The short answer, no.
There is some movement on the Right to try to apply some "fix" for Obamacare that the Left will approve of, then after passing the "fix", both sides return to their hustings and campaign happily for more of the same bad Government.
Justice delayed is Justice denied.
What we have seen so far in the past 5 weeks of the Obamacare rollout is that:
- It wasn't ready in it's details.
- It was an unholy alliance of two sets of thieves, the Government and the Insurance Industry.
- The Government IS going to be hoist on this petard because Obamacare will crash mightily long before the upcoming Congressional Election.
By now, you have seen just how badly the roll-out has gone. Far more health insurance customers with existing plans have been cut off from them than have new health insurance customers been enrolled in new plans. The idea behind the failed scheme was that new enrollees would pay the freight for both the 'po folks AND the new insurance entitlements, e.g., all women get childbirth coverage, everyone gets portability, pre-existing conditions are ignored, etc. This basic assumption, that creating a new class of insured would pay for all the changes to the overall pool of insurance, was fatally flawed from the start, and is now proven to be a failure.
The failure of the economic model in Obamacare means that the whole system will now fail, and nothing can be done to prevent that, but some will try, and those mistaken legislators will be from both sides of the aisle. The Left, of course, desperately wants to hide the failures as Election 14 approaches, and the Right thinks that putting a patch on the program to kick it down the road past Election 14 will somehow make up for their bullheaded and hurtful action to shut down the Government over the Left's refusal to accept repeal of the whole misbegotten program.
Both the Left and Right are wrong.
What is really happening now is that the Health Care Insurance magnates' evil contribution to Obamacare is coming to light. When Obama went on TeeVee the other night and said, (paraphrase) "I never said that you could keep your old plan, I meant that you could keep it if it met current standard", he was being technically correct, sort of an "it all depends on what the definition of is, is" statement that Billy Clinton made as his Oval Office pecadilloes were exposed.
The problem is, NO current plan meets the new "standard" of Obamacare, and the insurance companies should have been warning their policy-holders about that for the past year. Insurance policies are VERY specifically written, and Obamacare rules demand so many new changes to support the new "reforms", that EVERY plan will have to be new. The new plans will give one more opportunity to the insurance companies to rake in obscene profits, and they are already showing us how big those profits will be.
No one gets to keep their "old" plan.
Get that? I'll repeat it: No one gets to keep their "old plan".
Why do you think that Obama/Pelosi gave his buddies, the Unions, all those "indulgences" so they would be exempt? Because he knew that he had been lying by telling everyone "if you like your old plan, you can keep your old plan". He knew it beforehand. Take that to the bank, O-believers, as you cash in your savings to pay for your "new" insurance plans. Take it to Craigslist as you put that boat and/or RV you can no longer afford out there for sale with millions of others to try to make room in your budget for a doubling of your premiums. Take it to Grocery Outlet for cheap foods as you can no longer afford to shop for organic stuff at Whole Foods. Take it to Wally World as you shop for clothing, because Nordy's or Macy's is definitely not in your price-range anymore.
Here's one example: Kaiser Permanente. I used to be insured by them, and I had their "C" plan. I was last on that plan in 2003, when I retired from the Sheriff's Office. It had $5 doctor-visit co-pays, $5 pharmacy co-pays, and everything else was fully-paid. Kaiser "C" will now have $30-40 office visit co-pays, $25-30 R/X co-pays, and a cap is introduced, somewhere in six figures. I think my old lifetime cap was $1.5M. That plan used cost the County about $600/month. Nowadays, the County splits the cost with workers, and the new "C" Plan split will be almost $800 for the County and the Deputy. Oh, one other thing: Kaiser now has a waiting list for surgeries. A good friend stayed on the program after retirement, and his wife needs a new hip. By the time she get the surgery, she will have been on the waiting list for 14 months. In the past, she wouldn't have waited a month for that hip replacement. She is in constant pain from her failed joint, and they throw a few pills at her, but don't fix the joint.
You might ask, "what do YOU have for insurance, Dawg?" I have Medicare, which has been severely cut to shift money to the fiscal sinkhole that is Obamacare. Because I retired from the Air Force after a full career of 22 years, I also have Tri-Care, the military system, which acts as a secondary payer to Medicare. I could also file for VA care, but haven't, for reasons of personal liberty you might have read about here.
In sum, the program can't be fixed, and you need to IMMEDIATELY suspect the motives of anyone who wants to "fix" Obamacare. The only "fix" you'll get is that the "fixers" will line their pockets with more insurance-company cash. Obama/Pelosi/Reid had plenty of Socialist models for healthcare to model Obamacare on that have at least had their major bugs worked out, but they ignored the mostly-successful Swiss system, the very-successful German system, and struck out on their own with the resulting mess that you see now.
Don't fix it, start over.
Start over. That'll work. Eezakly what makes anyone think that a person with at least the intellect of a banana slug would now trust the Government, any government about anything? Right about now if an agent of any government, local, county, state, or federal came up onto my front porch, he or she is going to be talking to an armed, pissed off geezer with little to lose. Think "Dangerous Victim". Said armed geezer is going to sat very few words, those along the lines of "Get the F*ck off my lawn!" Followed by Armed Geezer shouldering and simultaeously putting the safety of his M1 Carbine off, readying it for immediate use.
FYI I used all my .30 M1 Carbine FMJ rounds for plinking and practice, I now have a buttload of soft nose jacketed and HP cast loads. Up close, 50 to 75 yards or so, they are devastating upon impact. I've never been in the Service, but my insan......favorite Uncle was a Marine DI for most of WWII, he taught me what the rear sight is for and to put three in center mass, then one in the brainpan just to be sure. I am not signatory to any convention requiring me to fight nice.
I fear, truly fear that the Democr......Rat Bastard Commie Party and the Repub......Rat Bastard Commie Party Lite are going to keep it up until they get the Second Revolution they seem to want. I guess we'll be finding out what percentage of actiive military personnell will shoot at civilians, and what percentage of LEOs consider themselves to be an occupying force instead of peace officers.
The aftermath could be "interesting".
Gerry N.
Posted by: Gerry N. | November 07, 2013 at 19:21