High-deductible health plans make Affordable Care Act ‘unaffordable,’ critics say:
"‘We can’t afford the Affordable Care Act, quite honestly,’ said Cassaundra Anderson, whose family canvassed for Obama in their neighborhood, a Republican stronghold outside Cincinnati. ‘The intention is great, but there is so much wrong.... I’m mad.’
The Andersons’ experience echoes that of hundreds of thousands of newly insured Americans facing sticker shock over out-of-pocket costs."
There's a little conspiracy theorist voice in me that says that this was the plan all along. Obama and his cronies knew they'd never get full-on taxpayer-funded socialized healthcare passed so instead they pass this incremental law that requires people to buy into the system, but then whacks them with high deductibles and ridiculous costs so that they could later say, "Well gosh, this isn't working at all. We need to go just a little bit further and everything will finally be just right."
How is it that a country with an 11 million taxpayer base can have a functioning health service and the richest country in the world can’t manage to ensure that every citizen can access health care. Why does America have a minimum wage which does not let a man/woman feed their family and put a roof over their heads? In some areas of Applations (can’t spell it) houses don’t have running water and the population look malnourished? I can remember years ago when you were out of work and had to use almost all of your savings to access medical care for you and your baby daughter. This would have never happened in Australia. This is not meant to be an Anti-America diatribe; I am honestly puzzled.
Actually, the US has the best healthcare system in the world, but because we got used to employer-provided health insurance decades ago, we lost touch with its true cost, which meant that the normal checks and balances of supply and demand did not keep costs in line, which have sent the system spiraling out of control. That is not solved by throwing even more bureaucracy at the problem, putting the true costs even more out of touch with reality. Government spending has never ever resulted in lower costs for anything.
And I wouldn’t believe everything you read in the media. The vast majority of Americans don’t live on minimum wage. In fact, most people working minimum wage are either working part-time jobs in addition to a regular job or are students. And yes, some places in this country have very poor people, and we should be able to lift them out of that, but (a) they are still wealthier in general terms than 90% of the world’s population and (b) you can’t force people out of their homes and into locations where there are actual jobs and industries. Much of Appalachia is former coal mining country where coal mining doesn’t happen anymore. The jobs left and the people didn’t.
Finally, I don’t know who you’re remembering, but when I was out of work I was able, with the help of savings, help from family, and a part-time job, able to pay our expenses, including basic healthcare, until I got another job. I’d rather have done it that way than pay exorbitant taxes in order to create some all-smothering safety net.