AHCA - Affordable Health Care Absurdity
The Affordable Care Act (that seems a simple and accurate enough term, no? - alright, I guess paying attention is assumed there), to the dismay of many dubbed "Obamacare," since, for one thing, it is I gather very similar to the program Romney implemented as Governor, is the target of a lot of hysteria these days. Typically, this involves right-wing exploitation and fostering of ignorance in their sycophantic talk-show-"educated" elite.
Most recently the despicable ploy has been a big (i.e., likely Koch) ad-buy aimed at the young: why should you buy in to the system, subsidizing the older folks, when you are healthy and don't need insurance! Okay, that is just the sort of polite paraphrase I believe I am prone to. More accurately they blast: You Fool! Don't You Dare Buy Into Obamacare!
It's sweet to have an explicit demonstration as to why this is full-on hooey.
It is my fond recollection that Brian Beutler, now posting at Salon, first emerged for me when he was recruited at Talking Points Memo, a long-time favorite site. No mas either way. He does some great journalism, something we have deplorably little of these days, "Chuck" Todd only the most recent deplorable example of a self-proclaimed journalist who couldn't even pull off the job if the immortal Izzy ghost-wrote it for him. It would still have that odor. It's a wonder he can sleep with himself.
The full Beutler column is not that long, please read it:
A few weeks ago, I wrote an essay for this website about the time two young black men shot me in Washington, D.C. The purpose of the article was to bring a new and personal perspective to an ongoing debate about racial profiling that had grown particularly pitched at the time.
This article is a preface to that story, which I hope will serve a similar purpose, but with respect to a completely different debate.
Right now, a number of conservative groups, with financial backing from well-heeled fellow travelers like Charles and David Koch, are engaged in a campaign to convince young, uninsured people not to enroll in Obamacare — to remain uninsured rather than enter and strengthen the state-based health insurance markets the Affordable Care Act is building.
[clip]
One of the arguments I made in my first essay is that it makes no sense to respond to minor risks by taking drastic measures (in that case, I was responding to making sweeping racial judgments based on a lone incident). Nobody should respond to the threat of communicable illness by sheltering indoors like Howard Hughes. Nobody should mitigate the risk of accident by diminishing their quality of life. But buying insurance? That’s like taking a cab through a dangerous neighborhood. It’s a perfectly sensible hedge even if it’s somewhat costlier than the alternative. If it weren’t sensible, millions and millions of people insured by their employers — including, probably, the same people now encouraging young people to skip Obamacare — would be opting out in exchange for additional cash compensation.
Obviously people who have insurance already — including young people, who currently cross-subsidize their older colleagues in existing group markets — think it’s a pretty good deal. If you’re eligible for Obamacare, and people try to convince you otherwise, ask yourself if you think they’d be giving their own children the same advice. And your decision will be obvious.
Most recently the despicable ploy has been a big (i.e., likely Koch) ad-buy aimed at the young: why should you buy in to the system, subsidizing the older folks, when you are healthy and don't need insurance! Okay, that is just the sort of polite paraphrase I believe I am prone to. More accurately they blast: You Fool! Don't You Dare Buy Into Obamacare!
It's sweet to have an explicit demonstration as to why this is full-on hooey.
It is my fond recollection that Brian Beutler, now posting at Salon, first emerged for me when he was recruited at Talking Points Memo, a long-time favorite site. No mas either way. He does some great journalism, something we have deplorably little of these days, "Chuck" Todd only the most recent deplorable example of a self-proclaimed journalist who couldn't even pull off the job if the immortal Izzy ghost-wrote it for him. It would still have that odor. It's a wonder he can sleep with himself.
The full Beutler column is not that long, please read it:
A few weeks ago, I wrote an essay for this website about the time two young black men shot me in Washington, D.C. The purpose of the article was to bring a new and personal perspective to an ongoing debate about racial profiling that had grown particularly pitched at the time.
This article is a preface to that story, which I hope will serve a similar purpose, but with respect to a completely different debate.
Right now, a number of conservative groups, with financial backing from well-heeled fellow travelers like Charles and David Koch, are engaged in a campaign to convince young, uninsured people not to enroll in Obamacare — to remain uninsured rather than enter and strengthen the state-based health insurance markets the Affordable Care Act is building.
[clip]
One of the arguments I made in my first essay is that it makes no sense to respond to minor risks by taking drastic measures (in that case, I was responding to making sweeping racial judgments based on a lone incident). Nobody should respond to the threat of communicable illness by sheltering indoors like Howard Hughes. Nobody should mitigate the risk of accident by diminishing their quality of life. But buying insurance? That’s like taking a cab through a dangerous neighborhood. It’s a perfectly sensible hedge even if it’s somewhat costlier than the alternative. If it weren’t sensible, millions and millions of people insured by their employers — including, probably, the same people now encouraging young people to skip Obamacare — would be opting out in exchange for additional cash compensation.
Obviously people who have insurance already — including young people, who currently cross-subsidize their older colleagues in existing group markets — think it’s a pretty good deal. If you’re eligible for Obamacare, and people try to convince you otherwise, ask yourself if you think they’d be giving their own children the same advice. And your decision will be obvious.
posted by Sir Gumbo at 11:13 PM
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