Wait . . . what? Wages aren’t rising because of soaring Obamacare costs?

Photo above - guess who is subsidizing whose healthcare premiums?

This never would have occurred to me in a hundred years. The Affordable Care Act is sucking so much money out of the US economy that wages aren’t keeping up with inflation. This, at least, is theory of the National Bureau of Economic Research . . . a progressive tax-exempt think tank. See link below.

I already had several beefs with Obamacare, before I even read the claim that it’s holding down our wages. First of all, the website alone cost HALF A BILLION DOLLARS to code, and it kept failing for weeks. The website job was awarded on a no-bid contract to a Canadian company which coincidentally happened to be fronted by one of Michelle Obama’s old college roommates. But more importantly, the basic math of Obamacare is wrong. The young pay more in monthly premiums than their mortality rates justify. And those high premiums subsidize healthcare for the elderly.

In case you’re not familiar with generational wealth, boomers and retirees have all the money. Burger flippers, baristas, and day care workers? Not so much. The young and poor subsidize the rich when it comes to healthcare. This is really true, you can look it up.

The odds of a 22 year old barista needing hundreds of thousands of dollars in cancer treatment or heart surgery are absurdly low. The odds that someone over 65 will need expensive medical intervention to keep them going for the final year of life is absurdly high. That final year is typically the highest medical expense in any average person's lifetime.

Okay, so we not only have to subsidize the people with all the houses, pensions and 401Ks, we have wage stagnation because healthcare is rising MUCH faster than inflation. If you doubt this is true, try and have a baby. Or check out this link:

~The~ ~average cost for a night's stay in the hospital~ ~varies depending on insurance coverage. Recent statistics show that the price of a one-night hospital stay is around $13,600 with Medicare, $9,800 with Medicaid, $10,900 with private insurance, and $9,300 without insurance~~1~

See what I mean? We can’t buy houses, we can’t pay off the student loans for our worthless degrees, and now we’re paying $10,000 a night to keep retirees on life support. Next, the government will probably dream up a law where my car insurance costs don’t relate in ANY way to my own driving record, and force me to subsidize speeders, habitual drunken drivers, and 20-something guys in 600 horsepower Dodge Chargers roaring around my neighborhood at 2am with no muffler. Our tax dollars are already subsiding expensive electric cars that ordinary people can't afford, provided those cars were assembled by UAW factory workers.

There’s no rationale for cooking up a system where the underclass constantly subsidizes the rich. This only happens because old people vote without fail on every election day. That’s democracy. The squeaky wheel gets the grease. And we get the shaft.

I’m just sayin’ . . .

~Another casualty of soaring health costs: jobs (axios.com)~

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BizSuitStacy · M

The gov't loves a good pyramid scheme, doesn't it? They established social security in 1935. I've been hearing about how it is going to collapse since before I began working and paying into it. The gov't promised to keep their hands off...but how could they resist that massive pool of money? Perhaps that might have something to do with the gov't getting involved in the health insurance business. The single payer concept doesn't exist in reality, but does smack of monopoly.

I think your anger/frustration is well justified, but possibly misplaced. Obamacare got pushed through by a democrat Congress. Their constituents span the entire age spectrum, but the majority of younger people tend to be liberal and were in favor of Obamacare. Lower income individuals and families also vote democrat. Officially called the "Affordable Care Act" it offers subsidies making healthcare more available to those who qualified. Is it working as it was marketed? No. Chalk that up to another gov't program that didn't get the results as were promised. Imagine that.

soar2newhighs

@BizSuitStacy The problem? Government making promises!

BizSuitStacy · M

@soar2newhighs and trying to take control of things best left to competent people in the private sector.

But Susan is not wrong about her generation getting screwed over.

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BizSuitStacy · M

@RockerDad look at the cost trend...has the gov't gotten more or less involved over the years?

Stomp once for more
Stomp twice for less

RockerDad · M

@BizSuitStacy imagine what the curve would loom like if millions of people had no health insurance, like what would have happened had John McCain not shown his spine.

BizSuitStacy · M

@RockerDad it would look like it did in the 1950s.

So which is it sport?
Has healthcare gotten more of less expensive with gov't intervention? Or are you going to continue dodging the question? Tell how the gov't makes healthcare better and more affordable.

BTW...McCain repeatedly opposed Obamacare until the repeal was up for a vote. Then the liar's true colors showed through.

SusanInFlorida · 31-35, F

@BizSuitStacy its true that only democrats voted for the ACA. And that the vote was held at midnight on a sunday, on 2,000 page bill that nobody actually read. That was all by design.

the point to all these entitlements is that they infantilize citizens, and make us dependent on an every bigger net of handouts, subsidies, and benefits.

the effect is a $34 trillion debt, with no statistical impact on poverty, lifespan, or home ownership.

BizSuitStacy · M

@SusanInFlorida plenty of republicans quietly supported it too...aka John McCain. Partisanship is an illusion. They all answer to powerful globalist entities. They will screw over your generation to support mine, and they'll do it to the next generation to support yours, and so on - if it gets that far. I don't know where the breaking point is, but it can't be too far off.

SusanInFlorida · 31-35, F

@BizSuitStacy i was going exclusively by the official voting record. i don't have access to what was said in the senate cloakroom, or over cocktails.

RockerDad · M

@BizSuitStacy has health care access expanded or shrunken?

BizSuitStacy · M

@RockerDad 🤣. I love it when liberal use meaningless "talking points" that they sound good. Access to healthcare remains the same. Is anyone stopping you?
Are hospitals are somehow shutting down en masse?

It's the same sort of lame statement that "healthcare should be a right!" (Say it in your Bernie Sanders' voice for full effect). Healthcare already is a right. How do we know? No one is trying to stop you from getting it. Just like access...it's already there.

When people say "healthcare should a right," or "we need better access to healthcare" that's code for - wait for it - healthcare should be FREEEE!, which really means, "let's get someone else to pay for it" because nothing is actually free in the real world.

I'm not gonna sweep the issue under the rug. Healthcare is outrageously expensive. That's something upon which we can agree. But just because the costs have gotten out of control, doesn't mean someone else should be on the hook to pay for yours. Same holds true with the cost of education.

SusanInFlorida · 31-35, F

@BizSuitStacy

"access" is a buzzword that means free.

the reason healthcare is so expensive is because america believes everyone is entitled to the same level of healthcare. that's typically not the case everywhere else. charitable recipients shouldn't have a legal right to fertility treatment, liver transplants, sex change operations, etc.

I'd vote yes for substance abuse treatment for everyone, however.

BizSuitStacy · M

@SusanInFlorida you are on the money re: "access." I've never seen a comprehensive analysis on the "why's" of high healthcare costs. I know liability insurance is a factor. I know big pharma charges Americans more for drugs to help subsidize the cost to customers in foreign countries. I'm sure other factors are involved. You are correct about everybody thinking they deserve the same level of care. That's especially silly for younger people.