OBAMA CARE
A cranky opinion for
CRANKY OPINION SATURDAY
The following is the opinion of a
cranky old man with absolutely no expertise in the field of health care. As always, opposing opinions are
welcome. They are wrong, but welcome,
and please, no name calling…that means you, you big stupid head!
The Obama
Healthcare plan finally kicked in on Tuesday.
It will not take a week, or a month, or a year to tell if it is a
success or not, it will suck and suck badly.
This legislation is 50 million pages long. It was written by 33 committees made up
mostly of politicians and special interest lobbyists. It was passed without a single voter having
read more than a summary of what they think the law said.
Of course it
will suck.
Other
countries have tried to revise healthcare.
Many systems are free. It is hard
to find health care providers in these systems.
Free seldom works. I’ll bet rich
people in these countries manage to find health care.
Those
systems suck.
Our current
system is expensive as hell. Many people
cannot afford health care. Many people
go to emergency rooms for health care where they cannot be turned down. Getting emergency care for genuine
emergencies can be difficult. Those who
can pay for their health care in our system also pay for those that cannot.
Our current
system sucks.
The problem
with health care today, that did not exist years ago, is health care can do so
much. Years ago, for many illnesses, the
Doctor just told you how many years or months you had to live. Today Doctors have medicine, machines and
technology that can cure an illness.
Curing an illness is expensive.
It is way more expensive than telling someone how much time they have to
stay above ground.
This whole
health care issue is tremendously complicated.
It involves more than just doctors and hospitals and drugs. It involves lawyers, and clergy, and
politicians. To change our current
system to one that is fair and cost effective is impossible. It just cannot be done!
When I
worked in operations on Wall Street, there were many operational changes which
involved multiple firms, from multiple states and multiple countries, with
multiple needs and interests. Getting a
status quo decision as to how best make industry operational changes was
impossible. It could not be done!
And yet Wall
Street did it all the time. How? Regulatory agencies mandated changes. Firms claimed they could not make the changes
and gave multiple reasons why change was impossible. Regulatory agencies said, “Do it, or go out
of business…just find away and do it!”
Somehow,
with no other choice but to find a way or go out of business, all those
multiple firms with multiple interests would find a way and get it done.
This is what
the Obama Care legislation has done. It
has mandated change. It will suck, but
it will be tweaked. Bad ideas will be
culled, good ideas will be expanded and innovative plans and ideas will be
cultivated. The Obama Health Care plan
will suck, but by mandating change, the Health Care system will change and
eventually change for the better.
Obama Care
is going to be painful. There will be
many, many unintended consequences.
We know the
current system sucks.
I believe
that given time the Obama plan will suck less.
The preceding was the opinion of a
cranky old man and not necessarily that of management…Mrs. Cranky.
Spoken like a true pragmatist, Cranky. You and I are definitely on the same wave length here. All the time and effort we're spending arguing about it could be better spent fixing it, or at least trying.
ReplyDeleteExcellent post!
S
I lost my full time job in Sept of 2009 because they closed my department. I refused to buy the Cobra and am doing without health Insurance ever since. I am taking good care of my health and even with two part time jobs do not have health Insurance. Now I will be paying from my pocket .
ReplyDeleteBut Munir, the odds are that some day you will have a serious illness or accident that will eat up all your savings or worse, bankrupt you. Then your medical care would be at an emergency room that you can't pay for, and the taxpayers will get your bill. Will that be fare to everyone else? That's what the new law is trying to avoid.
ReplyDeleteUmmm....that should be "fair" to everyone else.
ReplyDeletewe need the pre-existing condition exclusions and penalties to be lifted...
ReplyDeleteWhile I am not sure that Wall Street and regulations are a good example (since these keep getting watered down...including the financial advisor time delay in Congress right now) I do think it will be agood move in the right direction. It is based on a health care plan out of a conservative think tank...what could go wrong?
ReplyDeleteGreat post. You had me all rankled and fired up to defend government safety nets and health care - and then I kept reading and found that we agree after all.
ReplyDeleteYou are right - it will be hard and bad at first, but it's better than what's there now, and it will improve.
Here in Australia we've had Medicare for years. There are still some clinics that do free care ("bulk billing") but those are getting fewer and the doctors there are not the best. Most clinics have subsidised care, so you pay some of the cost. Everyone is still encouraged to have private health insurance through tax incentives, and frankly better care in hospitals (though everyone in government and health will swear that everyone gets the same care).
We still have problems. Health insurance keeps rising, and depending where you live it can be hard to get in to see a doctor quickly, and emergency wards are struggling to cope with higher usage. Ambulance response times have gone up and our ambulance workers are also protesting they're not paid enough which I'm sure is true. But things are OK, in general, despite all that. Most people get the care they need, most of the time.
Something had to be done. I definitely am not impressed with Obamacare but at least it's something!!! Hopefully it will be tweaked and the bad culled and we end up with something that is workable. Have to wait and see. But the fighting has got to stop now.
ReplyDeleteThat's pretty much what I tell everyone I'm sick of listening to. Work it out.
ReplyDeleteTexWisGirl....pre-existing conditions have been abolished for some time now, part of Obamacare. To get the insurance companies to do that, Obamacare promised them millions of new premium-paying customers (the mandate). This is one of those give-and-take things we just need to suck up and accept.
ReplyDeleteS
Ahhh!!! I read on, knowing your style, and hoping to get some juicy bits here and there. Yep, all change sucks.Especially if at this point in time you are a thirty something and have no need for doctors at all, starting your own business on the side, and hoping to make it big without interference from big government. The rest of us, are grateful something is being done to rein in costs, sloppy bookkeeping, and decisions that never favor the guy at the bottom.
ReplyDeleteOur prescriptions went from $8.20 to $50. My daughter is on Seizure meds so this new rate will be expensive for us. Our family deductible went from $1000 to $3500. Our copay was $20 but even that has gone up. I guess this new system benefits us all as a country? Or will eventually, we hope. But right now I'm hating the extra expense for my family. It just sucks that we have to fork out more money when we, personally, were satisfied with the way our benefits were before the change. I don't like having to take away from my family's budget to help pay for others. I just don't. Call me mean or selfish or whatever, but if I want to give or donate, then I do. I shouldn't be forced into it. My family's rates have gone up in order for everyone to afford healthcare. I think that sucks. I'm living in the "right now" I suppose, and right now my family's budget will have to be restructured. Piano lessons will have to stop and other things given up in order to pay for our hew healthcare costs. So right now this new system isn't making me happy. But maybe in 20 years I will see the "change" it has made.
ReplyDeleteYou are absolutely right, and as a working, contributing citizen, you probably have more expertise than you are giving yourself credit for having. Good post.
ReplyDeleteTo Lowandslow: You said, "...and the taxpayers will get your bill. Will that be fair to everyone else?" I understand your reasoning, but who do you think is paying for it now? I work pretty hard to support my family. Whether they steal the fruits of my efforts in the Emergency Room or through Obamacare doesn't matter.
Cranky is right. It sucks, but hopefully will get better when those who thought this stupid idea would work get hit in the pocketbook.
I agree with what you've written and most of the comments are spot on. Fix the damn thing and stop harping about it. I've used medical facilities overseas and let me tell you we are nowhere near the top of medical care except when it comes to cost.
ReplyDeleteAs a person who is now covered by two private insurance policies, paying two premiums, and STILL paying out the nose for my prescriptions, I resent it when somebody without any insurance waltzes in and for $2 picks up the pain meds that keep them waltzing pain-free and insurance-free.
ReplyDeleteDon't know how I'll feel about the new system when I'm forced into it. I doubt I can be more bitter.
"The problem with health care today, that did not exist years ago, is health care can do so much."
ReplyDeleteHammer, nail, head. Absolutely spot on.
As for whether Obamacare will be better than what we have had, I hope you will be proven correct. My own sense is that it will not be an improvement, but I am willing to be an optimist for the time being :-)
I have to admit I really don't know much about this Obamacare issue. I'm Australian so we have public health care. Of course it's not perfect, but if you need something, you get it. The main problems that crop up are when you perhaps don't need it right away, then there's the issues of waiting lists and priorities being set.
ReplyDeleteAnd regulations suck. However, Wall Street and the Health Care Industry are two examples of why we need regulations. Unfortunately, those with the power to impose regulations are mostly dysfunctional or corrupted by them.
ReplyDeleteNot your first mistake, Joe. Still you are mistaken!
ReplyDelete