
Originally Posted by
Brett N
How can you say it isn't panning out? I have to admit that I am not 100% informed on it but I also know that any type of reform will take some time to actually start working. No system will start working with all bugs ironed out on the first day.
The healthcare costs in the US sucks ass. The cost of healthcare is not an opinion, it's a fact. At some point, something needs to change.
I am in the International Brick and Stone Masons union. For now, I am exempt from the affordable healthcare act. I know as a collective bargaining member that I pay about $8 an hour to my healthcare. I need 300 hours a quarter to maintain it. That's $800 a month. If I have 250 hours, I lose all the wages that I paid into my healthcare plus I get to pay $750 a month (cobra) until I am able to work enough hours to get my insurance back. I get it back after I wourk 300 hours in a quarter and wait for 45 days after that.
You tell me...that's not ****ed up?
So, maybe this system is going to be flawed. I guarantee you it will. But, as unpopular as it is, it is a step in the direction that we need to be moving. I am not one of the well off workers that this will take 1% of my income. I bust my ass and destroy my body for my trade which I picked but then I have to struggle to make enough extra so I can get tubes in my daughters ears so she can hear. That's not right.
Sure, this will likely benefit those who are leeches on the system and will take advantage of any and every government program out there. They would just go to the emergency room and not pay their bills anyways so it makes no difference to them. But, there are many out there who have built this infrastructure that the rest of the country thrives on that deserve to have some sort of insurance that they can afford to buy for their families.
A step in the right direction is better than taking no step at all. That's my opinion. We will iron out the bugs during the process.