In 1970, My husband and I went back to my home town for a visit and one of our kids got a good dose of Poison Ivy. We took him to a local doctor and he administered a shot and gave me a solution to use. It cost us the grand sum of $7.50. Now try and go to the doctor for anything and see what it will cost. But back then very few even considered health insurance because doctor bills were so lenient. My daughter was born in 1965 and the total for the 9 months' doctor bill and hospital delivery bill was $189.00. We had it paid before she was born. But then again you could buy a house in a development for anywhere from $5500.00 to $8500.00. We bought our first house for $6750.00 and our payments, including taxes and insurance, I believe were around $89.00 per month. I know it was well below $100.00.

One could buy 10 cans of vegetables for a dollar, a gallon of milk cost 39 cents, and on sale 29 cents. Chicken ran around 19 cents a pound. Gasoline was 39 cents a gallon and there was always gas wars where one could get gas for 4 gals/dollar. But minimum wages were $1.25 per hour. So everyone wanted to be paid more for their work, so the government raised minimum wages but it did no good whatsoever because then the people who depended on the people for their income just raised their prices, and sometimes more than what the worker got. So it has been a no win situation over the years. We would have been better off to have stayed at the 1965 wage and paid for everything ourselves.

I remember we would stock up on everything non-perishable for the year when we got our income tax returns. And my husband hunted and fished which helped in our food bill because we all liked wild game and fish, plus we always raised a garden for fresh vegetables and additional canned food. My husband walked to work to save the 25 cents it cost for gas, and did all his repair work on his cars and trucks. Yard sales were not in vogue then, but Salvation Army and Goodwill stores were, so we bought the majority of our clothes there. For the grand sum of $5.00 each a person could outfit their kids in a very nice school wardrobe.

Show me anyone in the middle or lower class who would do this anymore. All they want to do is cry to the government to get on the freebie train.

I do not have a medical card now... Did you not bother to actually read my posts? I am technically eligible for the Oregon health Plan (medicaid) now, but because I am single with no dependents, and there are too many people out of work and also eligible, they have a lottery system for actually getting on the plan. I have applied every six months for 8 years straight, and never came up lucky on the insurance lottery. I have applied for SSDI, but have yet to be accepted. Most are not their first time through, and have to appeal. Only about a third of appeals are given SSDI. Of those rejected again, they have to ask for a hearing. That is where I am at... waiting for a hearing. So right now, no income, no insurance, just a lot of medical bills.
If you read my post, you would know that I explained the tax and payment issue already, but here it is again: I have ran up over @2,000,000 in medical bills in the last two years. yes, two million dollars. Whatever of that portion the Dr's and hospitals write off, the tax break for that is made up for by taxing everyone at a higher rate, or by taking tax money away from other needs. The portion of my unpaid bills that the Dr's and hospitals cannot get back as a tax reduction through write offs, they add to the bills of everyone else that has insurance or otherwise pays their bills.
Right now, that means that each and every taxpayer is on the hook, indirectly, for my Two million dollars in medical bills. Had I been covered under the ACA, not one of you would have to be responsible for any of my bills, the Dr's and hospitals would have been paid, and guess what? That insurance would have been paid for by a self funded plan, costing you nothing!

I do not have a medical card now... Did you not bother to actually read my posts? I am technically eligible for the Oregon health Plan (medicaid) now, but because I am single with no dependents, and there are too many people out of work and also eligible, they have a lottery system for actually getting on the plan. I have applied every six months for 8 years straight, and never came up lucky on the insurance lottery. I have applied for SSDI, but have yet to be accepted. Most are not their first time through, and have to appeal. Only about a third of appeals are given SSDI. Of those rejected again, they have to ask for a hearing. That is where I am at... waiting for a hearing. So right now, no income, no insurance, just a lot of medical bills.
If you read my post, you would know that I explained the tax and payment issue already, but here it is again: I have ran up over @2,000,000 in medical bills in the last two years. yes, two million dollars. Whatever of that portion the Dr's and hospitals write off, the tax break for that is made up for by taxing everyone at a higher rate, or by taking tax money away from other needs. The portion of my unpaid bills that the Dr's and hospitals cannot get back as a tax reduction through write offs, they add to the bills of everyone else that has insurance or otherwise pays their bills.
Right now, that means that each and every taxpayer is on the hook, indirectly, for my Two million dollars in medical bills. Had I been covered under the ACA, not one of you would have to be responsible for any of my bills, the Dr's and hospitals would have been paid, and guess what? That insurance would have been paid for by a self funded plan, costing you nothing!

I do not have a medical card now... Did you not bother to actually read my posts? I am technically eligible for the Oregon health Plan (medicaid) now, but because I am single with no dependents, and there are too many people out of work and also eligible, they have a lottery system for actually getting on the plan. I have applied every six months for 8 years straight, and never came up lucky on the insurance lottery. I have applied for SSDI, but have yet to be accepted. Most are not their first time through, and have to appeal. Only about a third of appeals are given SSDI. Of those rejected again, they have to ask for a hearing. That is where I am at... waiting for a hearing. So right now, no income, no insurance, just a lot of medical bills.
If you read my post, you would know that I explained the tax and payment issue already, but here it is again: I have ran up over @2,000,000 in medical bills in the last two years. yes, two million dollars. Whatever of that portion the Dr's and hospitals write off, the tax break for that is made up for by taxing everyone at a higher rate, or by taking tax money away from other needs. The portion of my unpaid bills that the Dr's and hospitals cannot get back as a tax reduction through write offs, they add to the bills of everyone else that has insurance or otherwise pays their bills.
Right now, that means that each and every taxpayer is on the hook, indirectly, for my Two million dollars in medical bills. Had I been covered under the ACA, not one of you would have to be responsible for any of my bills, the Dr's and hospitals would have been paid, and guess what? That insurance would have been paid for by a self funded plan, costing you nothing!

"That insurance would have been paid for by a self funded plan, costing you nothing!"


Are you out of your mind?
Can you not add and subtract at all?

First off ObamaCare is taking over one sixth of the U.S. economy.

Despite the number of people who didn't pay their doctor bills and that the doctors and the hospitals, were then forced to write them off on their taxes, none of that amounted to hundreds of billions of dollars, going into the Trillions.

Your making an argument that ObamCare is going to solve the problem of taxpayers having to pay tens of extra dollars by instituting a system that will now cost them tens of thousands of extra dollars.

ObamaCare says everyone must have insurance whether you need it or not, wether you had it or not. That means that millions of people now have to pay for something they didn't have to before and they don't need now.

So where is the money going to go. To pay for your medical bills.

Don't give me this crap that ObamaCare is going to save us money or is not going to pay for other peoples problems.

DennisDee, it is not a death panel. There never has been such a thing in this country. it is a matter of a larger need than there has been money for.

And everyone? do you know what the single greatest threat to our national security is? An out of control plague. Proper medical care that no one is afraid to access because of cost is the greatest weapon we have against said threat.

Now, for those of you who operate out of fear and self interest rather than a sense of community, here is your thing to fear... Not having the ACA., LOL, I really do feel sorry for you all... At least I am not small minded and selfish enough to be only concerned about myself... I want everyone to have access to quality health care. And I also have enough self interest to know that when that happens, a lot of the costs of other social programs will go down. Less people will need disability payments, there will be far fewer people with untreated mental illnesses on the streets where your wives and children go, and many of the people now unable to work (like me) will get the medical care that will allow them to return to the workforce and pay taxes, and eventually for their own coverage.

OK, but don't give me crap about people who don't need insurance. if I had been smart enough to know that i did need it when young and healthy, I would not be in this fix now, and would not owe so much. I want you to consider the couple who brought the constitutionality of the ACA before the Supreme Court. They had a combined incomer of over 100K a year. They chose not to be covered. Then the husband got cancer. the ran up millions in medical bills, took out a bankruptcy on it (Now who's the deadbeat?) and then sued because they did not want to have to buy insurance.
The reasoning behind everyone being covered is simple. With proper medical care, including well, preventative care, your lifetime costs are lower. The total health care bill for the country goes down. The costs of ER visits plummet because they are not being used as General practitioners who's bills have to be split by everyone else. Instead they can have regular Dr visits which cost much less.
The cost of the insurance gets split between a much larger pool, most of the one joining the pool of insured are those who are healthy and otherwise would not be getting insurance, so the costs per covered person goes down.
Those savings are funneled directly into paying for the coverage, along with the fines for those who opt out and a few new taxes, such as the one on durable medical equipment.
The only reason for rates to go up is the greed of the insurance companies, which was the major reason that the original intent was to have a single payer system, where profit is not a motive.
I have done the math.. and unlike many, I read, study, and make sure that I understand an issue thoroughly before opening my mouth to either advance or decry it.

OK, but don't give me crap about people who don't need insurance. if I had been smart enough to know that i did need it when young and healthy, I would not be in this fix now, and would not owe so much. I want you to consider the couple who brought the constitutionality of the ACA before the Supreme Court. They had a combined incomer of over 100K a year. They chose not to be covered. Then the husband got cancer. the ran up millions in medical bills, took out a bankruptcy on it (Now who's the deadbeat?) and then sued because they did not want to have to buy insurance.
The reasoning behind everyone being covered is simple. With proper medical care, including well, preventative care, your lifetime costs are lower. The total health care bill for the country goes down. The costs of ER visits plummet because they are not being used as General practitioners who's bills have to be split by everyone else. Instead they can have regular Dr visits which cost much less.
The cost of the insurance gets split between a much larger pool, most of the one joining the pool of insured are those who are healthy and otherwise would not be getting insurance, so the costs per covered person goes down.
Those savings are funneled directly into paying for the coverage, along with the fines for those who opt out and a few new taxes, such as the one on durable medical equipment.
The only reason for rates to go up is the greed of the insurance companies, which was the major reason that the original intent was to have a single payer system, where profit is not a motive.
I have done the math.. and unlike many, I read, study, and make sure that I understand an issue thoroughly before opening my mouth to either advance or decry it.