jbrownson0831
Diamond Member
- Jul 27, 2020
- 23,685
- 21,126
Dims side with the dregs too lazy to work and care for their own families like the rest of us.Honey, I have forgotten more about American history than you will ever know. This nation was founded by liberals, not conservatives. They had a name for conservatives back then, "TORIES". I mean enlighten me, what founder was "conservative"?
But you want to make this about Republican and Democrats, fine. The topic is health care. There have been two significant legislative actions in the area of health care in the last 20 years. You have the MMA, a Republican initiative enacted in 2003, and the ACA, what you call "Obamacare", passed in 2010.
The MMA did two things. First, it established a prescription drug benefit in Medicare, handled by private insurance companies. But, that had two problems. First, the infamous doughnut hole, where beneficiaries had to pay the full cost of prescriptions while still paying premiums. It was helluva stupid, insurance companies take the risk of expenses at the front end, but in the middle, where people with high prescription drug costs often ended up, the risk was absorbed by the beneficiaries. Then, when the expenses were really high, "catastrophic" they called it, the insurance company picked the risk back up. But hell, the chance of getting to that amount was slim to none, and for most people, slim had left town. And the worst part, the federal government paid two dollars in premium for every dollar the beneficiary paid.
Then there was Medicare Advantage. What a flippin con. The federal government paid for private companies to take on the responsibility of paying for the medical care of beneficiaries, a monthly amount that was several hundred dollars per person. Those private companies made millions, and I got to tell you, my investment portfolio sure did well, I could see the writing on the wall. Those companies made those millions by denying care to countless Medicare beneficiaries. The fraud level was through the roof, settlements in the billions have been paid since then. The excess payments the federal government has paid to those Medicare advantage companies, over and above what Medicare spends per beneficiary for each patient, could easily pay for every single prescription drug of every single Medicare beneficiary. The MMA wasn't a plan to "modernize Medicare", it was a plan to enrich the insurance companies.
Then we have the ACA. It wasn't perfect. Obama compromised too much. There was not a public option, and negotiation of drug prices by Medicare was prohibited. But it did chip away at the doughnut hole, a little more each year. Even from the getgo, Medicare beneficiaries no longer had to pay the full cost of prescriptions in the doughnut hole, only half. But the biggest thing the ACA did was remove the ball and chain of employer provided health insurance. People were no longer trapped in an employer provided plan because they couldn't get private insurance due to pre-existing conditions. That shit was HUGE.
The plumber whose wife worked at Walmart just for the health insurance. Well, she quit, and the plumber got a health plan through the ACA. The accountant who always wanted to start his own business but was trapped with health insurance with one of the big eights. Well he quit, started his own business, and got health insurance through the ACA.
I can document it, but the reality is that, during the Trump administration, the ACA contributed more to GDP growth than anything Trump or Republicans did. Kind of comical, Obama, jetsetting around the world and relaxing by the pool in Hawaii did more for GDP growth during the Trump administration than the fat orange man.
And then there is Biden. Now, Medicare can negotiate lower prescription drug prices. Now, there is no doughnut hole, there is an out-of-pocket limit on prescription drug expenses starting in January. And that limit is much lower than what the original doughnut hole entailed. Insulin prices are capped.
I mean it really isn't that hard. Evaluating Republican health care initiatives against Democrat health care initiatives it is more than obvious who each party stands with. Republican's, the insurance companies. Democrats, while not perfect, for the most part side with the American people.