What Does Being "Lazy" Have To Do With Health Insurance? Nothing.
March 24, 2015
Yesterday one of the kindest individuals I know made some horrible comments implying Obamacare favors the "lazy" at the expense of the motivated. He does not think it fair that the rest of us should pay for health insurance for these "lazy" individuals. As if not being able to afford the high cost of health insurance means you are lazy.
Unfortunately, this is the typical argument of the uninformed or those with a vested interest in maintaining the status quo. He was a member of the former group (but currently informed and reformed). But it is the latter group who was clearly shaping his opinions about who is "entitled" to healthcare in America. Even though these individuals have been wrong about nearly everything they said would happen under Obamacare, they continue to repeat their distortions. Obamacare has not:
- Caused employers to lay-off millions of workers
- Increased the costs of health insurance above previous trend levels
- Created death panels, etc.
I’ll save my disdain for the uncaring and self-interested politicians and their ilk that do have the power to make changes to Obamacare—like the newly announced candidate for President of the United States, Ted Cruz. It wasn’t until yesterday when I read “the comments” and learned of Cruz’s announcement that I started to think about what American health care would look like under a Cruz White House. Until then the only thing I knew about Cruz’s stance on health care is that no one in the world wants to repeal “every word” of Obamacare more than this guy. (Well, maybe a few conservative intellectuals who would rather set themselves on fire than live in a world where a law enacted by President Obama defines the nation for years to come… But I digress.)
So, I had no idea what type of American health care system Cruz preferred. And my search to find out was brief because replacing Obamacare was never really Cruz’s thing. Until earlier this month, other than calling for the full repeal of Obamacare, Cruz was totally vague about what he wanted in lieu of it. As an aside, I do have to give him credit for sticking to his mantra of repeal instead of replace like some others.
But now that he is running for President and 16 million people have coverage because of Obamacare, he knows he needs to offer a replacement and not just a vow to repeal. Not at all surprising, Cruz’s proposal to replace Obamacare is something we’ve heard before. Cruz wants to replace Obamacare with legislation (The Health Care Choice Act of 2015) that guts most of the Obamacare and allows individuals to purchase health insurance coverage across state lines.
So, it’s basically a one-bullet point plan—selling and buying health insurance across state lines with the goal of increasing competition among insurers…
What a farce… All the proponents of this across state lines bit never admit the utter impossibility of this ever happening. Because in order for health insurers to sell their products across state lines they have to:
- Create provider networks in every state
- Pay each state’s premium taxes
- Know and Comply with each state’s health insurance regulations
Conclusion
Some people say he's brilliant. Some call him a great orator and debater. And once someone called him a legislative extortionist. He drafted a proposal to replace Obamacare just in time for announcing his candidacy. Today, he even enrolled in Obamacare due to a life changing event, and because he is a law-abiding citizen who needed health insurance. So, yeah, the guys no dummy. But is he brilliant and crafty enough to get himself elected President and manipulate Congress into taking health care away from millions? I think he may find out that the haters of “lazy” people who cannot afford health insurance without government assistance aren’t a large enough group to get him what he wants.
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Denise Perkins
