Pipe dream? Obamacare

[pueno]

[mac]

There is a different answer for this question, one based in reality:

[MalibuGuru]

There is no hate Mac. They only needed a handful of Republicans to make it valid. Too bad, now they own this giant train wreck.

[keycocker]

To get those votes they included a number of provisions written by the GOP House.
An example is the special treatment for Congressmen and their staff.
They were required to drop the gov. Ins plan that most gov.employees have and get their ins.on the exchanges with everyone else.
Once the GOP legislation was enshrined in the bill, the GOP leaders insisted all their members vote against it.
Then the fake media joined the GOP in lying about Congress having an exemption even though they know they do not.
I do not support Ocare but I am sick of the constant lies about it.
Treating us like we are stupid works well for them.
How many times have you heard the GOP screaming about that phony exemption? Even here on the board.

[keycocker]

RR,
They heavily tax those items to discourage their use. Much of the money goes to pay to repair the damage these things do.
Americans do not support Prohibition of vices on principle.
We proved it in the 30s.
Prohibitions against pot, selling sex and so on, turned those things into billion dollar criminal enterprises endangering people.

[KGB-NP]

[keycocker]

So what do you think should be done about risky behavior?
Cigs could cost about 10 cents a pack and income taxes increased on everybody to pay for the cost of healthcare for smokers.
Or we could let them die in the street.
Would a prohibition be better?
The discouraging taxes are a compromise that lets abusers pay part of the real costs instead of me.
Would you have a third way to suggest?

[swchandler]

Regarding GMOs, folks should have the opportunity to know whether they are on our supermarket shelves or being used in our foods, including what we may buy in restaurants. I'm not suggesting that they be taxed, only marked in such a way so that the consumer knows whether their food or any of its ingredients has been genetically modified. A law was nearly passed in California to accomplish that, but corporate money was successfully used to thwart the law's passage. It's only a matter of time before we win against Monsanto and others having their way.

[KGB-NP]

[summertime]

For once FOX news didn't lie- this a.m. one of the round table guys said people are complaining that their deductibles will double starting Jan. 2014. I can vouch for that- mine go up just below double. (And again- my premium almost doubles). And it is a fact that businesses are hiring part timers to avoid paying for employee's health care- that will leave a lot of individual payers. If they don't qualify for financial assistance I think a lot will not buy individual insurance and we will all be paying for the financial assistance paid out to those who do qualify. So we might be back where we were: many people uninsured and all of us paying for the financial assistance to those that get it (vs. collectively paying when the uninsured show up in ER). Paying the penalty may be the choice of many who have to buy individually (unless they qualify for financial assistance).
Re: taxing unhealthy life choices- I think there should be an incentive to have healthy lifestyle choices. Since everyone will collectively pay for people's health care one way or another there should be a reward if you are within a healthy weight range, don't smoke (of course people will lie about smoking). Perhaps a tax credit reward. I think alchoholism and drugs should be treated with more psych care and community support programs. And psych care in general should be more avail. from childhood on- because most poor lifestyle choices stem from issues that could be resolved with the right support and guidance. That's my pipe dream. In a country this diverse in terms of income, education, cultures- it's nearly impossible to have the same kind of sense of community that I believe contributes highly to the high happiness factor in the countries with the high (happiness) ratings- and thus healthy lifestyle choices. But we should try to improve and I believe we could.
Stevenbard- I agree that Drs. deserve high pay- the problem of high health costs is not the Drs.- it's mostly the pay to the administrators/ceo's and the general administrative (paperwork) costs which would be mostly resolved with single payer health care. And -What is the name of the company you mentioned that costs 1/3 the cost of "Obamacare" and isn't under "O care" (which I don't understand BTW - I didn't know that some insurance companies were considered acceptable as health care and others weren't.) I'd like to check it out though. Sounds good to me.
Re: GMO's - totally agree we need to have a choice as to what we put in our body and how can we when GMO's aren't labelled? I am very informed about what foods are possibly GMO's at this time but I don't know for example what oil they use to cook with in restaurants- which means- unless the restaurant advertises as non- GMO- I just won't eat there. Which eliminates 99 percent of eateries. Yes, it's hard but I believe the US citizens are a big experiment on this (Europe and even Mexico has banned a lot GMO foods and at Europe at very least labels it all- I'm not keeping up with the details of this aspect but I'm pretty close if not accurate on that). Anyway- I"m not gonna be part of the experiment so I refuse to eat GMO foods.