Letter: Push politicians to pull funding for Obamacare
The battle here in Dubois County and in Washington DC over Obamacare is the battle for the future of the economy and personal freedom.
That is a bold statement, and I don’t use it lightly.
If the conservatives in DC do not prevail, health insurance chaos will begin for each and every one of us. You think healthcare is expensive or difficult today? You haven’t seen anything yet.
If Obamacare becomes the law of the land, costs will skyrocket immediately, wait lines for care will grow exponentially, doctors will quit their practices, your taxes will fund abortions, and eventually every business with more than 50 full time employees will drop their health insurance by 2016. The outcome of this is you are forced by Obamacare to buy your own insurance or by a penalty.
In Dubois County, businesses have developed plans to drop health insurance coverage because of Obamacare. If you haven’t started making plans on what you will do if you lose insurance in 2014-2016, you are in deep trouble.
How many people stuck working part time jobs can you think of right now? Based on news coming from businesses this trend will continue to grow. Do you want to work 2 or 3 part time jobs just to have ends meet because of Obamacare?
The worst part about the financial side is that you will end up paying more just to receive Obamacare’s entry level sub-par 60/40 coverage. Of course we could ask to have our part of the $39 million Dubois County has stored in their reserves to help pay the bills.
Christians and people of faith will see their government directly use our hard earned revenue and see babies murdered with it via abortions. In the Bible, history shows Pilate washed his hands of the death of Christ, but we all know he knew exactly what was to happen. Christians and those of faith today have a choice, do I make a phone call, write a letter to the editor, etc. and let my voice be heard or be just like Pilate and stay silent?
It isn’t easy being active in politics but what is the point of believing in something if you won’t act on that faith?
I write this as a warning to each one of you who care about your wallet and life to hopefully wake you up.
If you oppose Obamacare, you need to call both Senator Coats’ and Senator Donnelly’s offices today and then call Rep. Bucshon’s office too. Tell them that any vote that ends up allowing Obamacare to be funded by October 1, 2013 will be seen as that elected representative being in favor of Obamacare and they will be held accountable for that vote.
So much hinges on the next few days, what will you do?
Adrian Engelberth Jasper, IN
Even if Bushon and the other republicans voted to defund it, the senate will not pass it.
Should the senate not pass it, Obama would never sign it.
That being said the spending is not discretionary. Congress has little control over that spending once a bill becomes law.
The law would need to be repealed and that is not going to happen. 42 times the vote has been taken and 42 times it has failed. At this point, it is wasting time.
What could happen is that Republicans could hurt the economy by throwing us over the cliff. If the republicans had any chance of repealing the PPACA they would not need to go the route they are going now.
But I have some specific question about the op/ed:
>>Do you want to work 2 or 3 part time jobs just to have ends meet because of Obamacare?
How do you figure this?
>>The worst part about the financial side is that you will end up paying more just to receive Obamacare’s entry level sub-par 60/40 coverage.
What does it cost now? What will it cost then? (provide a link please)
The Christian Science Monitor reported this month that premiums are coming in lower than expected as 17 states reveal their pricing. (http://www.csmonitor.com/USA/Politics/2013/0905/What-will-your-Obamacare-premium-be-Numbers-are-in-for-17-states.-video)
“Monthly premiums for a single 40-year-old with an income of $29,000 would be $201 in Portland, Ore., for a typical “silver” plan offered by insurers.”(After subsidies this will be $193)
The silver plan includes a $2,000 deductible, $0 cost for preventive, $45 Dr office visits, $65 specialist visits, $25 generic Rx, 80/20 after deductible ….max out of pocket $6,350/$12,700
(http://www.medicoverage.com/articles/individual-family-health-insurance/obamacare-silver-plan-overview/)
Now my employer offers a CDHP of which I pay $83 out of pocket (this expense does not include dental, life insurance, vision, etc) For that I get a deductible of $3000 in-network and $6000 out of network and a max of $6,600 in and $12,600 out (for a family). I get 80/20 coverage on hospital care (after deductible) unless it is out of network then it is 60/40.
Aside from those differences, the silver plan looks similar to my CDHP.
>>Christians and people of faith will see their government directly use our hard earned revenue and see babies murdered with it via abortions.
Abortions are not covered by the PPACA. The PPACA does NOT change EXISTING law regarding abortions and federal money.
http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2013/08/16/abortion-coverage-for-congress-under-obamacare/
“Plans offering coverage for abortion, however, may not use federal funds to pay for it and must collect a separate premium from enrollees. Federal tax credits to help the uninsured afford coverage must also be kept apart. “
To answer the first of your three issues…”…2-3 part-time jobs, et al…”…here’s the deal: The Affordable Care Act was intended to have employers provide insurance to their part-time employees working more than 30 hours per week. It backfired big-time. Employers essentially said, “OK, we’ll get around that by cutting their hours to below 30 so we DON’T have to offer insurance,” and this has happened and is happening en mass. So, the employee(s), once working, say, 35-39 hours for instance, is now cut to around 25-29 hours, with many even less. They now need to go out and find a full-time job or a second and third part-time job to make up the income loss, plus try to schedule all these around each other – no easy task any way you slice it. By the way, Obama himself – uneducated according to your assessment – calls this ObamaCare. It is a mess and getting messier – the tip of the TITANIC iceberg – as the original op-ed writer correctly stated. Those who ignore or try and refute the reality of what’s happening (and going to happen) and defend it, are simply out of touch – or they simply have their heads in the sand.
Why would employers be doing this now when the employee mandate has been deferred a year?
Also, I don’t understand this sentence: “By the way, Obama himself – uneducated according to your assessment – calls this ObamaCare.”
I never claimed Obama did not call it Obamacare and how does my assessment show him uneducated.
Don’t get your blood pressure up……Ocare may have to save your life.
What you either don’t know or refuse to admit is that corporations cannot get around the insurance requirement just by cutting everyone back to 29 hours. Right now, the provision says “if you have more than 50 full-time employees you have to offer health insurance.” It’s based off monthly man-hours. So if you have 75 employees and you cut them all back to 29 hours per week, you still end up with the equivalent of more than 50 full time employees.
A bit belatedly, but where does it say it’s based off monthly man-hours, and how the plan calculates this? Never heard that explanation or interpretation before, even by so-called experts and legal counsel. If you have 75 full-time employees and you cut them all back to 29 hours…one hour less than the new “full-time” of 30 hours or more per week under the plan, you have 0 full-time employees that qualify to be insured…no insurance need be offered to any of them.
The fact that health insurance has continued to go up over the last 10 years, long before anyone ever made mention of The Affordable Health Care Act, or “Obamacare” as the less educated have started calling it; completely undermines your claim that “Obamacare” is the whole reason for the rise in healthcare cost. Check out the video in the link and get educated a little more on the facts behind the reasoning for The Affordable Health Care Act. Unless you can come up with a better way or someone bigger than the healthcare providers and insurance companies we will continue to see cost rise even without “Obamacare”. At least they are attempting to make some changes once. Yes, I’m sure there will be aspects of it that don’t work and will have to be modified, but we’ve got to start somewhere! http://www.upworthy.com/his-first-4-sentences-are-interesting-the-5th-blew-my-mind-and-made-me-a-little-sick-2?c=ufb1
Healthcare is broken in the USA. So what do we do. Whine?
I have an idea I borrowed from Louis Woodrill. Leave the law exactly as it is. It will continue to increasingly screw up the economy and people’s lives. Instead of trying too de-fund Obamacare, pass legislation for a national referendum on Obamacare in next years general election. Let the people decide if they want the socialization of our health care to continue. In another 13 months the electorate will have a much better idea of what this un-read, perversion will do to us.
Yes, time will tell, but I advise you not to hold your breath. It’s going to work, and then you and the rest of the conservatives will have to figure out how to take credit for it. Oh, and while I’m here, tell your sister Monica I said thanks!
You mean nobody has read this document read!
That’s what Ted Cruz should have done, then…he should have stood up there and read the ACA during his 20+ hour non-filibuster of a bill he ended up voting for.
Must give credit where credit is due.There is a total lack of fact in this article but does offer every myth and distortion being spewed by corporate funded “party”.
Koch bros. money at work for Amerika.
I strongly question the credibility of this online “news” publication! By posting this RIDICULOUS ranting, of which, is LOADED with inacurate, unsubstantiated statements and claims! Aren’t “news” outlets supposed to “verify” statements for validity before publishing them!?!?!?!? Just more justification for why our media is in such disarray these days. Too much “print for publicity” and not nearly enough “print the facts no matter which side of the fence you ride”!!!! Nothing fact based in this ramble…move along people!!!
This is an opinion editorial.
Maybe the author’s comparison of silent Christians to Pontius Pilate will prevail not because he, as he puts it, thinks Pilate was responsible for Jesus’ death but because had Pilate spoke up and prevented Jesus’ death there would be no dispensation of grace. Jesus would not have fulfilled prophecy. Pilate’s silence became Christians salvation, right?