Hi Humans,

Don't be shy. If you want to comment on my blog entries, please do so. You don't have to be a dog to say what you think. or if you have a pet dog and want to have your dog speak for you, that's also OK. I would like to hear from you or your dog.

Chloe

Wednesday, November 20, 2013

Affordable Health Care Act

Hello Mr. President,
Let me say that I think you are a great president with great visionary ideas, including the Affordable Care Act (also called Obamacare). In many instances (for example foreign policy) you have been very effective (although you need to keep a close eye on Iran) in executing your ideas. After all you did catch Bin Laden which eluded your predecessors with all their bluster. You pulled us out of the quagmire in Iraq and are in the process of getting us out of Afghanistan. You inherited an economy which your predecessor left in shambles and have slowly and painfully been pulling us out.
As for the Affordable Care Act, it's a necessary step in the evolution of health care in America which has been happening under both Democratic and Republican administrations. It would have eventually occurred with or without you, but it needed you to give it the push that has eluded past efforts. It is a brave innovation, and like all brave innovations it is susceptible to fumbling and needs some groping around to get it exactly right. Big surprise! The criticism I have for you in this particular effort is perhaps you run forward with too much enthusiasm to rally the troops and then give in when things don't quite work out. To be specific, although I don't remember whether you said it or not, there were people on the left who said that US healthcare is broken, giving the idea that it needs to be completely revamped. The fact is there certainly have been problems in the distribution of health care in the US which are very much in need of improvement. But, although there is a large minority of people with inadequate health coverage, the majority do get good health care. So when the majority who are happy with their health care think the system is going to be turned upside down, it scares them. When they hear that people are losing their existing plans, they think it's going to happen to them. You rightly need to include young healthy people in the plan and eliminate inadequate cheap plans because that is the way insurance works. You need healthy young people to pay for those who have already become sick. One never knows when one will leave the ranks of the healthy and join the ranks of the sick. Private insurance companies would like to sign up young healthy members and eliminate old sick ones. That is what Obamacare is out to fix.
So, what I am saying to you, Mr. President (and I'm sure you know it yourself), you should not have promised people that they can keep their existing health plans just because they want to, and you should not now tell people that they can keep their existing plans for another year. You should have just said we made a mistake, it won't effect most people, but for those who are affected and disappointed, sorry but it has to be. Things will eventually sort themselves out and you will have better insurance for it.
But what do I know? I'm just a dog.
Chloe

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