A Blog a Day....

You know, I don't always have to write about the government and people dying and people destroying the world and the little-varying word choice of Rush Limbaugh. Sometimes I'm a normal 17-year-old kid and want to write about something non-Earth-shattering.

Today is not one of those times. Today is a day I'll write about something you've all heard about and probably don't have an opinion on anymore due to the ridiculous amount of mud-slinging and riff-raff that has interrupted any normal human from finishing a complete thought about it.

Healthcare.

You heard some craziness for months about how the government is going to kill people over this new bill and we'll all be paying for each others medical bills with increased taxes and you'll have to stand in line for the next 13 years of your life for a check-up and cancer treatment will cost 50% of your first born child if his name is Mark (or her name is Marcell) and you live in a zip code ending in 5, right?

Forget. What. You. Heard.

First - here's the actual basics, the real facts:

• The bill (now a law) will reform healthcare in a way that 32 million uninsured Americans will be offered healthcare.
• The law will cost $940 billion dollars over a course of 10 years.
• The law will reduce the national debt by a total of $143 billion dollars in the first ten years and 1.2 trillion from the tenth year to the twentieth year after its enactment.
• The insurance provided will be charged to all Americans, but subsidies will be made for those within an income bracket of 133 percent and 400 percent poverty level - the current poverty level for a family of four is a little over $22,000.
• The law will abolish Medicare, Medicaid, and employee health care for those who qualify for the aforementioned subsidies.
• Families making more than $250,000 a year and individuals making more than $200,000 a year will be charged a 3.8 percent Medicare Payroll Tax.
• The Medicare Part D "donut hole" or gap in coverage for seniors will be closed and replaced with a 50% discount on name-brand medications beginning this year.
• Nearly $500 billion dollars in Medicare cuts will be made by 2020
• The bill expands Medicaid to those in the 133 percent poverty level (those families making about $29,000 a year), childless adults beginning 2014, and the federal government covers 100 percent of Medicaid costs for newly eligible people through 2016.
• As of now, no medical insurance company may deny coverage to a child based on a "pre-existing condition" and starting in 2014, no insurance company may deny coverage to anyone based on pre-existing conditions, and insurance companies cannot deny children coverage under their parents' policy until age 26.
• (here's the tricky part)
• Abortions will be covered, indirectly, by taxpayers funding in subsidies on insurance premiums. You pay a premium for an abortion, taxpayers pick-up some of the tab on that premium. In addition, clinics that provide abortions as well as other services will be funded with federal funds which stem from taxpayer dollars. HOWEVER, here's the catch, the plans offered by the government will consist of one plan which offers abortion coverage and one plan that does not, per Obama's decision to modify the bill. (Tricky again--) No federal or taxpayer dollars will be used to cover abortions that do NOT involve rape, incest, or that are in the interest of the mother's health and livelihood.
• Every American MUST purchase insurance from the federal government or incur a yearly $695 fine.
• Illegal immigrants may NOT buy healthcare from the federal government even if they pay completely out-of-pocket.

Alright, still with me? Now you KNOW. You haven't just HEARD. You KNOW.

Healthcare reform looks to the future. But why would we want those sluts that can't keep their pants on digging in our pockets to kill the babies they illegitimately had, right? Why should we bust out hundreds of billions of dollars for those no good Democrats and Obama so we can become a socialist government? Why would we join the other thirty-two of thirty-three "developed nations" with Universal Health Care plans?

Let's see a few of those socialist scum, shall we?

• Norway - A country that has more reindeer than people
• Kuwait - Damn near third-world and still has healthy people
• Brunei - Ever heard of it?
• Bahrain - Seriously? These guys have it? Who are they?
• France - What a bunch of... Healthy people?
• Japan - They have the highest life expectancy in the world? Wow, I thought that was us, we're perfect, right?
• Spain - They run with bulls for crying out loud.

Now here's a few fun facts:

• America is now ranked twentieth in life expectancy for women, down from 1st in 1960
• The US is 67th in the world for immunized people. Botswana is 66th. Seriously? Batswana? Don't they wrestle like wild boar or something?
• Universal health care in the United States would cost 40% less than our current "system"

I'm not here to preach to you. I just want you to look at the facts. Do you think Obama and our federal government would create a system where the government is crippled, people are killed, and we pay for "optional abortions"? Seriously?

I'm sitting here writing this, doing research, and reading a blog/column by one Michael D. Tanner. He has outlined his "cons" to "Obamacare". (Oh what a clever insult)

(I'll paraphrase for you-- and then make a counterargument, of course)

1. Reform would raise the cost of hiring workers for employers due to the requirement of employer-offered medical care.
2. Every American would be required to buy medical insurance based on federal requirements
3. A government-run plan would be competition to private insurance and people would have to choose between the two. Subsidies would cause people to choose government plans even if they like their current insurance plan.
4. Private insurance would face a host of new regulations, including a requirement to insure ALL applicants and drop charges based on pre-existing conditions and risk factors.
5. Subsidies would be available to help middle-income families purchase insurance and Medicare and Medicaid would be extended to more citizens.
6. The government would manage, design, and develop an electronic system for medical records.

Alright, my turn

1. What would you prefer? That employees not be able to take their sick children to the hospital because their penny-pinching, money-grubbing, Porsche-driving CEO's can't afford the 5% drop in profit because they have to keep people healthy.
2. Okay, so you don't want "the man" telling you what to do? How dare the government tell you how to be healthy and live longer and see your grandchildren graduate from high school or college!
3. Wow. God forbid we have a little competition FINALLY for a close-to-monopoly over people's lives. How many of us like our insurer, anyway? We like our insurer as long as we can see and our teeth don't fall out and our broken leg is healed, but do you think if you gave them a call they would even know your name?
4. This is the biggest joke of a "con" I have ever had the displeasure to hear. Seriously? You are presenting, as a negative of healthcare reform, that EVERYONE be eligible for health insurance and that people not have to pay out the nose because of illnesses they can't control? Let's say you have a little boy named Michael and when he's born you call the health insurance company and ask for him to be added under your coverage, that's pretty simple, right? Wrong again. Michael can't be covered because heart disease is common in your family and insurance companies don't want to pay for that somewhere down the line, or let's say they give little Michael coverage but charge you twice of three times the normal insurance deductible based on his "pre-existing condition". You defend this process and cite it's correction and, by extension, saving the lives of thousands as a "con"? What a joke.
5. Another joke. Heaven forbid we give help to those that have to work like dogs 60-70 hours a week just to pay for a ride in the ambulance when someone falls off the roof or breaks their leg.
6. This nearly tops them all. ALL medical records are on PAPER. Paper. You know how long it takes to mail something from Dallas to New York? A long-ass time. Let's say those medical records contain information that could help you get a kidney while yours are failing. Do you want to wait?

That's all I'll say. The bottom line is this: people in the Northern states go to Canada for healthcare all the time. Why? It's cheap and it's the same care. Hell, Cuba has better healthcare than we do and do you remember Castro? Castro > Obama? Not even over my dead body.

A 3.8% tax a year for high-income families each year keeps the socialists away....