We have seen all the glitches but the real problem is that a country of 300,000,000 fears ObamaCare working. A country that had the best medical system in the world knows it is losing that and preparing for its funeral which will be a gauche state affair.
A country that was spoiled by the miracles of antibiotics, safe childbirth, cardiac surgery and state-of-the-art rehabilitation after strokes and brain injuries now fears to be sick. In the past, when people didn't have health insurance they usually qualified for Medicaid or other assistance. But this was no good. The entire system had to be jettisoned for the brave old world of socialized medicine.
Through deception, bribery and changes of rules the aged clowns in Congress succeeded in corralling enough votes to pass Public Law 111-148. They were led, wheeled, bribed or sobered up for its passage which will surely be one of the last gasping breaths of what was a U.S. Congress. ObamaCare has become a bill nearing the popularity of the Stamp Act. As a final joke the clowns excused themselves from the ravages of the new system. At the time of its passage, we searched in vain for a giant among the pygmies. A last chance for salvaging the freedom not to purchase health care insurance lay with the Supreme Court. But to the shock of many, the Court not only upheld the tyranny but said they would tax us for it. The compassionate czars and authoritarians rejoiced. "Thou Shalt Buy Health Insurance" was enshrined in stony hearts and we watched as other commandments, such as "Thou Shalt Not Drink Large Sodas," followed. "Let Them Eat Kale" followed that.
Not a single proletarian in the U.S. has received health care as a result of this act. But serious disruptions in insurance, hinted at by the web site fiasco, are in existence now. Exact statistics of those able to sign up are not easily obtained as the administration has forbidden some health insurers to reveal this. We do know that many people have become part-time workers or have lost their jobs because their employers do not want to cover the extra expenses from the "affordable care" act.
Let's look at the problems identified thus far comprehensively:
Number of people who have had their insurance plans double or triple. This is known as "the letter." People have received letters telling them their insurance plans will double or triple under the ACA. One notable person is Kirsten Powers who will not only have her premiums double but the deductible will be $2500. A worse story was told by a couple from Kentucky with two children. Their insurance was going to triple from $335 to $965 per month.
Number of people dropped from their health insurance plans. Anna Gorman and Julie Appleby at Kaiser Health News: Thousands get health insurance cancellation notices "Florida Blue, for example, is terminating about 300,000 policies, about 80 percent of its individual policies in the state. Kaiser Permanente in California has sent notices to 160,000 people--about half of its individual business in the state. Insurer Highmark in Pittsburgh is dropping about 20 percent of its individual market customers, while Independence Blue Cross, the major insurer in Philadelphia, is dropping about 45 percent." Before I had a plan with a $1,500 deductible," an affected person said. "I paid $199 dollars a month. The most similar plan that I would have available to me would be $278 a month. My deductible would be $6,500 dollars, and all of my care after that point would only be covered 70 percent." Jennifer Harris, an attorney, thought she had a great deal, paying $98 a month for an individual plan through Health Net Inc. The company that insured her said it would cancel her policy at the end of this year. According to health experts 16,000,000 Americans will lose their current insurance because of the Act. Cancellation notices began arriving in August and continue. Stalin's apologist, Duranty, said : "You have to break a few eggs to make an omelette," Reminiscent of that, Gerald Kominski, director of the UCLA Center for Health Policy Research said: "There are winners and losers under the Affordable Care Act."
Number of people able to sign up for insurance. According to Avrik Roy, "My best guess is that for the 17 states that have reported out some data, the number is closer to 193,818 applications (once you pull out the Medicaid applications that have been reported on)."
ObamaCare will impose a massive tax on small business owners. If a company has more than 50 full-time employees, they are either required to provide them with ObamaCare or pay a fine of $2000 a year per employee.
Number of people who had their hours cut over health insurance. Since ObamaCare must be paid for full-time employees in a firm of over 50, many people have had or will have their hours cut so employers don't have to cover their health insurance. A good analysis with strong supporting proof of this is found on the Investor's Business Daily.
It is gradually seeping into Americans' pores that this is a con job. Even the inmates of the regime who used to follow the Party Line like cows being led out to pasture have begun to report the mess.
The original medical Utopia didn't begin with Obama or even Quentin Young, former member of the Young Communist League, a mentor to Obama, and the most vocal supporter of the single-payer system in the U.S. That honor indirectly belongs to Norman Thomas the six times candidate for president on the Socialist Party ticket. He said the American people would never vote for socialism. But he said under the name of liberalism, --especially we could add when it is compassionate affordable care--the American people would adopt every fragment of the socialist program.
There is a poignant biographical note from Malcolm Muggeridge, a reporter for the Guardian in Moscow from 1932-1933 who wanted to see the Bolshevik revolution in person. During this time his wife became sick with paratyphus and Muggeridge asked a German doctor if she should go to the hospital. The physician involuntarily shuddered and crossed himself. After nursing her himself he ushered her out of the country. That was not the end of story. He wrote about the Ukrainian famine which he witnessed and about the real Russia he was seeing in Winter in Moscow.
The exchange websites are flashing a morse code to us, saying that our medical system is disintegrating in front of our very eyes. They reveal the tyranny of the idea of ObamaCare. And the tyranny reveals the creed: socialism. With this auspicious beginning to our socialized medicine will the "moderate voices" of the shrieking left prevail in medical decisions for "what's best for your health" in the care of the collectivity? It's a shame. Even Il Duce was able to make the trains run on time.
Mary A. Nicholas has a degree in medicine and a degree in theology from the John Paul II Institute and has written for American Thinker and Homilectic and Pastoral Review.
