Health and Wealth Divide

Even now I have little idea of what the Affordable Care Act is supposed to do, or how it works.  What I do know is that some reap the benefits and others are nearly bankrupt due to the mandate.

That is what seems to not be addressed.   They talk about repeal but they do not adequately explain why.  They talk replace but with what is as vague as the description of the act before they finagled to get Obamacare passed.  "We have to pass the bill so that you can find out what's in it--away from the fog of the controversy", was the famous viewpoint of the never out of a fog, Rep. Pelosi, grand dame of demagoguery and pandermonium (should be a word).

The ultra crowd even tired to pretend that out of context versions of that quote were changing the meaning, intent, etc.  No, I do not think so.  Did you ever hear a straight truthful answer regarding exactly what was this bill?  Did you ever try to find it and read it?

Remember flow charts?  It amounts to flow charts in the Rube Goldberg tradition of complexity.  Oddly, item after item was ultimately left to the judgement of appointed administrators deep in the bowels of the bureaucracy.

I think bills like that are mostly vehicles for paying back the big guns who keep you in office.  It is like a tractor trailer load of pork.  You can put any thing in.  The more complicated and convoluted the bill, the more opportunity for measures that benefit some companies and screw others, benefit some people while screwing others.

I know that under current conditions you are better off being fairly poor.  But not quite poverty level. They take away your choices if you have too little money.  If you have just a little bit, at least in CA., you can pay a little and gain all kinds of choice healthcare-wise.  If you earn too little, they won't even let you pay that $125 and have some choice.   If you have a rare disease of any seriousness, you'll likely die.  The free and mandatory care goes the way of the hmo.  And that is not the best way to go sometimes.   I despise HMOs.  An awful plan.

Anyway, how can I be scared or happy about possible republican obamacare antics?  I have little idea of the reality.  I know the usual meme factories regularly show maps and graphs of the disaster that will occur if the republicans get their way.  I am not happy when either side refuses to just define their damn bill.  They go off on "what this will do...", "what this will mean to working families (or whatever)...".  Basically opinions and hyperbole.  What IS the bill?  What does it say?  And why does it, like all bills begin with its alleged purpose followed by, "...and other purposes."   Really?  We actually allow this?  My bill to "save the children, and other purposes" also includes a section making paying me a fee every time you use a crosswalk mandatory, or we take your property.

Unbelievable.  The deal is, there are people and small businesses that cannot afford the affordable care act.  They duped those who don't feel the crunch.  I probably benefitted.  Not sure.  No question that tax money subsidized me greatly.  Even so, actual costs over time are probably less than I paid in, even with a chronic mutant disease.  But if I had been showing much more income, I may not have been able to afford the test that determined the gene mutation.

There are people in dire need of expensive treatment or medication who are broke, mostly due to their health, and convinced they will be without the medicine or treatment they need.  Some involves pain, so the stress can panic them.  I do not know and this time I haven't bothered to check it out.  Which cronies get the spoils this time?

I notice that medicare pulls all kinds of nonsense tricks on people in an effort to save money.  They can be good, and they can be asinine.

Anyway, without absolute specifics, and specifics I find right, I can't say I support the ACA, or its repeal.  I don't even know much about the mess we've got, and I know less about the mess they are proposing.  I suppose my disdain of the smarmy portion of the democratic party could cause me to react on a my-team-is-better knee jerk tribal response.  But I am rather bothered by republicans too.  I guess they weren't running the show in my school days, and dems were.  And I still object to progressive income taxes.  Besides being ridiculous, they opened the door to the complicated tax code that gives insiders a pass.   Stuff you have to know in order to be rich for more than a minute.

Anyway, it is almost as if the setup is to either screw much of the middle class, or to absolutely pull the rug out from under poor people, old or not.  Sick people.  If you are poor but healthy, you can probably change your conditions if you choose.  If you are poor and sick,  you are doomed. It is life, and life is cruel sometimes.  Really life is life.  And that's it.  Trace all the cause and effect, anything can happen.  Reasons can be complex and maybe that butterfly ripple in the air was the trigger.

Repeal the mandate.  Some think it risky.  I think if the companies see you are not forced to buy, they may quit with those outrageous deductibles and premiums.  I have heard of many people who pay far more than my care has cost, per person in their families.   Totally nuts.  That is gouging.

I think I may be in just the right spot--for the despised state's purposes.  Just poor enough to have no power and be somewhat dependent--medicare.  But not so poor that they can't badger me and suck some blood now and then.

I don't even know any more.