The startling truth about Obamacare from personal experience.

I'm a liberal but I'm here to set the record straight, Obamacare is absolutely horrible. If you don't believe me, just keep reading!

Since being laid off last March due to the slowdown in the oil field and the pandemic I have been on the Affordable Care act. I got my coverage through healthcare.gov during special enrollment because of losing my employment.

My premium is a whopping - $1233.19 per month!!!

I mean after my tax credit of $1311 it's free... but still. 14,798 thousand a year, damn! that's a lot, even if I'm not paying for it.

My employer-based medical care only came to $6132 a year... so that truly is a shit load more expensive! 

Of course, that doesn't count the $14K additional that was my employer's portion that comes to $20,132 a year. Wait.... hmmm, okay so the ACA is actually a fuckload cheaper... but you know it is shitty, shitty coverage right!

I won't get to keep my doctor... oh wait, my doctor is on the plan. Well, she moved when the economy crashed, so I'll go ahead and blame Obama for that! It is an HMO though, so I do have to get my doctor's referral to see specialists and you know those Co-pays will eat my lunch! 

Except, I got a silver plan through the marketplace with BCBS. With two $5 Primary Care Physician visits before any larger co-pays kick in. And it's a 30% co-pay after that until my deductible is met. The estimate my out of pocket costs for the entire year at $1039 dollars. That is outrageous uh'm actually kind of incredible. Hmmm... but the prescription coverage must really suck!

I got 7 prescriptions today - I bet I got hosed! I bet I'm broke after this! I've never needed this many prescriptions in my life. I blame 2020...

1. Losartan HCTZ for my Blood pressure cost $302.89 before insurance - $0 after
2. Omnaprozale for Acid Reflux cost $194.89 before insurance - $0 after
3. Amocx-Clav for an Ear Infection $78.99 before insurance - $0 after
4. Escitalopram for for depression $159.99 before insurnce - $0 after
5. Fluticasone for Allergies 76.99 before insurance - $0 after
6. D-Amphetamine (Generic Adderall) for ADHD $194.99 before insurance - $10 after
7. Ofloxacin - also for ear infection $158.99 before insurance = $10 after

So, let's see... I paid $20 for prescriptions totaling $1,167.73!!! That is fucking horrible amazing. Hmmm, this isn't proving what I hoped to prove. 

My wife is getting surgery on a cyst next week, if we hadn't already met our deductible I bet we'd get hosed!

Okay, but this wouldn't work for everyone... if we covered everyone it would be bad for the country right. That's what they keep telling us, so it must be true. So they estimate that medicare for all would run around $3.2-$3.4 trillion a year. Well, damn... we can't afford that! I mean even if it helps my family that is a horrible amount to add to the countries healthcare costs. Shit. See I was right! Obamacare, and by extension Medicare for all would be a disaster even if it covered everyone.

So I'll go on record as saying it is a really, really, ba.... wait, you know what, let me check something out. Be right back!

<Pretend your listening to elevator music here>

Hmmm, it seems that in 2018 medical health spending was $3.6 trillion and expected to grow 5.4% each year until it hits 6.2 trillion in 2028.

• Medicare spending grew 6.4% to $750.2 billion in 2018 or 21 percent of total NHE.
• Medicaid spending grew 3.0% to $597.4 billion in 2018 or 16 percent of total NHE.
• Private health insurance spending grew 5.8% to $1,243.0 billion in 2018 or 34 percent of total NHE.
• Out of pocket spending grew 2.8% to $375.6 billion in 2018 or 10 percent of total NHE.
• Hospital expenditures grew 4.5% to $1,191.8 billion in 2018, slower than the 4.7% growth in 2017.
• Physician and clinical services expenditures grew 4.1% to $725.6 billion in 2018, a slower growth than the 4.7% in 2017.
• Prescription drug spending increased by 2.5% to $335.0 billion in 2018, faster than the 1.4% growth in 2017.
• The largest shares of total health spending were sponsored by the federal government (28.3 percent) and the households (28.4 percent). The private business share of health spending accounted for 19.9 percent of total health care spending, state and local governments accounted for 16.5 percent, and other private revenues accounted for 6.9 percent.

Gosh... hmm... I gotta rethink this whole thing!

I got it... I know why the ACA sucks... I am paying $50.44 a month for Dental. Fucking dental! That's where they get you!

In All Seriousness when I hear people say the ACA was too expensive I have to wonder the following things.

• Did they actually try to get it from healthcare.gov?
• Healthcare.gov is the only legitimate place to apply in most states.
• There are many scammers vaguely claiming to be ACA plans that are not actually ACA plans.
• Did they understand how the tax credit works? You don't pay it back unless you misrepresent your income.
• Trump's attacks on Obamacare are completely unfounded. He has promised to give us a new plan in "two weeks" literally for months, and nothing has been presented! 

For the record, this is my actual experience with the ACA. I am not paid to represent the ACA. I am just someone using it who is really tired of how it is portrayed, especially by people who are not on it and are only going by what they have heard and have never visited healthcare.gov even once to see what the truth is! I used my prescription benefit for the first time today, and that inspired this blog.

The Cost of Universal healthcare... it's not what you think.

I'm not a math whiz. Not be a long shot.... feel free to correct me if I am wrong.

Universal healthcare. $3.2 trillion a year. Big ass scary sounding number. Even scarier when they call it $32 Trillion over 10 years.

A trillion has 12 zeroes, so...written out as a big scary number $3.2 Trillion is $3,200,000,000,000

Mind officially boggled.

Okay... pack it in... that's a shit ton of money, no frickin' way we can afford that kind of cash grab.

You know what, just for shits and giggles, lets run some numbers. Big numbers... Im'a use a calculator.

There are approximately 170 million taxpayers... but about 76 million of them wont pay any federal income tax so that leaves about 94 million actually paying taxes.

That looks like this $94,000,000.

Should be a simple matter of dividing $3.2 Trillion by $94 million... but you know what, I feel like adding another .1 trillion, just in case... and I'll subtract 4 million, once again... just in case.

So $3,300,000,000,000/90,000,000 = $36.6K

Jebus! Holy shit, they are right. That is a literal shit ton of money. DAMN! I do hate when conservatives are right. I gotta be missing something here...

Hmmm, my employer paid $24K in premiums for me and my family last year. (I had a great employer by the way, almost no one pays for the employee and the family.) I paid an additional $8k in prescriptions, co-pays and things that were not covered (but I'd assume most have a forth of that), then I also paid about $1500 into Medicare.

Nope... anyway I look at it this shit is more expensive. It would be nice to cover everyone and all but I'll be in the hole about $8k-$10k more. That would seriously suck ass (actually I wouldn't care if I paid more and it covered everyone - righteous indignation and cussing is for illustrative purposes only).

If only we had a progressive tax system in this country.

Wait... we do have a progressive tax system. Awesome, almost forgot.

Okay... so this is going to be hard to explain. The top 10% of earners pay 71% of the taxes collected in this country. This does not mean that that pay 71% income tax, it means they make so much money that even paying a lower tax rate then the rest of us they account for a bigger share of the revenue collected. So don't stress about their burden. They can afford it, I promise.

It would be pretty safe to assume like most of our taxes this would be a progressive tax. It would actually cost most of us a lot less. Even if the middle class portion was 30% of that cost we'd all be seeing savings and everyone would be covered. 

Think about what that means. Right now people without insurance can't afford to get preventative treatment. Some will wait until a problem can't be ignored anymore. Then the go to an emergency room for care. Something that could have been treated or prevented now costs thousands of dollars. That money will never be paid back and that cost gets spread out to the rest of us.

By the way, in 2016 we spent $3.4 Trillion on medical expenses in this country. It was slated to increase in both 2017 and 2018, but I can't find newer figures. If the conservative's number of $3.2 trillion a year hold true that's a saving of $2 trillion per decade. Just sayin'.

We are paying more and getting less right now. It's time for a change. 

Another Healthcare Rant - This time it's personal!

My employer recently sold my part of the company to someone else. I blogged about it back in December but I want to do so again with some fresh thoughts.

This is real to me now. Before the Healthcare problems of this country, while extremely important to me, did not affect me directly. 

Now it is personal to me. Before I rant, let me say I'm not blaming my new employer, I'm blaming a broken for-profit health care system.

My old employer, Pioneer Natural Resources, paid $21k a year and covered my family at no cost to me. None!!! We even had our own clinic. Most American's probably don't even realize how much their employer contributes. I'm going to make a total guess here, but I believe when most people hear about the cost of a single-payer system they are not thinking about the money their employers are already putting into the system.

My new employer only pays for my insurance. I will have to pay in $11,900 a year to make sure my wife and kids have insurance. I'm actually going to be okay, I can handle it... it's not going to be easy, but it is doable.

My coworkers can not. Their compensation is based on a 40hr work week even though they put in 96 hrs a week. Mine is based on salary, I put in 84 a week, but it would be the same no matter what. In 2018 their wife and kids were covered. Every sickness, every broken bone, they had insurance.

In any other industrialized country in the world, this wouldn't happen. The amount paid would be the same (But in America we use healthcare as leverage to tie people to a job). Most middle class and poor people in this country live to their means (in other words their spending comes close to their paycheck), most cant absorb the sudden loss of almost $1000 in income a month.

Some of these guys will have to choose now between bills and coverage. 

Now.... we spent $3.4 Trillion on healthcare as a country in 2016. It went up about 4% 2017 and is expected to be up 5.3% after the final numbers for 2018 (Edit - I have the numbers now, $3.6 Trillion).

Conservatives estimate the cost of universal healthcare at 32 trillion over 10 years. Democrats estimate $2.8 trillion. That's $3.2 trillion a year by the con estimate and covers everyone. 

By any measure that's a savings of 2 trillion over 10 years. 

EDIT: Things have changed since this blog. I have been on Obamacare since May 2020. Read about that experience here.

People have no right to fire protection - Let's bring back Fire Gangs

A conservative friend just told me that in order to get better healthcare we have to be willing to give up something. We have to cut money from other so called "entitlements" to pay for it. It's a tired argument really. In long run access to healthcare benefits everyone. Healthy workers save money and even if that was the only benefit it would be enough.

But, I really don't get the point here.... it's 2 Trillion LESS over 10 years then what we paid as a country in 2016. By the Conservative estimate.... by the 2.8 trillion Liberal estimate it saves even more, and the reality is probably somewhere in between the two. 

So why would we give anything up for something that already costs less?

Do you know most fast food and restaurant workers in this country go to work sick? When I was a pizza delivery guy I worked sick all the time. Think that was a great idea? Had no choice. Had no money for Doctors and couldn't afford to stay home. Turned around and made other people sick. 

This was right after the oil field lay offs in 2010 with a pregnant wife at home. So I'm not talking as a young guy, or ancient history. This was to make ends meet quite recently. 

The temp employees here at my current job have the same issue. They can't afford a doctor, they work sick. That spreads sickness. That decreases efficiency at work. Healthcare doesn't just help the sick person, it makes society function better, much like police and fire departments.

In fact, that's what I'll give up. Fire Departments. Lets go back to the early 1600s or so when Fire Departments were all volunteer and expected payment to put out Fires. When roving fire gangs actually set as many fires as they put out. We can modernize this idea! They can roll up, check your fire insurance and if your covered only then will they put out the fire (just like health insurance). When it spreads to other buildings? Same thing, show you are insured or pull out the check book. Otherwise they will roast marshmallows on what used to be your home.

~After all - No one has a right to Fire Protection, that's an entitlement!~ 

By virtue of simple dumb luck I'm not getting screwed while others are.

I really don't know if this belongs in my blog.

It's the first personal real world situation I've blogged about and it is something that just feels seriously wrong, but I can't do anything about it. I can't even blame a political party, excepting the fact that Republican's have made it impossible to collective bargain in Texas.

The company I work for just got sold. 

My old employer covered my entire family on their medical insurance free of charge.

My new employer only covers the employee adding the family is over $800 a month.

My old employer provided an absolutely free medical clinic.

My new employer does not.

Here is the deal, by a stroke of luck... a simple twist of fate... my family will be okay.

~A lucky roll of the dice~

I started as an hourly field hand.

About six months ago I became a salaried employee.

Yes, salaried employees still have to pay. I'm lucky, but not that lucky.

However the people purchasing us made a deal. If we stay four months and let them know a month in advance that we are leaving. We get to take our full severance. If we stay we get a big bonus worth about twice that. That is pretty generous. I'm not going to lie, and I'm not accusing those buying us of being a bad company but....

It's based on 40 hours a week for hourly employees. We work in the oil field. These guys put in about 96 hours a week on a 14 day on 7 day off schedule. This is backbreaking work that many of them (myself included until recently) have been doing for many years. Mine is based on my salary (I put in 84 hours a week on the same schedule.

Anyway the severance for these guys is going to come out to a few months pay. It's not going to go very far. If they stay and have a family they will suddenly be paying $800 a month unless they find something cheaper on their own. That's a sudden, unexpected $800 a month bill. The bonuses these guys get won't even cover it. That is a direct hit of $11,900 a year to guys who will work the same long hours and do the same hard jobs. Could you absorb that?

Big side note: In almost any other industrial country the amount they pay would not depend on the the whims of the employer. 

Because of my dumb luck and becoming salaried at the right time my new bonus will cover the insurance and leave me $30k richer a year.

Of course, Texas is a "so called" right to work state. We have no power to bargain. These guys have no ability to fight for a better deal.

It will be the first year of my life I don't have to struggle to make ends meet. I feel very lucky. Last year this would have ruined me. My medical bills were enough that I met my family deductible several months ago. Right now, I'm paying for nothing. No Co-Pays, no prescriptions, nada.

But I can't help thinking about these guys and that someone should realize overtime wages (which make up more then 50% of their pay) are wages. They have to pay on every dime at tax time but don't get recognition otherwise. Most people end up with a set of bills in life that is representative of what they make (not the best word usage, but I hope you understand what I'm saying). These are real people and families that in many cases already have medical issues. They can't afford to lose insurance and now will have to struggle to keep it. They will be doing the same work for what amounts to less money, does that seem right?

I also can't help thinking that in almost any other industrialized country they would have universal healthcare that would cost them the same no matter where they worked. None of them asked for this but they will all be paying for it. 

Universal Healthcare so simplified even a conservative can understand it.

Let's try to understand where you draw the line a supposed socialism.  Are police departments socialist?  We pay them to take care of a basic societal need. Isn't that the actual definition of socialism? 

~Shouldn't we, as the ultimate free enterprise country, have to pay cops to investigate crimes? Under a true Capitalist system the more you pay the more likely it is your crime will be solved~

What about fire departments?  Was it better in the early 19th century when volunteer fire departments charged to put out fires? Fires they or rival fire gangs often started? 

~Or maybe we should have a new type of Fire Insurance? One that requires us to show proof of coverage before they put a drop of water on the flames?~

Both of these ideas are obviously, absolutely ridiculous. We all know and understand that police and fire departments, not to mention government agencies like the Military, FBI, CIA, FDA, DOJ, DOL, DOE, CDC, FAA etc are all necessary forms of socialism. Our taxes pay for them and they work for the common good of us all.

Why is healthcare somehow different?

As a country we spent 3.4 trillion in 2016 on healthcare and not everyone was covered, and the cost went up in 2017, and is expected to keep going up in 2018.

Republicans keep throwing out the number 3.2 trillion over 10 years as the cost to have a single payer system in this country.  Well using the 2016 numbers that looks like a two billion dollar savings to me everyone is covered.

There are tons of different estimates of the number of people who go bankrupt each year due to medical bills. It's easy to find numbers from 600 thousand to 1.4 million depending on where you look, but frankly no one should go bankrupt for medical conditions. No one should have to choose between their health and their income.

And frankly it amazes me how conservatives miss the benefits to society as a whole. When people default on medical bills, prices go up for the rest of us. Millions of people each year use the emergency room to treat conditions that they can't afford to get looked at. Even with insurance millions of dollars in deductibles never get paid. That is passed directly on to the rest of us.

Even worse, many people, knowing they can't afford a doctor won't go. Those in lower paying, more demanding jobs will still go to work spreading sickness and disease because they can't afford time off and they can't afford treatment. This includes the people making your food. 

Others will stay home sick decreasing productivity at their employers business, some will even die. To die of a treatable condition in a country such as this should be unimaginable.

I'm not saying that medicare for all, or single payer is the answer to all this but let's at least get rid of the boogeyman concerning so-called socialism.

No serious viable candidates have ever advocated for true socialism or communism. All anyone has pushed for is that we use the resources of this great country to make healthcare for everyone a reality and have our nations Doctors protect us like we are protected by the police and fire departments. 

Agree? Don't Agree? Tell me why in the comments!