Our friends are applauding the Health bill

[dreamland]

I've told these people that the new Health bill is a crime. People will lose coverage.
Our friends are college-educated and have decent jobs. They watch their budgets and complain when summer camps are too expensive for their kids. My family can't afford the changes but our "friends" are applauding this bill. They don't consider themselves "poor" which is one of the groups of people who will suffer from this bill. How do I convince them that this bill will affect them too? I'm so mad at these people but how do you fix stupid?

[luvMIdog]

1. you can't fix stupid

[Yavin4]

2. How do they get their health insurance? From their employers?

or some other source?

[dreamland]

11. They are all employed and covered.

[Yavin4]

12. That's why they don't care.

That's also why there will never be a national political consensus for single payer. As long as a majority of Americans get decent healthcare from their jobs, they don't give a shit about anyone else.

[RobinA]

18. How Old Are They?

They've never had a layoff breathing down their necks? Even if they weren't actually laid off? I currently have great insurance, but I've been laid off twice, too. My layoffs were both before I had the health issues of middle age and were before there was ANY pre-existing condition protection, so I was damn lucky. I am now in the public sector and my job is fairly secure, but I have no delusions that it can't happen to me again. Tomorrow. Most, if not all of my friends have had at least one layoff, my cousin was laid off at age 62. I can't imagine anybody who's worked these past 30 years thinking it can't happen to them. Just can't fathom it.

[janterry]

3. I remember

several years ago, listening to some woman call in on a right wing radio station. She said something like, she had a chronic illness (forget what), but she and her family were able to negotiate with her primary and work out a plan. Then her husband had a heart attack and they had negotiated with the hospital and were making small monthly payments. That was, she said, the 'right way' to do things - even with her very limited income.

I listened for awhile and thought.............shoot. You are just ONE more little problem away from homelessness. But she just kept at it - arguing passionately against universal healthcare (to her, socialism). I just don't know. Maybe by now she has changed her mind. That, or another heart attack hit her husband and they learned the 'hard' way.

Your friends will probably always have good health care. At least I hope so. But then again, I thought I'd always have healthcare, too

[haele]

21. She was probably fibbing a bit.

No way she could negotiate care for a serious chronic condition that required medication or therapy with her primary care doctor unless her household had some support. Similarly, if her husband had a heart attack, they would be facing payments close to a mortgage because no hospital would write of 3/4 of a bill that typically runs up into $100k level so they could pay it off during his lifetime. She had insurance of some sort, or a trust fund they could raid from, or a very generous patron or church.

Haele

[janterry]

23. You are probably right

I don't know - she certainly was not a woman of means (by the sound of it).

[Turbineguy]

4. Ughhhh....... let's see.....

how do diseases spread again?

Even though they may not give a shit about others, sick people who can't afford a Doctor visit pass their illness to others. Or should that be, "unto others"?

Healthcare for everybody is just enlightened self-interest. That's why enlightened societies have it.

[AJT]

5. I have seen numbers that have all premiums going up,

including employer offered plans. Maybe they'll figure it out when their premiums go up. If any have parents that may end up needing to be in a nursing home they had better have rich parents because Medicaid will no longer be funded enough to cover nursing home care, so they will end up living with them.

[LonePirate]

6. This bill will cause an increase in premiums for everybody - even those covered by employers.

The premiums paid by employers are going to increase just like they are going to increase for those who purchase insurance on their own. Employers are not going to eat all of those increases. Then you have all of the decreased benefits in the coverage you do buy.

This bill will kill more Americans in its first month than were killed on 9/11.

[CrispyQ]

7. I want everyone in my community -

you know, the people we share the public space with - to be as healthy as possible. I just don't get this glee in denying others health care. If something contagious takes hold, I would want everyone around me to have access to quality health care.

[DeminPennswoods]

8. Kaiser Family Foundation has estimates by county

My senator, Bob Casey, tweeted out for every PA county how much more they'll pay using a KFF analysis.

Link: http://kff.org/interactive/tax-credits-under-the-affordable-care-act-vs-replacement-proposal-interactive-map/

[dreamland]

20. This is a useful tool to play with. Thanks!

[silverweb]

9. They would have to overcome their selfishness.

[font color="navy" face="Verdana"]It's very unlikely that will happen.

[Cosmocat]

10. Because 1/3 of this country vote culture - 100%

They may, or may not, try to convince themselves otherwise, but that is what they do.

[pnwmom]

13. Are they assuming they will never need care in a hospital?

Because this bill will be stripping hospitals of huge amounts of money: the ACA included a reduction to hospitals for Medicare patients -- which will be RETAINED -- and the bill will end the Medicaid expansion, which will cause hospitals to end up with patients who can't pay turning up in the emergency rooms. And by law those hospitals are required to care for people whether they can pay or not.

When hospitals are grossly underfunded and understaffed, that affects patient care of EVERYONE there -- even the ones who are paying for their care with employer based insurance.

The bill will also cause the Medicare trust fund to run out 4 years earlier than otherwise, at which point they'll need to raise taxes or (GOP preference) end Medicare as we know it (and switch to coupons for low income people).

Will your friends care when Medicare is destroyed? Do they have parents? Plans to get older themselves?

[Liberal In Texas]

14. Employer mandates go away. Caps on how much they'll pay out in their LIFETIME.

That great insurance they may have from their employers may disappear. Then they would have to find other policies that'll be at a higher cost. Anybody in the family with a per-existing condition? Then good luck on not having to pay through the nose for basic coverage.

If anybody in the family gets really sick or has an accident...at a certain point they'll reach the max the ins. co. will pay for life then they will be on their own to pay for chemo or physical therapy etc.

And this is just 2 reasons.

[Mr. Ected]

15. Ultimately, Trump's America will come crashing down around them

They may lose their jobs if the economy nosedives like it did under Bush. THEN they'll need insurance and a job, but neither will be forthcoming.

If they're anything like the spoiled fuckers I know in Redland, they will blame Hillary for this. Or JFK. Or maybe Truman.

[sarcasmo]

16. I would find new friends.

[sinkingfeeling]

17. Does this bill include the much talked about GOP plan to tax

employer-paid insurance as income? If not, assure your friends that it's coming.

[Adrahil]

19. Maybe they are just idiots.

Maybe you should stop being friends with them.

I have some close friends who are strongly Democrat, and they have friends who are hard core Trumpsters. And they keep being friends with them in spite of the nasty things they say. I don't get it. How can you be friends with people like that?

[Skittles]

22. why are you friends with people like that?

ugh

THEY ARE SELFISH ASSHOLES