CHAPTER ONE HUNDRED AND FORTY ONE: WE ARE ONE NATION

CHAPTER ONE HUNDRED AND FORTY ONE: WE ARE ONE NATION

All righty then. So what is all this fuss about the MIT Professor (Gruber) who shot off his mouth about the politics of the Affordable Care Act with some “off the cuff” remarks in 2012 and 2013 at various college forums. His remarks were a sort of big deal on MSNBC in July, 2014. Now they’re an even bigger deal on Fox and like-minded ACA hating stations. I’m going to say it just once. Talk to the folks who have bought health insurance for the first times in their lives, because the ACA allows them to do that for the first times in their lives. That is millions of people, all American, all in need of health insurance. Ask them if they like their health insurance and their health plans. According to the most recent reports, 75% of them – the new ACA insured – really like their plans. That’s the same percentage as the pre-ACA insureds. Apparently, ACA is filling a real need, so can we just get along with it – and make it better? Puh-lease?

It’s time for the Scrooge-like governors of the states that are not extending Medicaid to their needy citizens to treat them like full-fledged members of the community and go for the Medicaid expansion. If I were poor and in need of Medicaid, I would surely move to a state which has made it possible for me to enroll – if I could just leave my three minimum wage jobs and family responsibilities to make the move. Shucks – moving for poor people, just like everything else in life, is extremely difficult. You need money to move.

As for Gruber, he claimed that Americans would never go for a law that tells healthy people they have to buy health insurance so that sick people can get health care. And just why not? We’re supposed to be the country that cares about all of our citizens? Why wouldn’t a healthy person want a sick person to get necessary medical treatment? And who’s to say when that healthy person becomes a sick person and is in need of the health care for which she has bought insurance? Most people don’t stay healthy all their lives. Even very wealthy people get sick, and rumor has it that they also die (although their heads may be cut off and saved in a cryogenics lab for future use). Back to Gruber – he was wrong – Americans believe in helping everyone in society. One out of many – that’s us. We’re generous to a fault. We don’t want people to be homeless or jobless – or even clueless. So Gruber said that we Americans were “deceived” by the politicians as to the real purpose of the ACA. I don’t get that at all. We were a country with millions upon millions of people who had no health insurance. They were storming the doors of their local emergency rooms for treatment of colds, aches, pains – running up thousands upon thousands of dollars, which we the tax-paying middle class had to pay – because they had no health insurance. Now we have a law that was passed by Congress – after being thoroughly vetted in Massachusetts by former Governor Romney – and signed by the President, which provides that all persons should have health insurance. In other words, let’s get the non-emergency patients out of the emergency rooms and into doctor’s offices, where they can get affordable care and pay for it with their affordable insurance. This is not the single payer system, which I favor. This allows the insurance companies to still run the show – something which they are unusually reticent about. And why not? The American public now can focus its hate on President Obama rather than the President of Aetna, whenever our health insurance rates go up or we are denied coverage.

 

Wait just one minute! Do you think that the insurance companies are blaming the ACA for the things that they are actually doing? Really? Would they be so bold? Would they deny coverage, change plans, raise rates – and blame it on the government? Not our cuddly, friendly insurance companies – surely not. Well, in my experience, this is what they have been doing for years with my insurance coverage – well before the ACA was passed. So why should they stop now, when they actually have a place to duck and cover behind? I’m just saying that it’s worth checking out, when someone starts moaning about how the ACA has made their health insurance worse – ask them what changes were actually made, and which of those changes were instigated by their insurance company to boost the insurance company’s profits – then wrongfully blamed on the ACA.

The bottom line is: Shouldn’t we all have health insurance? Don’t we all need it? Shouldn’t we all contribute to the cost of our health care? Isn’t that fair? Don’t we as Americans have a responsibility to see that all of our citizens have health insurance? Isn’t that why we supported health care reform? Isn’t that why we needed something like the ACA? Sure, it’s not what I would have voted for – it’s the plan submitted by the Republican Party in its platform way back when. It caught on with both Democrats and Republicans in Massachusetts, where it was hailed as the dawn of a New Age in health care. And the Democrats and Republicans in Congress thought that it might just be a good thing for the entire country. After all, why should Massachusetts be the only place where everyone has health insurance?

So instead of digging up “horror stories” about the implementation of the ACA, let’s get together to make this law, and the idea behind it, work for all of us. Come on, Americans, we can do this. We can provide quality health care to all, so long as we spread the cost over every single person. Opt in, healthy people! We need you. And sooner or later, you will need your health insurance. So how’s about a little of that patriotism spurring you to do what is best for the greatest number? Sign up now! Show Professor Gruber that we are a nation that cares about each other. And we are not stupid. He is, if he thinks for one minute that we don’t want to help each other. That’s not deception, that’s the unvarnished truth. We are One Nation.