The Problem With and Solution to the 5% Debacle

OK.  So Healthcare.gov was a complete botch.  Now what do we do? 

Roughly 5% of Americans now have to change their healthcare plans because they don't have coverage that conforms with the new law. Did President Obama "lie" about people not being able to keep their healthcare?  I don't think so.  I think it was a huge oversight, but I don't believe for one second that he was intentionally misleading the public.  He would have nothing to gain in doing so.

So, here's my solution.  First of all, President Obama needs to own up to the mistake, apologize for it and then, hopefully, Republicans can move on.  If they can't, which will probably be the case, that's their own issue.

Next, many Americans' plans were grandfathered in to the system.  Why not grandfather those who received letters from their insurance companies (way too late, I might add) stating they will be dropped and have to pay a higher premium for better coverage?  I feel, the insurance companies should keep the insureds' premium the same and have their policies comply fully with the law.  It's the insurance companies who provided a sub par policy to begin with, so they should have to honor these changes but not at the expense of the consumer.  Maybe, over time, the premium can be adjusted to match what the policy actually covers, but it shouldn't be immediate and certainly shouldn't be at the policy holders' expense, at least initially. Win-win in my opinion.  The insurance companies comply with the law and the insureds still pay something into the system.

Lastly, we all need to be patient.  A system that has been virtually unchanged for years and badly broken can't be fixed overnight.  But, a website can be fixed to meet the needs of all its' users.  Maybe not overnight, but in a relatively short period of time.  Is it embarrassing for the administration?  Of course.  Is it criminal or even as big of a deal as the media and right-wing pundits are making it?  Of course not.  We all live in a society in which everything is "on-demand".  We all need to remember a phrase that has probably been told to us at some point in our life: Good things come to those who wait.  And, once all the kinks get fixed, everyone will see what a good thing it is.

Ignorance or Propaganda?- The Republican Strategy to Misinform the Masses

Listening to the Sunday morning political talk shows this week gave me some insight on Obamacare that I had known about but hadn't really thought about until hearing again how the House wants to defund Obamacare or shutdown the government...yet again.  I'm not sure what the Republicans seek to gain by doing this, but using Obamacare as a "bargaining chip" is pretty self-defeating, in my opinion.

Let's take recent polls of Obamacare.  True, the polls that I've looked at show that Americans still aren't sold on the idea of the Affordable Care Act.  One poll indicated only 39% of Americans support Obamacare, while 51% are adamantly against it.  Another stated that 45% think it will have a "negative impact on the nation's healthcare system rather than a positive one."  Those numbers frankly shocked me.  One respondent, whom I saw quoted in many of the articles I read, was a Republican-leaning female from North Carolina whose biggest concern was that the bill has "death panels in there, and they're going to decide whether people are going to get treatment or not."  Wow.  First of all, there are no death panels anywhere in the bill.  The only provision that could even be considered close to a death panel is the one requiring Medicare to pay for end-of-life counseling, which was taken out of the bill altogether in 2010.  I'm not sure how someone can even make a statement like that, unless what they read (or more likely watch) led them to that misconception.

The term "death panels," I found out, was coined by Sarah Palin in 2009 regarding the healthcare bill, and was quickly shot down by those who actually fact check, instead of spout whatever they feel to get people to agree with them, whether it's true or not.  She was referring to the Independent Payment Advisory Board (IPAB) which makes recommendations of cost-savings to the Secretary of Health and Human Services if costs of Medicare raise too much.  This, in no way, is a death panel, or even close to it.  It's a provision that, in my opinion, is important in order to make the system work better and provides an entity that would keep the system in check, so to speak.

(This is an incomplete excerpt written a week before the Oct 1 rollout of ACA and before the shutdown.  Now, a month later it's old news so I didn't feel like finishing it, but felt compelled to post what I had anyway.)

Why Middle-Class Republican is an Oxymoron

I'm frustrated. I keep watching the news and hearing what the Republican
candidates keep saying and it angers me. I can't blame them. They're
politicians. But, I can and do blame those who listen to what they say, believe
what they say and are still planning on voting for whichever one of them gets
the GOP nomination. Those people (which I realize is about half of registered
voters) give these candidates false credibility (false as far as I'm
concerned).
Since the era of Bush II, when I became politically involved and
enlightened, I've kept the belief that no one who makes less than $250,000 a
year should vote Republican. The older I get, the more I pay attention to the
political process, the more that belief rings true to me. And, I still have yet
to make a salary remotely close to the $250k figure. Why do I believe this way?
Because Republicans do not have the best interests of the middle class at
heart. Why do people still vote for them? It's called pandering. They only need
to appeal to those in the middle class because they need their votes. But, if
the voters saw through their rhetoric and lies, the Republican party would be a
dying breed.
In order to understand why hard-working middle class people could vote
Republican, let's take a look at what's important to those voters. For some,
it's the abortion issue. Good, God-fearing people can't even fathom voting for
someone who would be ok ending the life of an unborn baby. It would be a sin to
vote for someone like that, would it not? These voters are what I call
one-issue voters and to me, that's extremely narrow-minded. First of all,
abortion is legal. No Republican president is ever going to get Roe v Wade
repealed. But, they still use it to earn votes. Then, there's the gun issue.
For some reason, middle class Republican voters think that the Democrats want
to take away their guns. That's false. We just don't think you should be able
to have them on you at all times, especially in the inner city or bars, which
is where some Republicans want anyone to be able to carry them. Doesn't seem
smart. Call me crazy. And, I do believe that Reagan and Bush  signed more assault
weapon restrictions than Obama or even Clinton have. How about social programs?
Some Republicans want to get rid of Social Security, Medicaid and Medicare.
But, tell a Republican on Social Security that the government is going to lower
their SS benefits, and that Republican will be the first to tell you, "Get
your government hands off my Social Security!" The fact is that Social
Security is not going bankrupt. It's solvent for another 27 years and can make
80% of its payouts forever after that IF WE DID NOTHING AT ALL.
They claim to be against big government, but they want to be able to tell
you with whom you may have sex with, whether or not women can have access to free
contraception, and what you can and cannot smoke in the privacy of your own
home, and that plays to certain voters’ beliefs, world view and fears. But, I \also wonder how much of this stuff
Republican politicians believe themselves, or use it to gain votes?
Bottom line: Republicans only care about advancing the
interests of their big money donors (especially now more than ever) and don’t
really care about what matters to the constituents that voted them into
office. If you don’t believe me, look at
their recent actions. They wanted to
raise taxes on the middle class (once they realized that you can cut yourself
out of a deficit hole) before they even thought about raising taxes on the richest
1%. But, because our system is
democratic, Republicans need voters in order to have a shot at all at winning
an election office, and so they play the politics of fear, making up falsehoods
about Democratic candidates taking their hard earned money and giving it to a
single unemployed mother and that moves those voters to the ballots. If people would pay just a little more
attention, they would be wise to this and realize that voting for a Republican while
you’re on a five-figure salary just isn’t in your best interest.

Less than 43.

It's imperative to point out that, although this blog is meant to be personal and reflective, a majority of these posts will most likely be political in nature.  Politics is what consumes much of my day, whether I'm at work, home, on my way to work, on my way home or before I go to bed at night (such as right now).  So, I feel that I probably have quite a bit to say about politics and if I jot these musings down, maybe they will be entertaining, as well.

As for this first blog, I think I'm going to call it a night.  Had a good day today, in regards to this entry's title.  More on that to come.