It doesn’t affect me personally but I am over the moon that so many people who did not have health care now have coverage and that health costs over all are going down. I really hope the Republicans don’t screw things up.

Following. It hasn’t affected me personally, either.

I am a cancer survivor who was uninsurable. I now have insurance. Calculating percentages, if I have a recurrence, it will be caught early enough to be dealt with in the least expensive way. I get no government assistance, I pay for my insurance.

I asked an almost identical question in March. You might be interested in the responses.

I hope the republicans don’t take it away. I was talking to an American conservative trying to explain why nobody here thinks public health care is bad, she couldn’t understand. She thinks it is very bad, socialism, which I grew up with and never ever got why healthcare was tied to a job.

@Aster My answer hasn’t changed since the last time you asked this question. The university where I work has a contractual obligation to provide health insurance to all of its academic employees, including the graduate students. They used to make regular attempts at (illegally) modifying our benefits, but the ACA has made it so that they have no leverage anymore. That’s one less fight I have to take on every year.

My daughter lives in Japan and has truly affordable health care there. I don’t know the details, but If you compare what she pays and gets compared to what we pay and get, ours is not affordable by a long shot.

I don’t like it. The deductibles are so stupid high I can’t go to the doctor anyway.

I donated a kidney and without the ACA I would not have health insurance.

Even though you have to be in better-than-average shape to donate, and thus kidney donors tend to live longer than average.

I don’t understand how we live in the year 2014 with every advancement the whole of humanity can leverage… And we still don’t have great quality free healthcare for every person on the planet.

If we’re not working towards that type of humanity, then what the hell kind of humanity are we working for?

It’s only affordable if you have a well paying job and you can cover the deductibles.

Of course not.
It is one more vain attempt to fix the original sin.
No third party should should be allowed to know anything about a transaction between a physician and a patient unless the patient chooses to reveal the specifics.
They may be allowed to know that it happened, but it should be a federal crime to attempt to know the details.

It doesn’t affect me personally, but I’m satisfied that imperfect as it is it’s helping many, many people who otherwise would not have medical coverage. Tragic that Obama-haters are trying to kill it rather than work to make it better.

Yes and no. I don’t make enough to qualify for anything and this state has no expanded Medicaid to cover me! That and the insurance companies and medical folks/institutions (scammers all) are taking advantage of it and ripping us off! Pay up or die!

I am dissatisfied that we did not implement a single payer system and eliminate the need for have insurance companies stand between ourselves and adequate health care.

It remains a complex and inefficient way of solving the problem, but it is the only way to guarantee profits to parasitic insurance companies and still cover more of the previously uninsured. The insurance companies knew all of this when they designed the scheme for Romney. Single payer is the cheapest most efficient and sensible way to cover EVERYONE. There isn’t a first world nation on the planet other than us that hasn’t recognized this obvious truth. It’s just another item on the expanding list of issues that have come to define the United States as Obtuse Dummyland.

Last year’s answer: Our business has been unaffected because our coverage exceeds minimum guidelines. I personally know of 3 people who have either saved money or have finally been able to afford coverage because of the ACA.

This year’s answer: We will no longer be offering group coverage because our costs have gone up by 15–30% per year. I am not excited about the high deductibles (although our group coverage has a deductible of $2500, so it won’t be much of a change), but I am happy that 10 of my employees will be eligible for subsidies and so their portion of the monthly payment will lower from around $250/month to $30. Costs will go down for everyone at my facility except for me and one other (because of our age).

I just want to clarify my answer. I firmly believe that we should have a universal, single payer system and that the ACA is just an improvement over what we had.

I know you guys don’t like Fox news, but here’s what the author of Obamacare says: The American public is “too stupid to understand.”

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0_XSUFyNA-I&feature=youtu.be

The fact that the American people are stupid could only be “NEWS” on Fox. It’s right up there with that other headline “OJ did it.” So Gruber said that people would not understand that insurance, any insurance, can only work if healthy people pay in so that sick people can be treated. Whether he’s right or not, you can bet your ass that the stupid people will be offended. And of course, once again it’s Fox that’s in an uproar at the idea that there might be stupid people in America. I know my feelings are hurt. Well on the odd chance that it’s true, they (the stupid people) certainly know where to turn for the “big scoop”

@stanleybmanly So you didn’t watch it, huh? It’s not FOX news who called the American people stupid, but “a key architect of Obamacare, Johnathan Gruber is the one who called us all stupid!” You didn’t notice that? It’s impossible to misinterpret this, or make it up.

@snowberry I think @stanleybmanly knows what was said and who said it. I believe what is being pointed out is that what Gruber said is not really news, that the majority of the population are, if not stupid, at least disinterested and uninformed.

This is obvious, and not really news, to those to whom the statement does not apply and only offensive to those to whom it does. The real news is that someone has the audacity to say it out loud.

Fox is just filling the air waves and minds of their viewers by repeatedly harping on it with their trumped-up outrage and feigned offense and, again in my opinion, thereby making @stanlybmanly’s point.

@rojo thank you. I should have been more blunt. Fox, is there for, it’s business model is based on, and its entire existence depends on STUPID PEOPLE. It’s asinine pretense at journalism is specifically based on the fact that stupid people will accept its role as the propaganda organ for whack job conservatism as legitimate “fair and balanced” reporting. Anyone who takes offense from the fact that someone stated openly that Americans are stupid should keep it to themselves. Outrage and indignity over such a thing amounts to hanging a sign reading “I am stupid” around your neck. The network is asking stupid people to “raise your hands” and show the world that we are the majority.

@rojo and @stanleybmanly Well I certainly hadn’t heard it. I generally don’t watch Fox News, and the mainstream media hadn’t picked it up until yesterday, perhaps because it was “so obvious”...?

Obviously it’s old news to you, but when exactly did you learn this, or did you always know it? Are you for Obamacare even though it was created for “stupid people” like you and me?

I’m for Obamacare simply because something had to be done. The insurance companies recognized this, and this is why they invented it. It really is important to understand that Obamacare is the creation of an industry faced with the fact that the cheapest, most efficient and comprehensive coverage possible would by necessity eliminate them from the equation. The more accurate title for the scheme would be “the corporate insurance profit guarantee act”, because THIS is the primary function of all this complicated nonsense that no one understands.

@stanleybmanly So you’re still for it, knowing that those who are actually for it and think it’s a good idea are called “stupid” by the author? How is it that you’re OK with being called “stupid”?

Sorry, it’s not obvious to me.

I’m ok with it, because there’s an excellent chance that it’s true. I’m not enthusiastic about Obama care, but for all the gnashing of teeth, far more people are now insured, many for the first time. The proponents of single payer health care lack the juice of the insurance corporations, but I think we’ll wind up with it eventually. The fact that we don’t have it already is fairly solid evidence that we’re stupid people.

I was talking to my 80 year old father this evening about medical costs and he told me that the price for his insulin has gone up. He now has to pay $400 a month for insulin. He’s done his research to find the most helpful plan (he’s retired upper management for Aetna.) No 80 year old should have to pay $400 a month for insulin.

He now has to pay $400 a month for insulin….he’s retired upper management for Aetna…

How did the ACA influence the cost?

How much would insulin cost for him before the ACA?

Was the price not increasing before the ACA?

I don’t know, but my father’s situation is not better. I thought the Affordable Care Act was supposed to help. It hasn’t helped my family. Our healthcare costs are ridiculous. (I’m not blaming our President)

Affordable Care Act? Take the affordable out of the title, please.

@jonsblond May I ask if you live in a red state?

@jonsblond exactly!

@Dutchess_III Illinois

Red.