2.5 trillion? Where do you see the CBO talking about that? The latest numbers I can find from them say 1.5 trillion.
Updated Estimates of the Insurance Coverage Provisions of the Affordable Care Act - CBO
Lol, no, it is like health insurance. This really isn't radical change, it is the government stepping in to make sure more people can take part in the system that already existed.
No it creates a system where everyone gets the same treatment and everyone is denied coverage for some conditions and procedures. It sure beats denying some people any treatment.
No one was denied treatment under former law.
You should try it sometime.
In the US, they have more than enough manpower and resources to provide their entire population with good quality healthcare. There really is no need to deny anyone the care that they need for anything. The problem they have to overcome is allocating things properly.
"The estimated net costs in 2014 stem almost entirely from spending for subsidies that will be provided through exchanges and from an increase in spending for Medicaid. For the 2015–2024 period, the projected net costs consist of the following:
Gross costs of $2,004 billion for Medicaid, the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP), subsidies and related spending for insurance obtained through exchanges, and tax credits for small employers; and
Receipts of $517 billion from penalties on certain uninsured people and certain employers, an excise tax on high-premium insurance plans, and other budgetary effects—mostly increases in tax revenues...."
Obamacare is many things, inter alia, health insurance, the redistribution of income, central planning, and the growth of the federal govt.
What happens when a limited resource like health care experiences a rapid growth in demand?
The stats speak for themselves. When a small state like Oregon has an influx of 26,000 new patients in just a few months and are expecting more then obviously ACA has brought healthcare to many who formerly didn't have it. I am sure this is lost on those detractors who rabidly oppose anything Obama has done even if their warmongering hero GW did the same things.
In the end no matter which side of the debate you fall on it would seem more people, especially low-income and marginalized people, are receiving healthcare and that can only be a good thing.
Are you suggesting there will be no rationing under Obamacare?
I must ask, is there actually anyone out there who is opposed to adequate & universal health care for every person on this planet? It would sure appear from some of the comments that there are some who don't like this utopian ideal.
What happens to the quality of health care when a limited resource experiences a rapid increase in demand?
Is this a joke? You can't seriously believe this. Millions of people were denied healthcare because they couldn't afford it. This includes people who had insurance, but didn't have the right insurance, or couldn't pay the exorbitant copays.
The law prohibited hospitals from denying any one emergency care. Emergency care was provided to anyone who showed up. Moreover, community hospitals and clinics provided a further source of health care.
Obamacare has not ended rationing on non-emergency care. It has simply empowered govt. affiliated panels to make the determination.
What do you think this proves? This is the exact breakdown of how this equals 1.5 trillion, not 2.5 trillion.
A trillion dollars is not a rounding error. It is a pretty significant sum.
I answered this question for you already. Why do you not respond to that instead of just asking the same question over and over again?
Do you think asking this question leads to a reason why people shouldn't have access to healthcare?
It is pretty ghoulish to say that other people should be denied such a basic human necessity because you don't want anything to change for yourself in the slightest.
Healthcare is being managed by the exact same people who managed it before, the insurance companies. Why would you expect any material difference in the coverage provided?
Lol, again? Read the damn responses instead of asking the same question over and over again.
Good grief, is that your new word for "dead panels"? How many times do I have to tell you that the exact same people are making health care decisions as were before. It is still the insurance companies.
Please name this "government affiliated panel" you speak of.
As for the rest of this, having a law that says hospitals have to stabilize people who show up in their emergency rooms in crisis is not health care. It is stupidity. It makes people wait until preventable things become very expensive emergencies, provides no help beyond just making sure they don't die right then and there, and provides no compensation for hospitals for the care they provide.
Community clinics provide some help in some areas, but it is very far from comprehensive healthcare and only helps a portion of the population.
Obama said that Obamacare would be priced at $900 billion on a gross basis over ten years. He lied. The cost is over $2 trillion gross over ten years.
If I felt that you answered my question I wouldn't have repeated it. I still don't think you have answered the question.
I don't have a problem with establishing universal coverage on a state by state basis using the military budget as the source of funding. I have a problem with empowering the federal govt. in a way that will cause it to borrow more and increase the national debt. Increasing the national debt borrows from the future of generations to come in order to fund present consumption.
Don't create straw men. It's unfair, detracts from our conversation, and doesn't work with anyone who is persistent.
It wasn't necessary to empower the federal govt. in order to provide health care to people with such a poorly thought out legislative chimera.
I beg to differ. Obamacare changed the healthcare and health insurance system the same way a public utility commission changes the production, rates and distribution of utilities. In the process Obamacare empowered govt. Empowering govt. produces adverse unintended consequences.
I just don't think you are engaging me in dialogue.
Independent Payment Advisory Board (IPAB).
I don't agree with you. Obamacare will have the effect of increasing societal costs while decreasing overall quality.
One size doesn't have to fit all. Let a thousand flowers bloom. Allow each state to find it's own way. This is what is referred to as the "laboratory of democracy."
Mostly what I'm getting from all this is that there are far too many programs and insurance providers. All with massive bureaucracies to ensure trillions are spent on health care but very few people are getting any kind of treatment.
I don't think that including the insurance companies was ideal in any way. There is absolutely zero prospect of a single payer system in the US though, so the best they really can do is get more people into the existing system.
This is dumb.
Just admit you had your numbers wrong. First you claimed that the CBO claimed that it cost 2.5 trillion, when the CBO clearly says that it costs 1.5 trillion.
Then you adjust your claim down to 2 trillion and claim you were talking about the gross cost, which makes no sense. The project has 2 trillion in expenditures and ober 500 billion in receipts. The cost to the taxpayer is 1.5 trillion.
This is not a philosophical issue. I answered the question.
If you have problems with my answer, address them.
Providing healthcare costs money. There is no getting around that.
The system is the exact same system you had before. All the government has done is ensure that more people are included in the system.
I am doing my part. If you ignore what I write I can't help you with that.
This is a great example of your ignorance on this topic.
The IPAB applies to Medicare. Medicare has always been a government program and there have always been government employees working to keep costs down.
Why?
Lol, how long have the states had to do that and how has that worked out?
People shouldn't be used as science experiments.