Atlanta Forward readers always weigh in when the topic concerns the Affordable Care Act, often called Obamacare. Here are some comments from last week’s blog.
Starik: Obamacare is an unsatisfactory program, to be sure, but remember that it's all we could get in a bad political climate that has since gotten worse. What we need is a national system funded by taxpayers with costs controlled by the government. When some uninsured thug gets shot, or some uninsured kid gets drunk and has a wreck, why should the taxpayers pay for their care? Or if an uninsured young kid gets injured by sheer bad luck, who pays?
Mangler: You're all for the free market until the market turns around and charges you for getting cancer.
SAWB: I admire President Obama for taking on much needed health care reform, but I fear he has created a ravenous monster whose appetite will never be satisfied. The bureaucracy, waste and outright corruption that is bound to follow this program is going to be appalling. A much simpler idea would have been to implement health savings accounts that give the individual the freedom and responsibility for his or her health care. The government could have subsidized these accounts for low-income individuals at a much lower rate than what will be spent on the Affordable Care Act. If you thought the stories coming out of the Veterans Administration were appalling, just wait until this monster begins to assume control.
Dusty: This country is already more than $17 trillion dollars in debt. And some people think they will get health care for free? That health insurance at lower rates will now be offered to people who couldn't pay a dime for it in the first place? That young people who do not want health insurance or need health insurance will be ordered by law (like everybody else) to buy health insurance, and that will offset the heavy cost of elders who need help? I don't know who it was in Washington who planned this totally senseless "health care" plan. But they need to return to the land of Oz and Serendipity where they belong. They do not need to be planning anything else for citizens since their talent is for laughable amusement centers and Chinese bargain basements to support our debt. That is what they now plan for America and call it a health care plan.
Bernie: One thing for sure, you have to love watching the hypocrisy of the Republican Party and its supporters when it comes to caring for the Americans who would benefit the most from Obamacare — who are overwhelmingly children, seniors, disabled, mentally handicapped, veterans and active-duty enlisted family members.
A: I simply cannot wait for those paying nothing to begin receiving the bills for their shiny new insurance or the fines for penalties in their mailboxes. The only way to drive the impact home is the realization that they now have an additional, permanent, self-chosen cost to squeeze into their family budgets.
