A friend of mine is a doctor, a specialist, who tells me that he has just cut his own family’s health insurance costs in half. He calls the ACA “a lifesaver.” The website was not ready, it is true. But in the states that embraced the new law, and set up their own exchanges (as the law intended) are doing pretty well, and some are doing excellently. By obstructing the law, and failing to do their part in creating marketplaces where their citizens can shop for health coverage, it is the GOP-dominated state governments (who presumably always prefer state-run over Federal) who have forced their citizens to use the (inadequate) Federal system. Well, the restaurant has opened: the wait staff aren’t trained, the cash register isn’t working properly, and the menus aren’t back from the printer. That does not mean that the food is bad, or the prices are too high. Or that the restaurant will fail. There is so much fury from the right over the ACA, and yet few of their criticisms of it are logical or even coherent. The web site was not ready, and the new law will not accomplish as much good as was hoped or hyped. It is no panacea, and is not the answer to all the problems we have in our healthcare system. No one has ever complained about being required to carry auto insurance. No one wants people being left to die at emergency-room doors because they are broke and have no credit. Certainly no-one likes deadbeats who won’t pay for what they get. A great many products must meet minimum quality standards, including expensive and for most people absolutely necessary products like cars. Some complain that they are made to pay for coverage they don’t want (though no one requires them to use it). This is like complaining that they have to pay for seatbelts in the back seat of their car when they intend to use that seat for hauling, and no one is ever going to sit back there. The exchanges are market places. Government have been setting up and overseeing market places since governments were created. The exchanges are places where companies compete for business. The whole system is based on the market. That is supposed to be what conservatives are all about. It all just makes me tired.
A friend of mine is a doctor, a specialist, who tells me that he has just cut his own family’s health insurance costs in half. He calls the ACA “a lifesaver.” The website was not ready, it is true. But in the states that embraced the new law, and set up their own exchanges (as the law intended) are doing pretty well, and some are doing excellently. By obstructing the law, and failing to do their part in creating marketplaces where their citizens can shop for health coverage, it is the GOP-dominated state governments (who presumably always prefer state-run over Federal) who have forced their citizens to use the (inadequate) Federal system. Well, the restaurant has opened: the wait staff aren’t trained, the cash register isn’t working properly, and the menus aren’t back from the printer. That does not mean that the food is bad, or the prices are too high. Or that the restaurant will fail. There is so much fury from the right over the ACA, and yet few of their criticisms of it are logical or even coherent. The web site was not ready, and the new law will not accomplish as much good as was hoped or hyped. It is no panacea, and is not the answer to all the problems we have in our healthcare system. No one has ever complained about being required to carry auto insurance. No one wants people being left to die at emergency-room doors because they are broke and have no credit. Certainly no-one likes deadbeats who won’t pay for what they get. A great many products must meet minimum quality standards, including expensive and for most people absolutely necessary products like cars. Some complain that they are made to pay for coverage they don’t want (though no one requires them to use it). This is like complaining that they have to pay for seatbelts in the back seat of their car when they intend to use that seat for hauling, and no one is ever going to sit back there. The exchanges are market places. Government have been setting up and overseeing market places since governments were created. The exchanges are places where companies compete for business. The whole system is based on the market. That is supposed to be what conservatives are all about. It all just makes me tired.