I see and hear a lot of talk about the Affordable Care Act "Obama Care". I recently had taken a survey that asked questions about the ACA and I found that I really didn't know much about it even though I had my own opinions. Now, let's be realistic. We all tend to listen to and agree with those who express opinions that match our own. This is not good, but we all do it. It is hard to listen to a opposing view with an open mind. Knowing that, I thought I would do some research on the ACA and see what it is really all about and try to come to a rational decision. Not an easy task. Most people, I'm sure, who have opinions on this, and most other things, have not actually done any investigating to find the truth. They just blindly follow and repeat opinions of those they think they agree with.
Here is what I have found.
First to the government site to see what it says. https://www.healthcare.gov/ There is a lot here. It tells abut the ACA in plan language. I did not find the actual ACA bill here though. It is important to at least take a look at that to see what it says. This government site is, of course, trying to promote it, so, although there is a lot of good information here it might not be the whole story. The actual bill is here: http://www.gpo.gov/fdsys/pkg/BILLS-111hr3590enr/pdf/BILLS-111hr3590enr.pdf
All 906 pages of it! Right there is the reason no one bothers to really learn what this is all about - including our representatives. I doubt many of them actually read these things despite that we pay them to do that! Just reading it is not enough either, you have to analyze it also. That is more difficult since none of us can know the details of everything that will be affected.
A summery would be helpful. Here is the Democrat's summery: http://www.dpc.senate.gov/healthreformbill/healthbill04.pdf
Here is the Republican summery: http://maine.thelibertylab.com/wp-content/uploads/Republican-Summary-of-the-Patient-Protection-and-Affordable-Care-Act.pdf
Look at them side by side if you can. Can we believe either of them? Anyone can twist numbers to their favor. You would have to check everything they say against the ACA document to see if they got it right or are making up stuff. I will say that the republican one looks more like a rant than a overview of the facts.
One thing you can do is let non-government analysts read and analyze it for you. The problem here is to not fall into the trap of reading only those who agree with your preconceived notions. Here is a Washington Post article that lays out some points. http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/wonkblog/wp/2012/06/24/11-facts-about-the-affordable-care-act/ Is it fully reliable? Probably not, but it lays out some "facts" in a way that is easy to understand. I put facts in quotes because - it's a newspaper and newspapers don't always (probably never) deliver all the facts.
Finding a website that is unbiased is impossible. Even if the site actually is unbiased, how can you tell? You can't. So, the only option is look at sites that are for it and those against it.
Here is a Pros & Cons list. http://obamacarefacts.com/obamacare-pros-and-cons.php Admittedly, this site is biased even though it does a good job of trying to look neutral in its information, the title boldly gives it away. Most of them are not so obvious.
Here is a site that poses questions and gives a quick answer and gives you the option of more in depth discussion. http://healthcarereform.procon.org/ This site claims to be neutral. You decide.
What I do know now is that those without health care insurance either get no care or the providers don't get paid. Neither of these is good. Regardless of what happens with ACA some question that I feel need to be answered are these: (1) Health care is very expensive. If you look at the bill from your doctor or your hospital you find that the expense is so high that you would quickly go bankrupt if you had to pay these without insurance. (2) Why is the care so expensive? (3) With the cost of health care so high, why are so many care givers going out of business because they can not afford to continue? (4) What is going on with the insurance companies? How big are their profits and how can they have high profits when health care is so expensive? They're in it to make a profit, so, no profit, no insurance. (5) What is the cost of health care insurance to us now? Trying to find actual costs is not easy. It varies by state and family status and deductible and amount of coverage.... So there is no easy answer to current cost. You know your own, but I'll bet you don't know how it compares to others or other choices. I found one site that says in New York the average is $357 per person per month. I thought it would be higher. I'm not sure how that average was derived.
One important thing to look at is health care around the world. How do we fit in and where are things headed. There are comparison charts at this site: http://www.who.int/whr/2008/whr08_en.pdf
And the World Health Org. has a report. It is somewhat dated (2008). http://www.who.int/whr/2008/whr08_en.pdf
I'm not going to give my conclusion here. I'm sure I would interject opinion and there is no reason you should consider my opinion valid. My intent is to get you to think and research before spreading someone else's opinion. If you are going to do that you had better know just what they are talking about. (That goes for everything, not just this topic!)
The one thing I will voice my opinion on is that there are certain government entities (we know who they are), and many regular citizens, who are against the ACA just because it is Obama. Some of our representatives have been very vocal about their intent to not support anything this administration does and they have been working on that strategy from day one of the current administration. THAT is NOT what we pay them for!
Is all this too much to digest? Yes it is. You have a lot of homework to do. That is what makes it so hard to make an informed decision about just about anything - especially when it comes to government.
Here is what I have found.
First to the government site to see what it says. https://www.healthcare.gov/ There is a lot here. It tells abut the ACA in plan language. I did not find the actual ACA bill here though. It is important to at least take a look at that to see what it says. This government site is, of course, trying to promote it, so, although there is a lot of good information here it might not be the whole story. The actual bill is here: http://www.gpo.gov/fdsys/pkg/BILLS-111hr3590enr/pdf/BILLS-111hr3590enr.pdf
All 906 pages of it! Right there is the reason no one bothers to really learn what this is all about - including our representatives. I doubt many of them actually read these things despite that we pay them to do that! Just reading it is not enough either, you have to analyze it also. That is more difficult since none of us can know the details of everything that will be affected.
A summery would be helpful. Here is the Democrat's summery: http://www.dpc.senate.gov/healthreformbill/healthbill04.pdf
Here is the Republican summery: http://maine.thelibertylab.com/wp-content/uploads/Republican-Summary-of-the-Patient-Protection-and-Affordable-Care-Act.pdf
Look at them side by side if you can. Can we believe either of them? Anyone can twist numbers to their favor. You would have to check everything they say against the ACA document to see if they got it right or are making up stuff. I will say that the republican one looks more like a rant than a overview of the facts.
One thing you can do is let non-government analysts read and analyze it for you. The problem here is to not fall into the trap of reading only those who agree with your preconceived notions. Here is a Washington Post article that lays out some points. http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/wonkblog/wp/2012/06/24/11-facts-about-the-affordable-care-act/ Is it fully reliable? Probably not, but it lays out some "facts" in a way that is easy to understand. I put facts in quotes because - it's a newspaper and newspapers don't always (probably never) deliver all the facts.
Finding a website that is unbiased is impossible. Even if the site actually is unbiased, how can you tell? You can't. So, the only option is look at sites that are for it and those against it.
Here is a Pros & Cons list. http://obamacarefacts.com/obamacare-pros-and-cons.php Admittedly, this site is biased even though it does a good job of trying to look neutral in its information, the title boldly gives it away. Most of them are not so obvious.
Here is a site that poses questions and gives a quick answer and gives you the option of more in depth discussion. http://healthcarereform.procon.org/ This site claims to be neutral. You decide.
What I do know now is that those without health care insurance either get no care or the providers don't get paid. Neither of these is good. Regardless of what happens with ACA some question that I feel need to be answered are these: (1) Health care is very expensive. If you look at the bill from your doctor or your hospital you find that the expense is so high that you would quickly go bankrupt if you had to pay these without insurance. (2) Why is the care so expensive? (3) With the cost of health care so high, why are so many care givers going out of business because they can not afford to continue? (4) What is going on with the insurance companies? How big are their profits and how can they have high profits when health care is so expensive? They're in it to make a profit, so, no profit, no insurance. (5) What is the cost of health care insurance to us now? Trying to find actual costs is not easy. It varies by state and family status and deductible and amount of coverage.... So there is no easy answer to current cost. You know your own, but I'll bet you don't know how it compares to others or other choices. I found one site that says in New York the average is $357 per person per month. I thought it would be higher. I'm not sure how that average was derived.
One important thing to look at is health care around the world. How do we fit in and where are things headed. There are comparison charts at this site: http://www.who.int/whr/2008/whr08_en.pdf
And the World Health Org. has a report. It is somewhat dated (2008). http://www.who.int/whr/2008/whr08_en.pdf
I'm not going to give my conclusion here. I'm sure I would interject opinion and there is no reason you should consider my opinion valid. My intent is to get you to think and research before spreading someone else's opinion. If you are going to do that you had better know just what they are talking about. (That goes for everything, not just this topic!)
The one thing I will voice my opinion on is that there are certain government entities (we know who they are), and many regular citizens, who are against the ACA just because it is Obama. Some of our representatives have been very vocal about their intent to not support anything this administration does and they have been working on that strategy from day one of the current administration. THAT is NOT what we pay them for!
Is all this too much to digest? Yes it is. You have a lot of homework to do. That is what makes it so hard to make an informed decision about just about anything - especially when it comes to government.
So, do your best. Be a responsible citizen. Good luck and good night.
No comments:
Post a Comment