My mother used to say some people would bitch if they were hanged with a silk rope.* I think she was talking about Republicans.
I was listening to the news this morning and learned that a report from the Congressional Budget Office indicates that one of the consequences of the Affordable Care Act (aka Obamacare) is that the number of people working may drop. Apparently the statisticians are predicting that some people will leave the work force or reduce their hours because their income is no longer needed to pay for health insurance. For example, a person who is currently working multiple part-time jobs may realize he or she only needs to work one. Or perhaps a two-income couple will realize they can get by on one income now that they're no longer saddled with $1000 a month in health insurance premiums. In short, the Affordable Care Act could lead to more people experiencing less stress and financial pressure, i.e., some people are going to be able to enjoy more leisure time. This possibility is generating all sorts of sound bites from the right about what a horrible, horrible outcome this is and how it's yet another example of the rolling train wreck that is Obamacare.
I don't get it. How is people having to work fewer hours to survive a bad thing? Work is something people do because they have to. For most people on the planet, it's a necessary evil, a means to an end and not the end in itself. Even people who genuinely like their jobs would probably prefer to spend less time at the job and more time doing other things. If work was fun, you wouldn't see bumper stickers telling the world "The worst day fishing beats the best day at work" or "Retired - every day is Saturday!" So if the Affordable Care Act means more people get to enjoy time having fun instead of staring at a computer screen or flipping burgers it strikes me as being one more thing to be happy about.
Then again, the S.O.'s ultra-conservative teabagger cousin recently hurled what he thought was the ultimate insult against the S.O.: "He only worked when he had no other choice." WTF? Isn't that what all of us do? If we didn't have to do it, it wouldn't be called work.
[*It always struck me as an odd saying. I think I'd complain no matter what type of fiber was used. What's the point? Silk doesn't chafe so the rope burn will be less dramatic? You're still dead.]
The way I heard it was, "He'd bitch if he was hung with a "brand new" silk rope.
ReplyDeleteOf course work sucks, that's why they have to pay you to do it.
I read that too! I had to read the article twice because I couldn't believe this could have been turned into another "job-killing" deal. These people are either evil or insane. I'm going with evil.
ReplyDeleteThe health care thing is mostly greek to me. Hell, humanity is a rolling train wreck.
ReplyDeleteWhen I was young I really enjoyed some jobs and put in many hours at them. But age and experiences cured me of that.
The best idiot I ever worked for was myself, I should have stayed in Utah and kept my parts house.
Work is not fun - that is why they call it work.
ReplyDeletethe Ol'Buzzard
I work for one reason - for health care coverage for my family. (My husband is self employed and we have pre-existing conditions which make us poison to insurance companies.)
ReplyDeleteI barely make $500.00 a month after the cost of insurance is deducted from my checks. So, yes, I will stop working soon and we will get insurance through the ACA and I will enjoy my life for a few years before we would have shifted to Medicare coverage.
If my employer wants to keep me - they should pay me enough to make it worth my while to be out of my house 50+ hours a week!
This is what they aren't telling you....
ReplyDeleteObamacare: The Final Payment–Raiding the Assets of Low-Income and Poor Americans
http://www.paulcraigroberts.org/2014/02/08/obamacare-final-payment-raiding-assets-low-income-poor-americans/
The anonymous Obamacare expert, who provided us a year ago with the most complete account of Obamacare available, http://www.paulcraigroberts.org/2013/02/03/obamacare-a-primer/ has returned with an explanation of estate recovery. Obamacare herds the poor into Medicaid which requires some enrollees to forfeit homes and other assets they might have to the state to cover the cost of their medical care. The research article below is meticulous and demonstrates that Obamacare was not enacted to serve the people.
Obamacare: The Final Payment
Raiding the assets of low-income and poor Americans
Since writing “Obamacare: Devils in the Details” posted on this site on February 3, 2013, I have investigated in detail other aspects of the insurance industry’s program to bring health care to Americans. In this article I explain estate recovery to which poorer Americans herded by Obamacare into Medicaid are subject. In violation of moral philosopher John Rawls’ second principle of justice, some of the poorest Americans will pay the highest cost of health care as they, and they alone, are subject to having the family home and any other assets they might possess confiscated by the state in order to reimburse Obamacare for the cost of their medical expenses. The compassionate rhetoric aside, Obamacare makes the poor pay the most.
Read more at the link.....
Brother Mark
Brother Mark, the Medicaid Recovery Act goes back to the 1990s. It's always been possible for the government to seize the assets of a deceased person to pay for medical expenses covered by Medicaid. It's why elder law became a growth area.
ReplyDeleteOne could argue that this is simple fairness -- if you have assets that were sufficiently valuable that they could have paid for your medical care had you liquidated them before you died, shouldn't they have been exhausted before asking your fellow taxpayers to pick up the tab? And that is in fact what Medicaid has always required: you spend down savings accounts, liquidate life insurance policies with a cash value, and in general make yourself genuinely poor. This requirement wasn't caused by the ACA; it's always been there. It's just that now it might reach a little higher up the economic food chain than it used to.
I don't know much about that Act but Helen said that if she has to go to a care center in her last years they can end up owning her old piece of shit home being as that is all she has. They won't get much...
ReplyDelete