The problem with Obummercare is that no one can opt out..but politicians.
Under the laws passed you will become a tax evader if you do not BUY Obummercare.
The motha-fuckin government should NOT be running the healthcare business...
Well...that's a serious twisting of the reality.
You're a tax evader if you don't pay taxes.
You can opt out of health insurance and pay the tax--or you can get coverage (which isn't "buying Obamacare"--it's just buying insurance).
The government isn't "running the healthcare industry" they've simply regulated it, which is very different.
Below is my extended opinion:
I, for one, think the government should run the healthcare industry. It works quite well elsewhere because the incentive is towards healthier people--and the problem of "chargemasters" (accounts for about 1/3rd of the problem) doesn't exist in these systems.
Part of what this government involvement does is impose on the health insurance market a rule which says that their incentives must be towards healthier people (as opposed to dead ones--as it is now). It's difficult for a market to switch from "We make money if we deny care to someone who paid us trough a technicality and they die" to "We make money if we keep people who pay us healthier".
The reason the government fits so well here is that it fits a not-for-profit role. There is no "middle man" (ie insurance companies) trying to skim off the top. The health services are paid for ahead of time and the idea is that by keeping people healthier we can SAVE money rather than make it.
When profit comes into play, people start to die.
The main thing the government took over here was the insurance companies' profit margins--and even if the whole system collapses come 2014 we should all be singing their praises for that.
This puts a huge burden on insurance companies and that is made up by scaling the risk pool (ie by insuring everyone).
Unfortunately, this is what you ended up with for getting rid of the government option. Instead of an option you are forced into something.
There are LOTS of legitimate reasons to dislike Obamacare, however the following reasons are not legitimate because they simply aren't true:
1. There are no options. (False, you may get insured or pay the tax--which will be quite low for most people who have trouble affording insurance--there are, thus, two options. Effectively, this is a tax increase. For what it does for our country, it's really very little to ask--these will be some of the best spent tax dollars of all time if predictions are correct as they appear to be in test markets).
2. The government is "taking over healthcare". (False, this is a conservative talking point/buzz phrase--the government is regulating the insurance industry and has chosen to impose a tax to that end. This is not the same as a takeover--admittedly they did attempt a takeover, because a government option would've decimated insurance companies, but this was blocked).
3. There are going to be death panels. (False, this legislation DOES AWAY WITH the death panels which already existed at every major insurance company--whose sole purpose was to deny care to paying customers)
4. It will bankrupt the country. (False, the country isn't paying for it--insurance companies are. The country was ALREADY paying its maximum possible allotment of these funds which was part of the impetus for wanting to get everyone insured or wanting to tax them if they didn't--the big problem, of course, being that most hospitals are walking a tightrope between private entities [so that they can charge insane prices a la "chargemasters"] and government subsidy [so that when the bills come due they don't shut down]).
