What do you think about this statement?

[tcfrogs]

I received a quote from a Republican friend in my inbox this morning:

"If Obamacare was as Obama and the Regime and the Democrats advertised -- if it were the panacea they promised, if it were the fix that they promised, if it was the solution they all promised -- Obamacare would already have been fully implemented by now and the American people would demand access to it." - Rush Limbaugh, 2/10/14

As much as I'm not a fan of Limbaugh, there is a bit of a grain of truth there. I'm certainly not fully satisfied with the solutions in the ACA. However at the very least it is a start to something better for our country.

Thoughts?

[Mass]

1. The American people are demanding access to it. All polls say that.

As for the implementation, there are flaws in the law (and I am part of those who think Dems should not dismiss these flaws as no biggie), but in general, the problems come from the implementation and not the law itself.

[CK_John]

2. If you had a heart attack 10yrs ago and can now get insurance you would sleep a lot better

[Romulox]

5. As long as you have money to pay the premiums and copays, you mean? nt

[el_bryanto]

3. Panacea? While it was clearly better than the status quo

It was a measure designed to placate Republicans and to preserve the parasitical insurance industry.

Bryant

[Tuesday Afternoon]

4. Dear Rush,

(read: Dumbass)

If the republicans hadn't road blocked it at every turn it would be.

Signed,

FU

[Shrike47]

6. It is what it really promised to be. First Rush makes false claims for what was promised, then

he asserts the program doesn't meet his expectations. Does that all the time. Don't buy into it and let Rush define the world. He's a lying propagandist, don't forget.

[TheMathieu]

7. Anyone that finds a grain of truth in anything Limbaugh has said is too far gone. nt

[tcfrogs]

11. You can't really deny that the ACA has issues

Especially with those who are unemployed or below the poverty level. Amongst other pesky problems.

All I said was that there is a grain of truth to it. Doesn't mean I'm converting to the dark side.

[WinkyDink]

19. That is NOT what your "friend's" (yeah, right) message quotes Limbaugh as saying.

[JaneyVee]

8. What's the Republican healthcare alternative?

[Nye Bevan]

12. They did put out an alternative plan, which sucks.

Anyone can get coverage initially, even those with pre-existing conditions. But if you don't maintain continuous coverage, you lose it and will not be able to get it back if you have a pre-existing condition. So if you screw up, forget to pay your premium, the insurance company "loses" your check (which of course they would have every incentive to do for high-cost patients), the penalty is that you lose all your money, your house, and become destitute. This plan is cruel and heartless.

[Hoyt]

9. As you said, it's a start for something better. If Limbaugh had his way, nothing would have passed.

The right wingers are welcome to offer changes to Obamacare, like a public option. If all legislation had been defeated like Hillarycare in the early 1990s, we'd be in for no change to the status quo for two decades. That really was not an option.

[Scuba]

10. Perfection is the enemy of progress. Flawed as the ACA is, it's still better than before ....

I will still advocate for Medicare for All, including dental, optical, hearing aids, nursing home and mental health services.

[JayhawkSD]

13. I'm not yet convinced it's better than the status quo ante

It depends not on what the premiums are this year, but on what they are next year when they are based on experiance rather than pure guesswork and/or promises from the administration and CBO regarding who will sign up.

Even more, it depends on who is in the networks. People are saying "Oh yes, I got a low premium and low deductible" but then they find out that there are only eight doctors in their network and six of those are not accepting new patients. Yes, that's facetious, but a friend of mine's wife works for a doctor who doesn't accept one of the major plans because the amount they pay has been reduced below what Medicare pays. That makes me question just how broad the networks might be.

On healthcare.gov in California, you now have to sign up for a policy without knowing what doctors and providers are in the network, because the lists of providers was so innarcuate that they had to take it down.

Yes, the problem may be "merely" in the implementation, but until the implementation is sorted out we really don't know whether the law is worthwhile or not. If, once the implementation is sorted out, insurers find they are losing money and raise rates, or providers find payments are too low and drop out of networks, or users find that networks are smaller than they were led to believe, or deductibles and copays continue to create "medical bankruptcies," then it is going to turn out to be a bad law. And we won't know any of these things for some time, so it's too early to say that it's a good law or even that it's better than what went before.

[Hoyt]

15. How restrictive/small are "networks" for those with no insurance?

I agree you need to check the networks, and initially that may be tough. But, in most areas, the networks are large enough. In some rural areas, networks are small as they have always been.

ACA is infinitely better than nothing. It took almost 20 years to get anything after Hillarycare was defeated. A similar defeat for Obamacare would have been a catastrophe for lots of folks. Now that the legislation has been pushed through, it will be much easier to make major changes with just a few paragraphs of legislation.

I tend to be a pessimist too, but I feel much more positive about the ACA than I did before it was enacted.

[JayhawkSD]

17. I'm not saying it's bad, or even that it isn't good

I'm just saying that I can't join the bandwagon yet, and that includes saying "it's better than nothing."

Joe had no insurance. Now he has insurance for which he pays money, not much, but any amount is tough in this economy. But he gets sick and the copays and deductibles cause him to go bankrupt anyeway. This outcome is by no means outlandish. Did we do him a favor by making him pay for health insurance that still resulted in him being bankrupt? Is this better than him not paying out money before going bankrupt? Is this "better than nothing?"

We are celebrating because we indulged ourselves in a half measure. A half measure which may not even work because the economics of it are guesswork. We are assuming that the premiums paid by people who don't get sick will compensate for the cost of people who sign up with known health problems. Given the cost of health care today, that seems to me to be a very shaky assumption.

No one says "X million people will pay $Y each while collecting zero benefits, and that will compensate for Z million people who signed up with existing cancer and collected $W each to pay for treatment." In fact, the W million people will not collect zero benefits, because policies have to include a good bit of free or low copay medical treatment. But don't worry about a thing because insurance companies will pay for more things for more people and will charge lower premiums. They give us a lot of reasons why that works, but when it sounds too good to be true it is usually not true.

[FSogol]

14. I guess Oxycotin affects the brain's ability to form complete sentences.

[11 Bravo]

16. My initial thought is that people who quote Limbaugh on DU might have an agenda.

[WinkyDink]

18. There is NEVER---repeat, NEVER---"a bit of a grain of truth" with RL. Don't try that here.

[JVS]

20. Limbaugh is wrong. I'm not a big fan of ACA, but his logic is the same as the joke about the two...

economists who are walking down the street and one sees a $20 bill. He mentions it to the other economist and is told that he must be mistaken because if there were $20 laying there, someone would have taken the opportunity to pick it up.

Further, I see no indication that the American people are capable of demanding anything from their government, nor that they can even come to some kind of consensus on what they'd like to demand.

[Iggo]

21. They promised it was a panacea?

Or did somebody just make that up?

[Bandit]

22. Turn that right around. If Obama care was as bad as Republicans claim, it would already

be shunned by All of America, but instead people are clamoring to sign up.