Affordable Health Care is an Oxymoron

The words “Affordable Health Care” are a contradiction. By its very nature health care is unaffordable. That is the reason so many countries have embraced universal health care as a national responsibility.

The rhetorical term oxymoron, made up of two Greek words meaning “sharp” and “dull,” is itself oxymoronic.

As you probably remember from school, an oxymoron is a compressed paradox: a figure of speech in which seemingly contradictory terms appear side by side. British writer Thomas Gibbons characterized the figure as “sense in the masquerade of folly.” This explanation comes from http://grammar.about.com/od/rhetoricstyle/a/100-Awfully-Good-Examples-Of-Oxymorons.htm.

In my opinion the most outrageous oxymoron statement was “Peace for our time.” It was said by Neville Chamberlain on September 30, 1938.

My good friends, for the second time in our history, a British Prime Minister has returned from Germany bringing peace with honor. I believe it is “peace for our time.” Go home and get a nice quiet sleep.

On September 3, 1939 in response to Hitler’s invasion of Poland, Britain and France, both allies of the overrun nation declared war on Germany.

While health care is hardly in the same category as a war, the Affordable Health Care Act is not affordable.

Obamacare rates are going way up. The latest estimate from the federal government is that the average midlevel Obamacare plan, the most popular choice, will cost about 22 percent more in 2017 than it did in 2016. This is based on data from 39 states where people sign up through the HealthCare.gov website and some preliminary data from four other states and the District of Columbia.

The health care industry is a “for profit” system that hides under the IRS category of “non-profit” but pays its management high rewards. Kaiser Permanente CEO Bernard J. Tyson earned $2.3 million in salary and other compensation in 2010, according to Kaiser’s federal tax filing.

For profit companies Aetna CEO Mark Bertolini and Cigna CEO David Cordani both saw their total pay surge to $17.3 million in 2015 after earning $15 million and $14.5 million, respectively, in 2014.

Over the past six months, Mylan, which is one of the world’s largest purveyors of generic medicines, raised prices more than 20 percent on two dozen products. And Mylan also boosted prices by more that 100 percent on seven other products, according to Wells Fargo analyst David Maris, who called some of the price hikes “exceptionally large.”

So where is the affordability? The idea of controlled costs is a myth. There are no laws limiting the profits that hospitals earn, pharmaceutical companies earn, or insurance companies earn.

For reasons that evade me the GOP’s war on Obamacare offers no reasonable alternative. Of course if their intent is to protect health care profits by returning health care to the way it was before Obamacare was enacted, they are on the right path.

Universal Health Care is the Solution to the High Cost of Medical Care

Obamacare premiums are set to skyrocket an average of 22% for the benchmark silver plan in 2017, according to a government report released Monday.

Health care insurance is too expensive.

The stated goals of health care reform in 2009 (Obamacare) in the USA were

lower costs
cover all Americans
drive quality
and be paid for (without impacting the federal budget)

Premiums for Californians’ Obamacare health coverage will rise by an average of 13.2% next year, according to the Los Angeles Times, more than three times the increase of the last two years. Premiums in the insurance program rose just 4% in 2016, after rising 4.2% in 2015 – the first year that exchange officials negotiated with insurers. In Arizona, the benchmark plan’s average premium will increase 116% in 2017.

An analysis by the nonpartisan Kaiser Family Foundation of 14 metro areas that have already announced their 2017 premiums found an average jump of 11%. The changes ranged from a decrease of 14% in Providence, R.I., to an increase of 26% in Portland, Oregon.

Ouch! What happened to objective 1 – lower costs?

Opponents cry “socialized medicine” as if that means the end of the world. Look at the map below and you will see all of the countries (in green) that are in collapse thanks to universal health care where there are no for profit insurance companies. Although you are free to buy supplemental insurance in many of those countries.

Is there another solution?

ObamaCare Cartoon

Even if you think Obamacare is a good thing you just have to laugh.

Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts Surprises Everyone

ObamaCare Lives

How could Chief Justice John Roberts have voted with the liberal justices in favor of Obama care? Charles Krauthammer has written a piece for the National Review contending that the “Commerce Clause contained, constitutional principle of enumerated powers [has been] reaffirmed.” “Law upheld, Supreme Court’s reputation for neutrality maintained.” He suggests that Roberts was more concerned with the Court’s reputation than the outcome of this case. I disagree.

George Will, also writing in the National Review offered similar analysis.

We may never know Roberts’ thinking. Considering the far reaching consequences of his (Roberts) decision I cannot believe that he would not be more concerned with the impact this law will have on almost every American.

John Roberts said the law was legal under the right of the Federal government’s power to tax. The Obama administration denied the penalty against the non-insured is a tax. Roberts obviously had to search out his justification for voting in favor of the law. It must have come as a great surprise in the White House when they heard Roberts’ reasoning.

One thing is obvious. The media proved that even their smartest commentators could not conjure the outcome nor explain the logic of John Roberts.