Okay....I need to put this out there, because I get the feeling some folks do not understand how the Affordable Care Act (Obamacare) actually works.
This Act does many things....some of it I agree with, some of it I don't, some of it I think could use some work. I will say up front, that I've never agreed with penalizing people who do not have insurance, because some people simply can't afford it even under the Act. My daughter is one of those...her employer doesn't offer her insurance, but the monthly payments for insurance under Obamacare is still too high for her. She gets penalized every year for this.
However, two things that I do think were good with the act is the ability for parents to keep their dependents on their policies until age 26 regardless of their school status, and insurance companies being forced to cover pre-existing conditions. The latter is of specific interest to me, because if I have a break in coverage for any reason...under the old way where pre-existing conditions could be denied...I could potentially be denied coverage for my asthma upon resuming coverage. There are many people out there with existing conditions that are things they cannot control...and this was crucial to their being able to afford their medical care.
The part that needs work is the "clearinghouse" so to speak. Many people think that their tax dollars are being used to pay for the actual healthcare of people on the program. WRONG! Where tax dollars come in are in subsidies paid to help offset the cost of the INSURANCE for people on Obamacare. When one signs up for insurance under this act, they are actually enrolling into many of the same insurance providers you and I enroll into through our employers...if insurance is offered. Scott & White, Blue Cross/Blue Shield, etc. Much like our employer may cover part or all of our insurance premium, so do these government subsidies based on a person's income level. The insurance isn't cheap! I looked into it last year inputting information for my ex, so I would have information to give him a the time of our divorce. For himself and his daughter, the CHEAPEST insurance was about $180/month...and that was with a deductible so high that the insurance would have never really kicked in!
People are screaming that the rates are spiking under Obamacare. Well, yes and no. Insurance premium rates have been going up for years!!! I'm currently paying about three times as much as I did 20 years ago for less than half the coverage!! For the same coverage I had 20 years ago, I would now have to pay about $500/month for just me, and that would be after my employer's contribution! Over the years, I've had to reduce my coverage just to be able to continue to afford my insurance. That is the no part. The yes part is that Obamacare has influenced the increase in rates, but ONLY because the insurance companies are being force to cover things they could deny before, and are being forced to cover less-healthy people. They are still making huge profits (just look at how much their CEOs are making)! So what are they doing? They are jacking up the price of insurance!! Big pharmaceutical also has play in this, as they have been jacking up the prices of much needed medicine, thus also requiring the insurance companies to have to pay out more. I'm sure you all recall the news about Epi-Pen not that long ago.
Now, here is something else that people are obviously not getting....birth control. Under most insurance plans, women have access to "free" birth control...though, it really isn't free when you consider they have to carry insurance under federal law or be fined at tax time, and it is the insurance covering this birth control. I've seen these posts about, "Well, be an adult and pay for your own birth control!!" They are already being adults in paying for the insurance that is covering this birth control!!! Problem is, that now, a repeal of the Act could mean that they cannot afford insurance, and thus will not have coverage! And no, birth control is not only about being able to have sex and not get pregnant! There are many, many women out there with hormone imbalances...I'm one of them! With all the chemicals and stuff in our food supplies, this is becoming a bigger deal. Those who have never dealt with said imbalances have no clue what life is like for us!! Some of the many things we have to live with:
- Disabling pain every month. We are not talking your normal cramps. We are talking pain that could compete with that of labor pains, so intense that all you want to do is curl up in a ball in your bed and cry all day. Pain that no Midol will ever get rid of. But you can't curl up in your bed, you have to be an adult and move on, while through the day everything between your rib cage and knees hurts...because yes, the cramps are soooo bad they are causing every muscle in your back and the top of your legs to also cramp up!
- Disabling migraines...and we are not only talking once a month. No, these nasty headaches that feel like your head is going to explode while making you want to throw up and crawl into a dark cave can happen at ANY time...without warning. I've had one hit me so bad that I dropped to my knees right there on my floor grabbing my head. I seriously though I may have been having an aneurysm! I fell asleep right there on the floor about an hour, and when I had awaken, the pain had subsided only enough for me to crawl to my bed to sleep the rest of the day.
- Insomnia! Yes, until I found a way to balance out my hormones, I spent YEARS only getting maybe 3-4 hours of sleep on a good night! This naturally caused other health issues, as my body was always worn down. There is nothing worse than laying there in bed for hours yawning...feeling sooooooo tired...yet, no matter how long you lay there with your eyes closed, your body simply refuses to drift off to sleep.
- Inability to eat or drink anything. Though, I've never had this myself, I have a friend who regularly went through this. Nothing she put in her stomach would stay there, not even water. This would go on for at least 2-3 days!
And that is just for those not trying to prevent pregnancy! Many of these same people who are screaming for a woman to pay for her own birth control, also want to tell her she can't have an abortion! Seems to me, the best way to lower the abortion rates is to prevent unwanted pregnancy! Come on...be realistic...people are NOT going to stop having sex! Just isn't happening! Men have two options...condoms or sterilization. Condoms do not require anything from a doctor, as they do not actually affect anything in the body...and face it, not many men out there actually get sterilized! On the flip side, EVERY birth control option a woman has requires a doctor! Even the pill...a doctor has to prescribe the right dosage of hormones as to not mess a woman up. All other methods require some sort of day-surgery medical procedure be performed...again, not cheap, because doctors, nurses, anesthesiologists, etc. all get involved. Women are also stuck between a rock and a hard place. Here we are told that if we don't want to get pregnant, it is our responsibility to protect ourselves...we have to be in control of our own bodies, by the way. At the same time, women are being told that they are not really in control of our own bodies, that we shouldn't be allowed to do this and that...and we are being told this by men who I can promise you have used the line, "If you love me, you will have sex with me" at least once in their life to pressure a woman into bed with them!
I know this is long, but hear me out! And if this turns into an argument about abortion..."oh, so it is okay to murder an unborn child"...I will promptly delete this! I will say this on that issue...for me...myself...I am pro-life. I would never abort a child. I would rather put it up for adoption. HOWEVER, I am also realistic enough to know that a desperate woman will do anything they have to if they find themselves pregnant and they don't want to be. Before Roe v Wade, women were having back alley abortions, and dying because they would bleed out or catch a terrible infection because of unclean tools. I don't want to go back to that! Having dead women on top of dead babies is not the answer! Education and providing women the tools they need to not be in that position is the answer!! And yes, I would rather see that desperate woman in a clean medical facility than a back alley even if I don't agree with what she is doing. It isn't my place to force what I believe on her! I'm not in her shoes...I don't know the circumstances. That is all I'm going to say on THAT topic.
What women are afraid of now is that they will still be forced to pay for this insurance, while at the same time NOT have coverage for their birth control, and have to pay for it out of pocket ON TOP OF their premiums. Even the cost of an IUD is not cheap! And for the record, I had sterilization surgery nearly 20 years ago after I knew I was done having children. At that time, it was covered 100% under my insurance. Under my policy today, I would have to pay the first $1,500, and then the insurance would only cover 80% of the cost after that! This is what is happening to women! We are expected to take care of this ourselves, yet the cost for doing so is growing out of our reach!
And that, my friends, is really what is at stake here with healthcare. If the Act is repealed...women will be left uninsured and/or lose their birth control coverage which yes...it is our responsibility because we surely cannot depend a man to put a condom on it! On top of that, thousands, maybe millions, of other Americans will go without insurance! Some, like my daughter, are still without insurance even under the Act! She has things she needs to have looked at, but she will not go to the doctor, because she can't afford to...and I don't have the money to lend her to do it! It breaks my heart to know that one of my children is not getting medical care because big medicine has pushed care out of her reach! THIS is what is at stake, people!