Americans are tough. We can handle almost anything…terrorist attacks, senseless gun violence, natural disasters. Well, anything but Obamacare. Obamacare apparently is the end of our democracy as we know it. It will kill our grandparents, it will bankrupt our society and, according to an expensive ad campaign by the Koch Brothers, it will put the forceps literally in the hands of Uncle Sam.
Let’s rewind. In 2008 when candidate Obama was running for President and put healthcare reform on his agenda, there was a reason, make that reasons [fn1]:
- healthcare costs doubled in recent decades
- families were spending more of their disposable income on healthcare costs
- healthcare costs were outpacing increases in household incomes
- Medicare and Medicaid spending were drastically increasing
Senator John McCain who ran against Obama also recognized healthcare was an issue and developed his own healthcare proposal [fn2}. The proposals were very different but were at the forefront of the presidential race…again, for a reason.
Obama won handedly over McCain, 53% to 46%. One could call it a mandate. Because healthcare was such a pivotal issue in the campaign, one could also call it a mandate for healthcare reform.
Fast forward (yadda, yadda, yadda) to fall 2009 when the democratically controlled House passed its first healthcare reform bill, which included a public option. The bill passed with the support of one republican and 39 democrats voting no. The bill would eventually be passed in both houses by stripping out the public option and including both an employer and individual mandate (see bill history). It is important to note that although no republicans voted for the bill, hundreds of republican amendments were added to the legislation.
All the while, during this very important debate, instead of having an intelligent discussion about healthcare issues, Obama’s opponents chose scare tactics and lies to fuel its base and render the Affordable Care Act supporters nothing more than socialist witch doctors. The ridiculous right purported “death panels” and taxpayer paid abortions and Obama forcing his way between you and your doctor. (Actually, that is the republicans who want to force things like vaginal ultrasounds on pregnant woman, but I digress.). All lies. Ultra conservatives didn’t want to have a debate. They wanted President Obama to fail.
Because of this disgraceful media circus, the nation was deprived of basic knowledge. There was no public debate on the components of the bill – it was stop obamacare or death!
Obamacare is not perfect. But what it does is provide an expanded Patients’ Bill of Rights. These rights are never discussed by the republicans who vote to repeal and defund Obamacare.
Obamacare should have included a public option – a government run program that would compete with healthcare corporations – guaranteeing an affordable option. The healthcare industry lobbied hard to kill the public option.
The individual mandate, which was of course supported by the industry because it guarantees more customers, serves as a way of bringing as many individuals into the healthcare pool, which in turn is expected to drive down costs. The main goal of the individual mandate is to get healthy young people into the insurance pool. This ensures two things: 1) healthy people will help fund the unhealthy and 2) the uninsured, who typically do not seek preventative care, will not ultimately end up in the ER, costing the insured and taxpayers billions.
Many erroneously label Obamacare as socialism – actually the system we had was socialism (taxpayers and the insured subsidizing the uninsured as noted above) – what we have now is individual responsibility.
To help make it easier for the uninsured, Obamacare provides tax incentives. For example:
A family of four (all non-smokers), making $80,000/year are likely to pay $10,900 in annual premiums. Under Obamacare, the family will only pay $7,600 by receiving a tax credit of $3,300.
The employer mandate, which has been postponed until 2015, requires all companies with 50 employees or more to provide those workers that work 30 hours or more healthcare coverage. The employer pays a fine for each full-time employee for which it does not provide healthcare coverage (excluding the company’s 30 first full-time employees). The idea behind the employer mandate is similar to that of the individual mandate – ensuring that those who are not providing workers healthcare should have to pay into the system that will help those employees pay for their healthcare. The fee ranges from $2000 – $3000 per uninsured worker, the higher rate applying to those employees who are receiving tax benefits for healthcare. Employers can also receive tax credits if they provide 50% or more towards the employee’s coverage.
Wealthy, multinational companies like Dunkin Donuts and Wal-Mart have all threatened to decrease employees and work hours to avoid having to provide healthcare. Other companies have said they’d likely pay the fine rather than offer their employees healthcare benefits. Still others are looking to provide the most basic of healthcare.
It all makes sense really – corporations aren’t in business to provide their employees benefits; they’re in business to make money. Business does very little for society these days other than make the wealthy, wealthier – if there was ever proof of this, it is Obamacare.
Our current healthcare system relies on full-time employment, which leaves part-time employees and the unemployed out. And as we can see with Obamacare, even with tax incentives and federal mandates, corporations are finding ways to weasel out of any responsibility.Let’s not blame Obamacare, let’s blame the greedy corporations that are choosing profit over the livelihood of their workers.
In the case of something as essential as healthcare, the free market has failed us. In a progressive, modern society, profit should never be a factor, let alone the factor, when caring for the sick and the elderly.
Obamacare isn’t the end of our society. However, It could very well be the impetus we need for universal or single-payer healthcare. That is the real solution to America’s healthcare problem. Every other industrialized nation has a single payer system. None are perfect. All are better than ours.
Endnotes