One national issue that is worth campaigning on is health care. Your choice is simple: Democrats want you to keep your insurance, while Republicans want to take your insurance away. Smart Democrats will remind their voters of that key, practical difference:
“Regardless of how Americans feel about the Affordable Care Act, there are provisions of it that are very popular,” [Wesleyan Media Project’s Erika] Franklin [Fowler] said. “Once it became clear that those provisions are in trouble, I think that has sort of changed the landscape of how politicians will talk about it this cycle.”
Democrats are determined to protect those popular provisions if they win one or both houses of Congress in November. On the other hand, if Republicans keep control, they could take another run at repealing Obamacare.
“Many Republicans want the ability to finish the job,” said Jessica Anderson, vice president of the conservative group Heritage Action. “They’ve campaigned on this for over eight years.”
Anderson said even if Republicans lose in November, they could mount a last-ditch effort to repeal Obamacare during the lame-duck session. The late Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., who helped torpedo the last repeal effort, has now been replaced by Jon Kyl, a more reliable GOP vote [Scott Horsley, “Midterm Election Could Reshape Health Policy,” NPR, 2018.10.17].
Health care and health coverage have far more impact on the daily lives of South Dakotans than guns, abortion, where transgender people urinate, or any of the other distractions on which Republicans prefer to campaign. Remember whose got your back on health care: vote Democratic.
Millions Excluded from Obamacare Aid, Pass on Coverage
But critics counter that the narrative dismisses the concerns of those who haven’t realized the law’s promises. Many middle-class Americans who get no help from the government to pay for coverage – and who rarely use medical care – say the law has caused them financial harm and diminished their quality of life. Finding costs insurmountable, some say they are passing on coverage or using loopholes that offer them access to medical care without crippling their finances.
https://www.usnews.com/news/health-care-news/articles/2017-02-15/priced-out-of-obamacare-some-americans-forgo-coverage
Middle-Aged, Middle Class Can’t Afford ACA Policies in 2018
https://www.forbes.com/sites/theapothecary/2017/08/17/new-research-shows-many-in-middle-aged-middle-class-cant-afford-aca-policies-in-2018/#75fc4cc9461f
You think your health insurance costs too much. Try being a farmer.
John Kiefner, who farms 500 acres of hay in exurban Will County, has had health insurance from five companies in the past four years. One of them wouldn’t allow his wife and him to visit any of their own doctors. Another wouldn’t cover visits to the nearest hospital because it was out of network. All of them kept raising his premiums by 20 percent and more annually.
Kiefner will be lucky to net $75,000 on his farm this year. His last policy with Blue Cross & Blue Shield of Illinois was priced at $22,000 for annual premiums, plus a deductible of $5,000 apiece. That meant that he and his wife, Sherri, were investing $32,000, or 43 percent of their income, in health care before their insurer picked up any expenses.
https://www.chicagobusiness.com/article/20170929/ISSUE01/170929835/farmers-scramble-to-afford-health-insurance
Trump don’t care.
https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/republican-changes-obamacare-trumpcare_us_5a2aecece4b069ec48ad2337
Democrats don’t care about “health care” at all. The only thing democrats actually care about is for everyone to have worthless “Health Insurance” and make everyone who works pay for the free loaders.
McConnell already let it slip that Republicans plan to slash Medicare and social security to help pay for the tax cuts they gave to big corporations and the 1%. Uh oh! He wasn’t supposed to mention that till after the election. Must have been a senior moment.
Anyone surprised that the Party that has continually sabotaged the ACA loves to point out the fruits of their sabotage?
From the day the ACA passed Democrats knew it was an imperfect solution. It would have to be improved over time, like every other piece of legislation. Many of us would have been happy with a public option or a Medicare for All bill, but Democrats offered many bills to correct the deficiencies of the ACA. What was the Republican response? “Hell, no,” shouted Boehner. Republicans offered nothing but repeal. Oh, they said “replace,” after repeal became a politically impossible position, but they never got around to proposing a bill to do that.
Republicans couldn’t propose anything because the ACA incorporated much of what had been the Republican program on health care for a decade. The most controversial part of the ACA, the individual mandate to be covered by health care insurance, is a Republican idea. The ACA marketplace? Republican idea.
But the Republicans went around sabotaging their own ideas instead of embracing them as a win for conservatism over federally run health care. I guess because ACA had some minimum requirements that forced junk insurance off the market, they decided it was too much to handle. They fell on the sword over their need to be paid off by con men selling junk insurance that covered nothing. As was said so well a few years ago, the Republican solution to health care is this: die early.
Now, let’s hear what Jason and OldSarg would do. Let’s hear their proposals. I bet I can hear it now. It’s crickets.
Poor widdle Kiefner. His whole farming operation is being stymied by Drumpf’s unnecessary trade war/tariffs on China.
He grows and sells grass hay/straw/ eggs/ honey. corn and soybeans and says he might make money of hay sales. I suspect he gets right nice gubmint subsidies, too.
https://qconline.com/opinion/columnists/john-kiefner-checks-soybean-plants-on-his-farm-near-manhattan/image_f83daa60-6d95-5e95-9d05-f4cc0764676b.html
Jason — please list for us the ways that the GOP has tried to help people like Mr Kiefner. (I won’t hold my breath)
The ACA was a start to doing that. Impacting negatively, some people like it did Mr Kiefner. Those were the “cracks” that needed to be indentified and fixed. What was the GOP’s response to fixing that? Oh, they voted 60+ times for repeal. They did NOTHING to fix these problems. They used Mr Kiefner like a political football, rather than fixing a problem.
Your Mr Kiefner example was happening to EVERYONE prior to the ACA. Everyone. The GOP has done nothing. Nada ,to try to fix this problem – in fact, they’ve made it worse and want things to go back to the time when every American was Mr Kiefner
John Kiefner needs a better accountant. If he is “lucky to net $75,000.00” between him and his wife should qualify him for a subsidy, if we wanted one, because he can write off all of those health insurance expenses for his business. Can’t get those deductions when you take a subsidy, crocodile tears. As described, it is the insurance companies that dictate the networks, not the ACA.
Medicare for all, All the time, All the way!!
Jason/oldsarge-bots, trolls, paid intermeddlers, trumpist name-callers, ideologues, did they exist in the 2016 cycle???? Are they any different than Christian CWA Schaur? She has certainly organized (501 C 3), and engaged in hard-ball political rhetoric. Religion based.
I find the comments interesting. Democrats complaining about how the failure of the ACA was the Republicans, the republicans talking about the replace is politically impossible because of the mess the ACA created in the first place.
Well maybe, just maybe this is a good reason to say gov’t should stay the hell out of health care in the first place. The market will work itself out and give affordable access to ALL people if gov’t wasn’t so heavy-handed.
The article should read: Democrats want you to have healthcare. Republicans want to take it away. And Libertarians just want gov’t out of it.
No, you can’t blame this all on the govt, Jason. Waiting for the market to work itself out isn’t working – people have been waiting forever for that, and the market is only out for its shareholders. Give people the option to buy into Medicare. Medicare works and is popular with the elderly folk.
When are Americans going to understand big insurance has been ripping them off for years and it’s time to demand Medicare for everyone. I will pay more taxes to support this. It beats people going bankrupt every year in the private market.
There is hope though, because every year more Americans support Medicare expansion. Maybe there will be light at the end of the tunnel and this country can finally have a decent healthcare system where one doesn’t have to go bankrupt for having health insurance.
There is no more individual mandate. If you do not want insurance, don’t purchase it. Pretty simple stuff. Just like buying a new car, if you want it, purchase it and just put liability insurance on it, see how that works for ya when you total it… and it’s your fault.
How many of you think you could pass the health questions on a million dollar life insurance policy? Use those parameters to then see why the ACA is not such a bad deal to protect yourself against pre existing conditions that NOem and Dirty Johnson want to bring back. The ACA is a business choice, not a personal one, to make sure you are not leaving your family or your business to the roll of the dice.
Joshua Sopko
2018-10-17 at 10:04
Well maybe, just maybe this is a good reason to say gov’t should stay the hell out of health care in the first place. The market will work itself out and give affordable access to ALL people if gov’t wasn’t so heavy-handed.
Which market would fully cover the elderly and disabled with all those old age pre-existing conditions, at an affordable price?
Medicare already does this and is a pretty well run ‘Government”
program Private health market would not cover unless everyone was filthy rich.
I don’t know a single person over 65 who would willingly give up their Medicare to get private insurance. Ask your parents and grandparents. Ask your spouse. Ask yourself. So don’t tell me that government should get out of the health care business – it’s private corporations that shouldn’t be involved in life and death industries. Like, I might point out, the pharmaceuticals. See the skyrocketing price of insulin for an example.
Yes, ask your grandparent and you great grandparents about healthcare in this country prior to the mid-1950’s. gov’t wasn’t involved and we had the world’s greatest healthcare. We had the cheapest price (so cheap that most didn’t even need or want health insurance because they were able to pay cash for services rendered. It wasn’t until the failing health insurance industry lobbied the Federal Gov’t to create regulation that would raise the cost of health care so people would want/need health insurance. It’s a direct correlation of gov’t intervention that has led to a loss of innovation and an increase of cost to the none other than the American people. Not the politicians, not to the major corporations. This is what we call cronyism and it needs to end. When we say gov’t should get the hell out of healthcare, we mean all of it. We don’t have a free market system. Individuals cannot buy insurance policies across state lines. Administrative costs are through the roof because of gov’t regulation that leads to costly billing mistakes and often times excessive testing and diagnosis.
See the skyrocketing price of insulin. A prime example of private entities lobbying Congress for a monopoly stake in the market. They can do whatever they want because the competition isn’t allowed into the market. Gov’t intervention = high prices. You would be wise to understand what has caused the rise in health care costs before you say we need more gov’t. Gov’t has been the problem.
https://www.thebalance.com/causes-of-rising-healthcare-costs-4064878
Prior to mid 1960’s healthcare wasn’t so great or affordable, especially for the elderly.
https://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/article/2012/jan/20/was-early-1960s-golden-age-health-care/
This is a PRO-LIFE issue: The ACA has saved 90,000 lives. Where are my pro-life advocates . . . OldSarge? http://burghoff.scripts.mit.edu/home/obamacare-has-already-saved-the-lives-of-90000-people/
Universal healthcare works well. The nations that have it are happy with. Their citizens like it. There are no populist uprisings anywhere in the world agitating for a return to private healthcare.
Republicans want to blame everything on government regulation. So Jason explain to me how government regulation has led to Costly billing mistakes?
Less government regulation just means more doctors cheating the system.
Heck, we need more government regulation like price controls.
Life expectancy in the 1930s and 1940s was a lot lower also, Jason. You were lucky if you lived until your late 60s.
The cost of healthcare will continue to be a problem because people are living longer than ever and with chronic diseases.
One thing for certain though, the US has had the most expensive healthcare system in the world for decades and we’re not any healthier for it. The healthcare system is the greatest system in the world, if you’re rich.
Jenny, you keep talking about the issues that I brought up but you keep calling me Jason. I can only assume this was an oversight.
But I can tell you didn’t read the article I linked. If you had, you would see the direct correlation in gov’t mandates and the increase in health care.
Point one, gov’t regulation has led to an increase in billing mistakes because of the way gov’t has mandated medical billing. Any idea how many hands touch your billing numbers before they get to you? 80% of your medical cost is administrative. Each one of those touch points is caused because gov’t requires medical facilities to jump through hoops submitting to insurance claims, and back and forth, etc. It’s not a direct cause and effect, but a correlation of action. Clearly laid out in the article you didn’t read. BTW, the article I shared was a liberal article in defense of the ACA. I thought that was interesting.
Point two, yes, the life expectancy is near twice what it was 80 years ago. But that doesn’t mean our health care system wasn’t world-renowned as I stated. It was. We were creating real solutions and fixing peoples health problems at a fraction of the cost. The rest of the world flocked to the United States for their health care, now we are leaving for Mexico for a root canal. We even coined the term Medical Tourism because it’s become such commonplace. Life expectancy should increase, that doesn’t mean that medical costs increase at triple-digit percentages.
And if you really want to go into chronic diseases, we should start to look at issues with the FDA and federal mandates around our food supply, but that’s a different conversation.
Point three, Doctors cheating the system. Doctors and hospitals cheat the system by lobbying gov’t to keep out the competition. Look at states like Michigan who have had numerous state lawsuits against cash pay hospitals and clinics. They are able to provide services at almost 1/4 the cost of their larger competitors and their medical outcomes are 10x better. So what happened? The corporate insurance and health facilities sued them because they were in violation of gov’t regulations!!!!! So competition (the free market) found an alternative, better way to serve their customers. Instead of the state staying out of the way and letting that environment thrive, the state (in conjunction with the health care system) sues the private cash pay hospitals… HOW DOES THIS MAKE ANY SENSE? Some doctors and hospitals will cheat the system, just as they do know. Just like corrupt politicians cheat the system. You think they are in it to protect you when they create new policy? They are in it for their next re-election funding dollars. Don’t kid yourself.
And finally, point four. Yes, the US has had the most expensive health care in the world for decades. About 30 – 40 decades really. And considering what we spend on health care compared to our national GDP, it’s sickening. But again, I urge to take a look at what it was like going back a little bit further before gov’t got involved. History is the telltale sign of what our future holds. And history tells us, in almost every single industry, that when gov’t gets involved, the cost of goods and services GOES UP. It’s simple economics, and healthcare is no different. Gov’t is bad for any industry, always has been.
Debbo — I did want to address your comment that universal healthcare works in other countries. I’m not sure why this is such an argument. We don’t have and don’t want their socialist economy in our country. Those countries are paying 45%+ in taxes with C+ healthcare outcomes. it sounds super appealing, I get it. And I’m not saying that our system now works, in fact, it is very very broken. But the free market can and will work it’s way out if we let it. (see my comments above innovation and cash pay systems that ARE WORKING when allowed to work). Our gov’t is massively corrupt and can’t efficiently run a post office. That’s not the organization I want in charge of creating a universal health care system. Just think on that.
I was fortunate to be able to have coverage under the ACA while I was in nursing school. I had great coverage. I’ve seen what healthcare looked like before the ACA, when ACA was in effect and now. Health care is inaccessible and unaffordable for many of the people in our communities who need and I will say “deserve” it. Dems have made health care accessible. Republicans who are the loudest to proclaim their “Christianity” are the ones who crap on the people Jesus would want us to help.
RJ, I’m glad you had good coverage while you were in school. When ACA took effect, I actually lost the good coverage I had because my employer had to switch providers to manage our growing premiums.
Democrats have not made health care more accessible, they’ve simply made it more expensive. Just like the Republicans have through the course of decades of gov’t regulation and mandates. And when it comes to the people that Jesus would want us to help, I’m not sure Jesus would stick guns in the faces of people to make them pay their taxes so that gov’t could take your money, waste most of it, and give some back to you and call it a gift. Jesus would ask us to use our money to take care of your neighbor, voluntarily.
Don’t justify your forceful ways of collecting taxes by saying it’s ‘helping people’. Gov’t does little to help anyone, and they do so through the barrel of a gun.
AKA Sopko – web ninja? – That’s quite an accumulation of Russian misinformation you’re peddling. Does Putin send that to you or do you have to go to Moscow web services to gather it? The article you posted is totally invalid. It lists nothing but unsubstantiated assertions with no references. In short your point is that big government is sooooooo bad and it’s the problem with healthcare. Sir ….. Universal healthcare works wonderfully all around the world. You haven’t a clue what true democratic socialism is or how it works. I counted 47 points of misinformation (lies) in your speech, before I stopped counting. What exactly does a web ninja photographer do, anyway?
Joshua Sopko, your anti-government argument overlooks a historical fact. In South Dakota, as in most other states, government got involved in providing for the payment of health care costs around the time the states were organized. These laws remain in effect in South Dakota. We adopted our laws imposing this government responsibility in the late 1800’s by enacting statutory County Poor Relief programs where we taxed property owners and used the proceeds to pay for county doctors and poor houses to house the indigent sick and elderly. Government has been involved in health care since much earlier than the 1950’s and have been funding hospitals and doctors for well over the last century.
Here is a link to an older SD Supreme Court decision that provides some explanation about the government’s duty.
https://law.justia.com/cases/south-dakota/supreme-court/1987/15359-1.html
Porter… care to discount the 47 points (did I even have that many points)? And Yes, I have looked into ‘democratic socialism’ to truly understand it. I am all on board with volunteer socialism, but it falls apart when we have a corrupt entity that colludes with private industry to stifle competition. Other countries that have universal healthcare do not have a constitutional republic that protects individuals civil liberties. Like the right to my private property (money), or my right to make health care decisions between me and my doctor, or buy insurance (or not). These are civil liberties that you are advocating be forcefully taken away.
And as I mentioned, the federal gov’t can’t run a post office, what makes you think that OUR gov’t can run a health care system? They haven’t done well ‘fixing’ education. They haven’t done well with the ‘war on terror’ or the ‘war on poverty’. They haven’t really done well in much of anything they’ve tried to do in the last 50 years or so… have they? We continue to see a dissemination of our rights and I’d like to reverse that.
Constitutionally, where does the gov’t fit in with health care anyway? *hint: it doesn’t.
Also, I build small business websites and do commercial photography. http://www.weblaboratory.us if you’re interested. ;-)
bearcreekbat — Thanks for the link, interesting context. I’ll definitely do some further research about the taxes you mentioned. I’m unclear of your statement about the formation of the states. To be clear, all of my argument is about federal gov’t, not state mandates and state regulation. The states created the federal gov’t (states came first). If you have any reference to the states supplying the federal gov’t with the power to mandate healthcare, I’d be interested in reading.
States are much better equipped to handle health care locally then is the federal gov’t for a lot of reason. One being the state can’t just print money as the federal gov’t does. So at the end of the day, they have to balance their budget, and the people of the state know what they need better than an over-reaching federal gov’t.
Sopko … All you assert rests on the BISS argument. We’re to believe you because of BISS? “Because I Say So” is wonderful noise but without references from valid sources your opinions rate no higher than just common “say so”.
PS … Our government runs Medicare (which has extremely popular ratings) and has had since it’s beginning. The wars on terror and poverty are misdirection tactics and false equivalencies.
No. I don’t care to educate you or disembowel your 47+ unsubstantiated opinions. Your opinions are as welcome as anyone’s but have no real substantive value.
Believe me or don’t believe me, I’m by no means an expert. But historical reference, whether you choose to take my word for it or look it up yourself, (in which you’ll just attack the source and say it’s too left, or too right, or too biased, or not credible enough) doesn’t really matter. So take my thoughts for what it’s worth. I’m glad my opinions are at least welcomed, regardless of how valued you feel they are.
As for Medicare, just because it has a positive rating doesn’t make it good. I’m also not suggesting we abolish Medicare. But it could be replaced by the states if it weren’t for federal mandates that say that can’t. (even though they can because the states are in charge of the federal gov’t constitutionally. state reps just don’t have the gumption to stand up to the federal gov’t)
I choose NOT to believe you, because you have no credibility. I’m twice as old as you and I remember health care before insurance. It’s not government that made medical prices go up. It’s insurance companies that made prices go up. Government and health insurance are direct opposites. You have health insurance because you don’t have government healthcare (like every other first world country). Giving Medicare to the states would needlessly increase prices.
~ One quick primer. DemSocialism is buying the things we all need, as a group. Europeans (and I have many friends in Europe that testify to this) pay more in taxes but have more money left at the end of the month because the things Americans buy individually are purchased in Europe (for much less and at higher quality) as a group.
“States Rights” allows majorities to subjugate the rights of minorities. e.g. Southern states thought slavery was the will of the people because the majority of whites wanted it. Federal government applies human rights to legislation when state’s rights immorally allow minority discrimination.
My neighbor is a nurse in a transplant unit. It’s a profit center for the hospital, even though they are required to take all people with or without insurance. He says many of the transplants could be avoided by simple, cheap measures involving diet, exercise and appropriate and timely use of medication. He says the US medical system does a great job of doing the complicated, expensive treatments and keeping people alive for longer times with expensive, chronic conditions, and an awful job of preventative care that would help us keep many of those people from getting those conditions.
I listened to his half-hour rant on this controversy last week. He was frustrated that his unit is short-staffed and he’s been working too much lately. At any rate, he thinks we need a single payer system, something like Medicare for All that gets everyone in and gets them good care throughout their lives, not just when they get sick with chronic conditions. He said it might put him out of his job, but it would be better for everyone’s health and pocketbook.
Well tell me this then joshua, if we had the best healthcare system in the world before Medicare, then how come no other country adopted if it was so popular?
You have to think of the times back then before all the innovative technology.
Of course healthcare is going to be cheaper in a simpler less advanced time.
Corporations and government are in bed together, that I can agree with but
I dont agree that govt is all bad. Govt has helped my parents with Medicare, social security, adequate roads and highways, farm subsidies. Yes govt has many problems But I want my govt helping the common good with the greatest efficiency and I will do my duty as a citizen to pay taxes towards that.
Yup, Republicans really do want to take us back to 1950. Yay.
Joshua, just to clarify then, you mis-spoke when you stated earlier that you thought free enterprise should handle health care instead of “government.” What you actually meant is that you wanted to be subject to whatever decisions state government, rather than free enterprise, makes for you. You are not opposed to “government” control, rather, you want government control by people working for the state.
It remains unclear, however, why being subjected to the rules and requirements of people working for the state government is desirable because they go by the name “state” government rather than “federal” government. How does the name “state” or “federal” used before government make any difference in their ability or lack of ability to develop a good system of health care regulation?
As for my statement “about the formation of the states,” I was pointing out that each state in our union adopted government control over their residents’ health care when each state was formed, in each case disregarding the efforts of “free enterprise” to tiotally control health care policy. Hence your original statement that health care used to be controlled by free enterprise was contrary to fact in our Country.
Joshua forgets to mention that the price of healthcare in the US doubled in the 1950s, way BEFORE Medicare, so the problem of rising costs was a problem long before Medicare came around.
I really wouldn’t want the notorious corrupt state of SD to take over Medicare with no Federal regulation and auditing at all. Lord knows what would happen and how many embezzlement scandals and murders we would read in the news.
Jenny,
You forgot to mention that costs went up after employers got involved in health insurance.
Joshua, red states are salivating copious amounts of unsightly drool with the thought of lump sums from the fed to pay for Medicaid programs when you and I and everyone else knows red states will use that designated money to balance budgets, cut taxes for corporations and everything other than what they were supposed to use the money for.
The GOP is willing to make a political point and sacrifice 90,000 American lives to do so. The Pro-WEALTH party shows its true colors again.
Despite what many assume, civilized coexistence in a culture of tolerance is not always the norm, or even universally desired. Liberal democracy is a hard-won, easily rolled back state of affairs from which many selfishly yearn to be released. – Uki Goni NYReview of Books