Atlanta Forward readers responded to our recent pro and con columns about Medicaid expansion in Georgia. Here are some comments from our blog under the writers’ chosen screen names.
DeborahinAthens: The best system would have been a simple, single-payer plan, removing a lot of the financial incentives for insurers, which is one reason for the massive cost inflation in our health care system. This was the "compromise" arrived at by our dysfunctional, do-nothing Congress.
Sawb: While health care reform was badly needed, in their haste to get something passed, we've sort of ended up with a mess. A much simpler answer would have been for each American to have a health savings account and to modify the tax code, creating incentives for employers to contribute to these plans. The government could contribute to the plans to either subsidize or fully fund the cost for low-income (persons) or the unemployed. Individuals would then be free to buy their own private insurance, select their doctor and take ownership of their health care. Alas, this would have taken too much control away for the central planners and allowed too much freedom for the serfs.
Jack: A lot of referrals to "federal money" in these blogs; that's not federal money, it belongs to those who pay taxes. Also, many referrals to the "neediest" among us. A high percentage of the neediest find ways to buy cigarettes, beer and lotto tickets and to drive new cars to the welfare offices. The ACA is nothing more than expanding welfare paid for by those who don't expect a free lunch.
Josh: Some have mentioned that the federal money to fund Medicaid expansion comes from our taxes. True! But we will pay those taxes whether Georgia expands or not. Why not expand Medicaid and bring that money back to Georgia instead of sending it off to pay for Medicaid in Arkansas and Arizona?
MrLiberty: Yes, build a bigger and better Titanic that will take even more to a watery grave.
Ralph43: Double taxation for an inferior program — just so a Republican governor can strut around claiming he is opposed to health care for the poor ("Let those hard-working 29-year-olds die from curable cancer, who cares?") and does not like Barrack Obama. Disgusting. Tom Price should be ashamed; I am sure his teachers are.
MMS: We have predicted the problems with the health care industry for over 35 years, and have made attempts to get it under control for 30 years. The last major attempt was during the Clinton administration. Now is the time to begin spending our energies refining the rules with the new Affordable Care Act, rather than this antagonistic and inefficient waste of time trying to repeal a law to help so many and that has been upheld by the Supreme Court. This isn't just an issue of money, but of the well-being of all Americans. I ask that we move forward, accept the Affordable Care Act (it is law), start caring for the least able, and spend our efforts finding new ways to provide for all of us using the new basis.
