On the State of Politics

@MissD10 Seems like a reasonable prediction. I hope you're right.

@MissD10 There is free healthcare for illegal aliens at the demise of Americans who actually need it.

@TexChik the closest we come to universal healthcare is the VA and medicaid and both are a disgrace. her choice will ruin healthcare in this country, drive doctors out of practice and the best students will pursue other options

@saragoodtimes just like Obamacare…it only helped the corrupt in power.

@TexChik it led to high deductibles, and greater co-pays for everyone but the libs think it's the best thing since jelly doughnuts

@saragoodtimes Do you mean medicaid or medicare? Medicaid is offered at the state level and is based on income + assets. Medicare is for anyone 65 or older who has worked at least ten years. What makes you say they are a disgrace? I talk to VA beneficiaries all the time, and I hear people who love it and others who hate it. Very little middle ground. Medicare certainly has its problems... I could probably speak for hours about it... but that hardly qualifies it as a disgrace. My personally assessment from speaking with medicare beneficiaries every day is that it generally does for them what they need it to do. It's better than the insurance I have, and I work for the insurance company!

And if you did mean medicaid, well that's administered on a state-by-state basis, and it's going to change a lot based on where you live. I have limited experience with it.

@TexChik When I was running my dad's company back in 2015, I remember sitting down with our insurance agent to choose our options for employee benefits. In those days, we weren't required yet to make the switch to Obamacare plans. Because our employees had less-than-average claims, we did benefit from being able to stay with the non-Obamacare plans in those first couple years. But if one of our employees would have had a heart attack, for instance, our premiums the next year would likely have gone through the roof. We would have been grateful for that safety net!

When I left that position, before I started with my current company, I had a year where I might not have had insurance at all if not for Obamacare. I was going through a divorce, things were tight, and I wouldn't have known where to go for an individual policy. And while I had the good fortune that I probably would have passed underwriting, lots of other folks are not so lucky. All I know is, that would sure suck to not be able to get any insurance just because you don't have an employer who offers good coverage.

Again, it's certainly not perfect. And Obamacare is not my wheelhouse, I deal exclusively with Medicare. Like everyone, I would LOVE to see something better. But for folks who have no other options, I am grateful that we have something that can give them coverage. Because as I see it, the alternative was really bad for a whole lot of people.

And of course, it's always good to chat with you, my friend. 💜

@ShadowSister medicaid. it's a block grant to states who run the program on their own. here it's full of faults and fraud

@ShadowSister Despite having the most expensive health care system, the United States ranks last overall compared with six other industrialized countries—Australia, Canada, Germany, the Netherlands, New Zealand, and the United Kingdom—on measures of quality, efficiency, access to care, equity, and the ability to lead long, healthy, lives. It is that way for 2 reasons, one is because our population does not follow proper dietary and fitness goals, this is why we are so fat. The other is because of the influence of the private medical system on the legislatures. They get laws their way to keep profits up. Case in point, insulin was developed in 1921, one would think it would be generic by now but they keep tweaking the formula and getting laws passed so they can keep it expensive until the recent changes. Medicare was legally banned from negotiating drug prices and seniors are banned from using drug company coupons to lower prices of prescriptions the day they turn 65. I don't want Canada's system but would be glad to have Japan, Singapore or Germanys. Republicans are blind to the fact that by ignoring fixing this problem it is going to come back and bite them in ass.