Another Good Thing About Obamacare
Posted by Michelle Moquin on February 20th, 2014
Good morning!
When I hear those that speak saying that they do not think that Obama has done anything for this country, I think, “They must be out of their minds, not living on this planet, or racist.” or when they are against Obamacare, I think, “They are just too self absorbed, care only about their own needs, and care very little about their neighbors, and really their own families.” How can anyone deny that Obamacare is a good thing?
Well, Obamacare is not only saving lives, but according to this write, it gives workers the freedom to change their job more easily without fear of losing their insurance or facing higher premiums…something that the conservative right has been demanding all along, while trying to repeal the very healthcare that is giving workers this kind of freedom.
Here’s the write from Think Progress:
Obamacare Finally Gives Workers The Freedom Conservatives Demanded
On Tuesday, the Congressional Budget Office projected that The Affordable Care Act will reduce the number of full-time workers by 2.3 million in 2021, leading critics to seize on the claim as evidence that the health care law is undermining job growth.
But that’s not what the CBO actually said. In fact, CBO economists write that “[t]he estimated reduction [in labor] stems almost entirely from a net decline in the amount of labor that workers choose to supply, rather than from a net drop in businesses’ demand for labor.” Americans won’t be losing their jobs, but people who are only working to maintain access to their employer sponsored health insurance plans will be able to leave the workforce or work fewer hours because they can obtain coverage elsewhere. That’s a goal that prominent Republicans, conservative think tanks and policy analysts have supported for years:
– “A lot of people change their jobs. So the tax benefit should change and go with them, and not be attached to their jobs. We want to address job lock. So, the key question that ought to be addressed in any health care reform legislation, is are we going to continue job lock, or are we going to allow individuals more choice, and portability to fit the 21st century workforce?” [Paul Ryan, 5/20/2009]
– “Today, leaving a job or changing jobs means leaving behind the health insurance provided at the place of work. Individuals who wish to take a better job, change careers, or leave the workforce to raise a family or to retire early take substantial risks. [...] Under the McCain plan, which links tax breaks directly to individuals instead of to their place of work, individuals would no longer feel obligated to stay with their employers simply because they need to keep their employer-based health insurance. [Heritage Foundation,10/15/2008]
– “Of course there are a number of things that I like in health care reform that I’m going to put in place…. I also want individuals to be able to buy insurance, health insurance, on their own as opposed to only being able to get it on a tax advantage basis through their company.” [Mitt Romney, 9/9/2012]
– “[T]he employer-based system leads to ‘job lock,’ whereby people are afraid to leave their jobs if they fall ill on the job, because switching plans could mean higher premiums or denial of coverage.” [Avik Roy, former health care adviser to Mitt Romney,2/7/2012]
In other words, ensuring that an older person who stays in a job for its health care coverage can retire sooner or that a mother can leave her job to take care of a sick child, or an entrepreneur can can quit secure employment and start a new business have long been bipartisan goals. Democrats have sought to give Americans more options though the health care law’s exchanges and Medicaid expansion while Republican health care proposals focus on ending the favorable tax treatment of employer-sponsored health care and providing individuals with tax credits to buy their own health insurance on the individual market, across state lines.
Academic research has quantified the cost of keeping health care coverage connected to the workplace. In 2008, researchers at Harvard estimated that there are “11 million people who would like to change jobs but are locked into their current job simply to keep their insurance,” while other studies have found that “job-to-job mobility is estimated to increase by as much as 25 percent when alternative group coverage is available.”
As Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) explained in 2008, while rolling out the health care proposal that animated his presidential campaign, “‘job lock’ reduces opportunities for American workers because they often pass up new jobs for fear of losing their health care coverage.” The health care law will start to change that predicament.
UPDATE:
Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) who called the CBO findings “unreal” has long been an advocate of disconnecting health care insurance from employment. As he wrote in 2013, “It’s common sense to recognize that Obamacare isn’t working. We need to repeal it entirely, and instead reform federal law to expand choices and make health plans personal, portable and affordable.”
*****
Readers: Yes, we call it Obamacare now, but years later when it turns out to be the best thing that could’ve happened…when many lives have been saved, and many feel they can switch jobs safely, then and only then, will they drop the term Obamacare and call it the Affordable Care Act.
Thoughts? Blog me.
Peace out.
Lastly, greed over a great story is surfacing from my “loyal”(?) readers. With all this back and forth about who owns what, that appears on my blog, let me reiterate that all material posted on my blog becomes the sole property of my blog. If you want to reserve any proprietary rights don’t post it to my blog. I will prominently display this caveat on my blog from now on to remind those who may have forgotten this notice.
Gratefully your blog host,
michelle
Aka BABE: We all know what this means by now :)
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February 21st, 2014 at 5:59 am
Yes, the ACA is doing great things. Great things. The STUPID PARTY Reps nightmares are coing true.
February 21st, 2014 at 6:01 am
Of course they are complaining. They really didn’t want the workers to be free from the need to be subservient to their masters for a job.
February 21st, 2014 at 6:03 am
It’s payback time: Shut Down The GOP In 2014 (poster) http://t.co/zkocpQ2hX1 #p2 #LibCrib @UniteBlue
February 21st, 2014 at 6:04 am
A few quotes from Greedy Obstructionist Party:
“A lot of people change their jobs. So the tax benefit should change and go with them, and not be attached to their jobs. We want to address job lock. So, the key question that ought to be addressed in any health care reform legislation, is are we going to continue job lock, or are we going to allow individuals more choice, and portability to fit the 21st century workforce?” (Paul Ryan 5/20/09)
“Of course there are a number of things that I like in health care reform that I’m going to put in place…. I also want individuals to be able to buy insurance, health insurance, on their own as opposed to only being able to get it on a tax advantage basis through their company.” (Mitt Romney 9/9/12)
“he employer-based system leads to ‘job lock,’ whereby people are afraid to leave their jobs if they fall ill on the job, because switching plans could mean higher premiums or denial of coverage.” (Avik Roy, former health care adviser to Mitt Romney 2/7/12)
February 21st, 2014 at 6:06 am
find and watch/listen Ezra Klein on O’Donnell’s Last Word tonight… ends with this:
“if you’re a politician who’s had the opportunity in recent years to vote for bill after bill after bill that [CBO] says would create jobs directly for the exact people who need them… and you’ve said NO to every single bill, but your job strategy is repeal the health care bill… that is a genuinely perverse approach to job creation… and it is strange to watch folks who’ve had a lot of opportunity to create jobs, get upset over this.”
thank you, Ezra.
February 21st, 2014 at 6:07 am
Its not odd to get upset over straight up lies. Had Obama not completely wasted 800 billion in stimulus on buying votes and spending money on non job creating “investments” (aka payoffs), he would have had more luck getting support on further programs.
Another way of saying it is you don’t give someone with a gambling addiction more money for needed things when they just took the last money you gave them and blew it at the track. The problem is the person with the problem NOT your failure to continue to provide them more money on the off chance they will actually use it as intended…this time.
February 21st, 2014 at 6:25 am
Kevin – see, you bit… you believe the LIES from the LIARS.
it’s so curious that folks would rather believe LIES from LIARS because of their own bigotry than pay attention to facts and work to help their fellow man…
February 21st, 2014 at 6:26 am
Kevin, Obama didn’t waste a penny on the stimulus, liar. Not a single penny went wasted. And to claim that the racist Republican caucus would have changed any of its anti-American, murderous, thieving tactics if he had gone against his own party and philosophy just further proves your moral and intellectual emptiness.
And given how much money the past 5 Republican administrations have blown at the track, you really are proving even weaker and dumber than anybody figured, even those of us who know that you’re really weak and very stupid.
By the way, stupid, Obama has cut the deficit by 70%, so everything in your post is an outright lie.
February 21st, 2014 at 6:26 am
Love the ACA, as it is doing all the great things that it said it would do. Workers will be able to spend more time with family, doing errands and just down time to ease their minds and bodies. More time for hobbies. Less stress. Yes we can!
February 21st, 2014 at 6:33 am
Okay, so what are the aliens up to?
February 21st, 2014 at 6:34 am
Demetrius#9, no we can’t. CHANGE it back! I’ll take my freedom, you keep the change.
February 21st, 2014 at 6:41 am
Michelle, this may be off today’s topic but I am just not catching up on your blog. It was empty when I checked your topic concerning “Money Matters.”
This is in reply to Sam Says: February 20th, 2014 at 7:43 am.
You are right, Sam. The Eighth Amendment is violated all the time in the U.S. by imposing unreasonable bail for all felony crimes, particularly where the defendants are poor.
They are almost always imposed a bail that they cannot even pay the ten or whatever percent it is that they would have to come up with in order to bail themselves out of jail.
EVERYONE should have a bail imposed that they could possibly pay, especially without they themselves, or their families, having to put up their homes as collateral for the bail.
Most impoverished people usually cannot afford bail because the bail amount is intentionally set at an amount that the court knows, or hopes, the defendants won’t even be able to pay the required percentage of in order to post bail, and that no one the defendants are connected with will (be able to) bail them out, so the authorities can keep them in jail. It’s a sick, corrupt, broken system.
This is why I say that criminal penalties, particularly levied against the authorities, need to be enacted for violating the Constitution and Bill of Rights. Since the authorities know that there’s no penalty for violating same, they further know that they can violate same with impunity; and, thus, they do so, constantly.
The state judicial performance commissions that are supposed to hold judges accountable are a joke, and they usually rubberstamp whatever judges do. Judges have to do something extremely egregious that causes a huge public outcry before they are even threatened with the possibility of being removed from the bench; and, even then, they usually get off with a reprimand, if even that.
In fact, in most cases, the commission sides with the judges and claims them guilty of no wrongdoing. It’s madness, but it’s been going on almost as long as the system has existed.
If judges knew that there were enforced penalties for violating human and civil rights, and there were no mandatory minimum jail or prison sentences, they would be a lot more fair in their dispensing of justice, our prison population would be a lot lower, there would be much less “need” for private jails and prisons, and the U.S. would no longer be the largest “gulag-nation” in the world.
But, forgive me, I know that I’m dreaming, and that none of this will ever be allowed to happen. It’s a nice dream, though; and one can continue to hope and fight for True Justice, although it is not likely to be realized this side heaven.
We’ve got to keep fighting for it, though; because, without at least some semblance of True Justice, the U.S. would go completely out of control.
Oh, that’s right, it already is! My bad.
February 21st, 2014 at 6:42 am
Yes, James#11, your freedom to go bankrupt without insurance, or with a sub-standard insurance that simply takes your money and leaves you out of luck when you need it.
February 21st, 2014 at 6:45 am
Demetrius & the rest: Just as Nancy predicted workers will no longer depend on employer-subsidized healthcare insurance and thus will volunteer to work less and enjoy the loss of income; does this really make sense?
February 21st, 2014 at 6:46 am
Mick#13, James#11 wants his free/dumb. :)
February 21st, 2014 at 6:46 am
James, you have no freedom, since you are enslaved to stupidity and dishonesty.
February 21st, 2014 at 6:47 am
Harvey#14, Yes, it does make sense.
February 21st, 2014 at 6:49 am
Harvey#14, of course it makes sense because it is the individual’s right to decide what he feels is best for his/herself in how much they wish to work.
Do you think it makes sense to give that right to your employer?
February 21st, 2014 at 6:50 am
Harvey, Of course what you said doesn’t make sense, but it also isn’t anywhere near the reality of what we’re talking about.
People who want to change careers but couldn’t previously because of their need to keep their insurance now have the freedom to change jobs because their insurance is no longer tied to their employment.
People who are only working because they don’t want to lose their insurance could now de-couple it from their employment and retire. Besides, if a person decides they want to work less and they’re okay with whatever income loss they incur, what’s it to you?
Honestly, if I could live off of part-time wages, I would gladly work part-time and spend more of my life pursuing my hobbies and interests.
February 21st, 2014 at 6:52 am
James#11, the scandal-free Obama administration is paying no attention to you losers.
February 21st, 2014 at 6:53 am
Ashley#19, you must keep in mind the PPACA contains the mandate for individual healthcare insurance and provides a minimum penalty for failure to abide by the law or pay a penalty fee which can be assessed only on any Income Tax over-payment.
Moreover, the PPACA provides for community rating and must issue so those with so-called pre-existing conditions can defer purchase until taking the decision to seek treatment for that or other conditions.
So it seems to this observer that PPACA means no one has any strings attaching them to their job. OBTW Ashley should take note that she may be working part-time whether she wants to or not.
February 21st, 2014 at 6:54 am
Ashley#19, The CBO estimates by 2024, the same amount of uninsured will exist 30-31 million. SO a $2 trillion program that does nothing.
Laughable that you support this and think you’re ohhh so smart and sophisticated, and those who actually paid attention are the dumb ones. Sorry Obama sheep the ACA does not (accordin to the CBO) obtain it’s goals of lowering the un-insured .
February 21st, 2014 at 7:36 am
Murray#20 The CBO estimates by 2024, the same amount of uninsured will exist 30-31 million. SO a $2 trillion program that does nothing.
Laughable that you support this and think you’re ohhh so smart and sophisticated, and those who actually paid attention are the dumb ones. Sorry Obama sheep the ACA does not (accordin to the CBO) obtain it’s goals of lowering the un-insured .
February 21st, 2014 at 7:38 am
Demetrius#9, Do you really think that America was built on doing hobbies and not working hard? Where will the money come from to pay for your lazy ways?
The working people are not being given the opportunity to work full time jobs so can’t pay the taxes that support your lazy life. The whole system will come tumbling down.
February 21st, 2014 at 7:39 am
James#11, Yep, you’re free to work the same job forever and never be allowed to change, because then you’ll have no health insurance.
Seriously: Get a dictionary. Look up “freedom”. I don’t think it means what you think it means.
February 21st, 2014 at 7:40 am
The ACA doesn’t go far enough – it needs to give everyone a full subsidy and everyone sufficient supplemental income so that no one would need to work and that we will all “be able to spend more time with family, doing errands and just down time to ease their minds and bodies. More time for hobbies. Less stress. Yes we can”!
February 21st, 2014 at 7:41 am
Jared#23, If Cruz is against it, we know it’s good for America. If conservatives fight it, we know it’s good for America.
If libertarians hate it, we know it’s good for America. If FOX lies about it daily, we know it’s good for America.
February 21st, 2014 at 7:42 am
Rick#24, I think you missed the part where I said that I would love to work part-time to pursue more hobbies, aka, my part-time work would fund said hobbies. Excuse me for believing there’s a better way to spend life than working 50+ hours a week.
It’s got nothing to do with laziness (as I currently hold a full time position and feel blessed to do so, thank you very much) and everything to do with spending my life the way I see fit.
February 21st, 2014 at 7:43 am
Rick#24, you make no sense. None at all. No wonder why the Reps call their own the, ‘STUPID PARTY’
February 21st, 2014 at 7:44 am
Murray#27, wipe the drool off your mouth, you mongoloid.
February 21st, 2014 at 7:45 am
Demetrius, You’re mentally retarded. Brain damaged , a typical Democrat sheep, the low information voter. The bigger they come, the harder they fall, retard.
February 21st, 2014 at 7:46 am
Jared#31, excellent projection from a brain-damaged sheep like you.
February 21st, 2014 at 7:47 am
Murray, You’re the one who defends the D like they are family. I’m not the follower, you are. This is a site for followers.
February 21st, 2014 at 7:48 am
The snowstorm of rightwing lies, mistruths, fabrications and disinformation that is here today and in the media is astonishing.
The CBO study was not a negative as the RW pundits would have you believe — but they took a sentence, misconstrued it from “workers” opting out of full time to “jobs” being lost to the ACA, and it has been around two news cycles already. The truth is coming out, but the lies are there first.
When I see the stupid, ignorant and unfounded comments by RWNJs here, it is proof that propaganda works on the gullible.
February 21st, 2014 at 7:49 am
BWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!
The scandal-free Obama administration slaps the Goopers around once again.
February 21st, 2014 at 7:50 am
I’ve been battling this false right wing propaganda all day today by simply using the personal example of my wife. Up until now she has continued working simply because she has a preexisting condition and her employer provided healthcare insurance was absolutely essential.
But now thanks to the ACA she can finally retire which opens her job for someone else to take. That’s like creating a job instead of losing one.
February 21st, 2014 at 7:51 am
The one percent and their paid stooges in the republican party have been living off the labor of others for most of their lives.
They assume that the rest of us are eagerly awaiting an opportunity to be slackers too. Luckily most of my fellow citizens are EAGER to work and to contribute to society. Sadly this is something “conservatives” will never understand.
February 21st, 2014 at 7:51 am
I always thought that this is number one thing the GOP was afraid of. Getting people out from under the thumb of an employer.
They want everyone towing the line, and keeping their heads down for fear of loss of a job… this is why they fought against it so hard.
February 21st, 2014 at 7:52 am
“I’ll keep my freedom, you keep the change.”
Republicans serve an all powerful, all seeing god (Big Brother much?) willingly hand over the fruits of their labor to corporate overlords, and let the wealthy few control elections to take away our say in government.
Yeah, you don’t get to play the freedom card- you like being slaves. Guess it’s a good thing your religion condones that.
February 21st, 2014 at 7:53 am
Bwahahahahahahahahahahahahahha! Only Progressives can look at a net decrease of 2.3 million jobs (likely a low estimate) and claim its a good thing. Wait, didn’t Nancy Pelosi say in the beginning that the ACA would CREATE 4 million jobs. So did liberals actually support this POS program when it was “taking freedom” away from workers? Now why would they do that? Do progressives hate workers or are they simply applying the Global Warming model? “Don’t believe your eyes, believe our adjusted data”.
If the CBO says it made a mistake tomorrow and the ACA actually creates jobs, I wonder what lie the administration will feed their brain dead cool aid drinkers to write the next article?
I will make it simple for the rmurrays of the world….Losing jobs is BAD. Sugar coat it, serve it on fine china in a ritzy restaurant but it still BAD.
So when the lie of ” Premiums are lower” gets reported..(they are NOT), I wonder what creative story will run then? “Higher premiums good because it makes people live healthier lives”. Ahh Progressives…… dear simple progressives.
February 21st, 2014 at 7:54 am
Ronnie#35, scandal free? do tell …
February 21st, 2014 at 7:55 am
The report said people will VOLUNTARILY reduce their hours or leave their full-time jobs. Rand Paul and others are lying when they crow that Obamacare will force people out of jobs and lead to higher unemployment.
When I graduated from high school, a classmate married a full-time farmer. In order to get some health insurance at reasonable cost, she took a full-time job in town rather than being a full-time housewife and mother on the farm.
If the ACA had been in effect back then, she would not have entered the labor force, and if the ACA had become the law of the land after she began working, she would have decided to immediately leave that job.
February 21st, 2014 at 7:57 am
Steve#36, whose humble correspondent wishes his spouse a speedy recovery from her pre-existing condition now she is able to dispense with her tax-free fringe benefit group healthcare insurance.
February 21st, 2014 at 7:57 am
Ronnie, The whole country is laughing at you and your idol Obama, you are all alone
February 21st, 2014 at 7:58 am
Mitch#37, hastens to argue few are “eagerly awaiting an opportunity to be slackers”, but that is precisely what most here are arguing.
The PPACA is like the Emancipation Proclamation: it frees all those indentured wage slaves from the tax free group healthcare insurance subsidized by the employer. If that was the purpose of the law, then why did that law mandate employer subsidized healthcare insurance?
February 21st, 2014 at 8:01 am
Marie#34, not enough Dems and surrogates out there pushing back on these LIES, even IF the corporate media would broadcast their information…
“an informed electorate” is not conducive to a fascist society.
February 21st, 2014 at 8:04 am
Harvey, as usual, you come out in favor of slavery and indentured servitude. Your anti-American, anti-freedom agenda is failing, Harvey Liar. Working a sh*t job just to maintain crappy insurance is hardly a GOOD THING, stupid.
February 21st, 2014 at 8:05 am
James#41, Perhaps this could be rephrased. The non-actual scandal, rather than farcical, FOX scandal, free administration strikes again.
February 21st, 2014 at 8:06 am
James#41, Nothing has exactly stuck yet.
February 21st, 2014 at 8:06 am
Ted Cruz can’t open his mouth without a load of sh*t falling from it.
February 21st, 2014 at 8:07 am
Phillip#42, Did you read the part in the CBO report about the ACA creating incentives for people to work less due to “subsidies that decline with rising income”? Do you personally think that is a good thing?
February 21st, 2014 at 8:09 am
Harvey#43, excellent pile of uninformed, dishonest crap as usual. You never fail to reach down to the bottom of the rightwing cesspool of lies for your disingenuous and idiotic posts.
Health insurance is part of the compensation package, not a fringe benefit, Harvey Liar.
February 21st, 2014 at 8:10 am
Harvey#45, as usual, you lie about the very essence of the matter. Nobody here has argued for the non-existent and imaginary “right to be slackers”, which is a right only the idle rich have, by the way.
The law mandates employer-subsidized health insurance in order to regulate the thieves and murderers of the insurance industry, stupid, which it does quite successfully, much to the chagrin of you rightwing sociopaths.
February 21st, 2014 at 8:11 am
Harvey, Bush f*cked it up, and Obama fixed it. Thanks for playing, and losing, conservaturds. Perhaps some day you’ll grow a conscience and ask yourself why you and your side are so eager to hurt and kill Americans.
February 21st, 2014 at 8:14 am
John#12, no need to apologize. This blog can accommodate the occasional off topic entry. On that note let me add.
Hey Baggers who want small government so their backers can privatize that which government must “follow rules for all” (except banksters and politicians)
Any Bagger (who has children) – ever think of the country you leave behind for your heirs?
YUK
February 21st, 2014 at 8:15 am
If one is rich, drives drunk, kills several people, critically injures several others then no jail time at all because that person gets off on an “Affluenza” defense.
American justice ..ain’t it great?
February 21st, 2014 at 8:16 am
IF a rich person wants to buy a better car, house, education, etc. OK BY ME. But I do not want a rich person to buy a better justice for him than me. That is where the LINE must be drawn.
Hey, RATS on U.S. Supreme Court – do your duty and repeal Citizens United whereby the rich have opportunity to buy our politicians and justice system (including you, Scalia, Roberts, Alito, Thomas)