ensue, should any heartless republican succeed in repealing the ACA, would be one of the greatest humanitarian crises this country has ever experienced.
By any measure, the ACA has been a resounding success, and a blessing for Americans struggling to pay for their health insurance. Since the introduction of the ACA, over 16 million uninsured Americans have gained health coverage, and a whopping 8 million more Americans have received an average of $270 per month in premium tax credits, making their healthcare far more affordable. In addition, and perhaps more importantly, the ACA has improved racial and gender equality in healthcare across America, with the uninsured rate declining by over 9% for African Americans, over 12% for Latinos, and over 7% for women. The only group that could be considered mildly worse off as a result of the ACA, is white males, who are already the most privileged demographic, and can easily afford to pay more.Â
Ending the ACA would literally allow millions to die in the streets, unable to see a doctor simply because they cannot afford our ridiculously expensive healthcare. In addition, businesses all across America have aligned their strategies, budgets and processes with the ACA, and repealing this legislation now will mean that the millions of dollars spent making these adjustments will have been wasted, and millions more will have to be spent re-adjusting. We have to be empathetic to employers in America, who have already made this difficult adjustment – the economy needs legislative certainty, not a constantly changing political environment.
Pharmaceutical drugs, antibiotics and vaccines have made our nation healthier than ever, and resulted in the increased life spans we see today. To deny anyone access to these wonders of the modern world, is to deny them the gift of life and vibrant health, and that is simply un-American. We need to stay committed to the vision of universal healthcare, where access to the wonders of modern medicine are a human right, sustained and protected by the will and compassion of the American people. For it is only through compassion, that the least fortunate among us will be able to enjoy the spoils of medical progress that so many of us take for granted every day.
Obamacare may be a boon for 8 million, but for those of us who WORK for a living it has been nothing short of a total catastrophe!
I respectfully disagree. Those who work have largely been able to keep their plans, with the possibility of very small and manageable adjustments. It’s important to have a balanced perspective and look at the good things that have occurred as a result of the ACA, granting there are mild costs incurred by higher earners.
Excuse me? Obama made a PROMISE, if you like your plan, you can keep your plan, and he kept his promise. Because he’s Obama.
You people “working”…what do you do? If you’re a white male, all you do is ceaselessly plot to hold down and oppress women and minorities. You should consider yourself lucky to still be living. BLACK lives matter.
ACA has been a huge success. If SOME people, especially privileged white males, have to pay more, then SO BE IT. Minorities are the ones “plagued” and “besieged” by “the violence.” THE violence is always haunting them, like a specter, chasing them everywhere they go. Because SLAVERY. If you don’t understand this, then you’re a racist.
Blacks are suffering from THE violence to the tune of 40 shot per weekend in places like Chicago…they are in DESPERATE need of health care and to be saved from THE violence. Whites need to check their privilege and get out their wallets and start paying back for millennia of oppression.
Health care is a human right. Except for white men, who have stolen others’ human rights for so long that they have an abundance and must give them back.
Repeal ACA? And watch BILLIONS dying in the streets? What type of horrible individual would want such a thing? A privileged white male maybe? Sitting in his private property scheming to kill 7.0 million jews like Hitler? Along with countless oppressions of women and minorities? It should be considered HATE to oppose ACA and Obama.
Blacks seem to hate the fact that they are black. They could all pull a Michael Jackson to become white. Dam shame if I hated the color of the skin I came with.
Mmmmmm. Just how is it shooting all those blacks in Chicago? Millions dying in the streets? Hyperbole much?
Please be satire. Please be satire. Please be satire.
This is a serious progressive blog – if you were expecting us to post satire about a critically important issue that fundamentally affects our nation, I’m afraid you are mistaken.
Satire? What is that?
This is an ACCREDITED blog filled with ACCREDITED thought from ACCREDITED sources. If you can’t grasp what’s going on here, then you need to check your privilege.
Obama should rightly get another Nobel Peace Prize…probably two, one for ACA and another for Libya.
Right…….
Right on, trav… this “Legitimate news from accredited writers” is so legitimate, the writers don’t even need to use their real names!
Healthcare insurance does not equate with actual healthcare, if deductibles and copays make it unusable!
This has got to be satire. So, a 60 year old couple earning $65,000 has seen their insurance premium double since the ACA passed, as a direct result of forcing all health insurers to issue to everyone including anyone with pre-existing conditions and a removal of any cap on what the health insurer must pay. That means an increase of about $1,000 per month to cover both of them. $12k (increase) = 18% of their gross income, for a total cost of $24k, or 36% of their income going to pay for health insurance. These higher premiums are a redistribution of their earnings to cover costs for other people. That’s a tax. Previously, the effective tax rate for the couple was about 17%. The increase represents then, a doubling of the effective tax rate on the couple. (When Obama said no tax increases on anyone earning less than $200k, he was LYING. What he meant was that anyone earning 400% of the federal poverty level would be subject to the biggest tax increase in history, if they weren’t lucky enough to have a job that provides health insurance.) I’ve run into many people with 50+ year old spouses who are no longer insured because the cost has risen so much, and employers generally don’t subsidize employees spouses. MDB, you could not have written something more wrong. By any measure the law represents one of the worst failures of public policy ever.
You’re only looking at the cost and not the upside. Sure, some people have had to pay more, but only those who could already afford it. Nobody is being forced to pay for something they can’t afford. And in return, we now have a system that unequivocally guarantees that each and every American gets the healthcare that they deserve. If you ask me, that’s an achievement to be proud of.
Obamacare is crony capitalism at its worst. Was it really the best that he could do as the nation’s first gay black transgender metrosexual president?
By any measure, the only group that could be considered mildly worse off as a result of the ACA, is white males, who are already the most privileged demographic, and can easily afford to pay more.
This statement alone should make Obamacare unconstitutional. I really hope this article is satire. Legitimate news from accredited writes my ass!
Perhaps more privileged because they are more intelligent? http://www.udel.edu/educ/gottfredson/30years/Rushton-Jensen30years.pdf
Read, learn. Quit being an airhead liberal.
Accredited journalism by people hiding behind a pseudonym ????
MDB is a dedicated chain jerker. He writes smug leftist pap (quite well it must be said) in order to, um, err, jerk-off to the angry responses? I don’t really grasp the “why” of it all, just that it is “satire” and perhaps like much other “satire” lazy and pointless.
BB {unpronounceable} – how can you possibly malign MDB’s thoughts as satire, which next to sarcasm is the lowest form of wit?
Many of us follow MDB’s thoughts almost religiously, despite our avowed secularity. MDB crystallises what a vast majority of us are thinking and experiencing in our day to day lives.
Do you realise what a “VAST” majority means to peons such as yourself? It means that elections will now be won fairly and squarely. It means that the poor and downtrodden will have their chance of Fighting The Man. It means that finally we will have the numbers to rout out the conservatives, and usher in the Nirvana of egalitarianism.
We have been waiting, I’ll let you know, an extraordinarily long time for the chains of capitalist oppression to be finally shucked from our shoulders.
Once free, we will be hunting bear, big-time. I suggest that you might be well-served in joining a local Progressive group, in order to avoid the coming purges.