[skinsguy]

Originally Posted by 12thMan

Secondly, this law doesn't cover ALL Americans. It covers approximately 30 million (revised number per CBO). That's it. No undocumented immigrants and no one gets free medical care. No free rides. Period. That said, all Americans insurance plans aren't directly affected by this law. So most of what we're debating isn't what falls under the Patient Bill of Rights Act portion, because if we go point by point, the vast majority of people here -- left and right -- would agree with most of those rights. What we're debating is the individual mandate. Correct? The idea that those who *don't* have insurance should. Okay, that sounds pretty libertarian to me. Pull your own weight, pal. Is that an expansion of the social safety net. Sure. But it's also an economic imperative. Too much of the nations debt, too much of our GDP is driven by healthcare costs. It's ludicrous to say you're a fiscal hawk and want to do absolutely nothing about our broken healthcare system. It doesn't make moral sense or fiscal sense.

As it states, the law provides a tax credit to go toward the purchase of health insurance for those who qualify. Those who don't qualify (earns below a certain amount) will be covered by Medicaid's extended program. So while only 30 million would be covered under the tax credit, you how many more millions now will qualify for Medicaid? Obama has already came out, against his own party's will, and announced rising taxes for those making $250,000/per year and more, so we know that somebody has to cover the expensive of the extension of Medicaid.

Originally Posted by 12thMan

And to that end, I absolutely agree with the court's decision. Whether it falls under the Commerce Clause or the Congress' taxing authority is besides the point in my opinion. It's the law of the land. It was the right thing to do. Republicans believed so in the 90s, Democrats got it passed in the 2000s. This wasn't a unique idea. This wasn't some new radical Obama agenda. Both parties have embraced the idea of universal healthcare at one time or another. The political will power just wasn't there in the past. This time is was and the Supreme Court validated the law passed by the other two branches of government. So you have ALL three branches on the same page regarding a Republican concept.

This kind of sounds like a statement of a card carrying Democrat, lol! So, if it succeeds, it's the Democrats, but if it fails, it was a Republican concept?

Originally Posted by 12thMan

In terms of Nanny State and redistribution of wealth. I touched on this earlier. There are no giveaways under this law. You can't give me one example, under this law, of "free health insurance". In fact, you appear to contradicting yourself. You say Congress is forcing people to buy insurance, then you turnaround and call it free and wealth distribution. Which is it? There are some tax credits for lower income families who decide to purchase insurance. That's hardly Nanny state. I've yet to see a definitive argument that explains how this is redistribution of wealth. I'm open ears if you want to take a stab it.

Of course there's free health insurance. The Supreme Court past the decision that would allow this program to offer Medicaid extensions to cover those who "fall between the cracks" that otherwise before would not qualify for Medicaid. That money HAS to come from somewhere, where you do think the government is going to get that money? Again, President Obama has already came out this week and stated that he's pushing to have taxes raised for those making $250k+ a year instead of just millionaires now. So, even the President realizes that he's going to have to tax more in order to fund this program.

Originally Posted by 12thMan

The Supreme Court limited the Medicaid provision of the law, basically giving the states ability to deny funding or opt out. In some cases I don't think it's a wise move, but I can live with states making decisions based on the needs of the people and not politics. My biggest concern is how do we address cost containment. I've neither read nor heard anything that says with certainty that costs will come down dramatically because of the law. It's an imperfect law with room for improvement. Just like Social Security and other social programs that passed in their original form. It will be a lot better in the coming years.

We've been waiting for years for social security to improve, and alas, I won't have social security by the time I'm old enough to retire, so that's probably a bad example to compare this "law" to. As far as the Medicaid extension goes, in the end, it doesn't matter if the states have the right to opt out or not, they'll more than likely adopt the program, because it will probably wind up costing the states more in the long run not to.