Friday, September 22, 2017

David Alexrod Cried When ACA Passed ... But This Isn't What You May Think

Typically when we see a rummy headline of that nature, the contents will advise us of how Obamacare destroyed the medical future for everyone in the Harper's Valley PTA.  There's one regrettable detail to that, however.  No-one has ever seen Harper's Valley PTA since it was only an invention for a not particularly good song.

While David Alexrod's article wallows in overly-sentimental prose, it goes forward in defense of the Affordable Care Act which was subsequently demonized by the typically eloquent language of the GOP in which they imaginatively turned any political case regarding the ACA into a racist campaign against Obama to give extra boost to the bad idea of a replacement.


Alexrod's daughter has epilepsy which isn't ordinarily such a big deal and likely you have at least one friend who lives with it and lives well but Alexrod's insurance wouldn't pay for it.

Lauren had epilepsy. This seizure was one of thousands she would experience over the next 18 years. She lived through more than a dozen hospitalizations, brutal, failed treatments and brain surgery before we were able to find a combination of drugs to stop them.

I was a young reporter at the Chicago Tribune when Lauren got sick and we had insurance through my job. But that insurance didn't cover Lauren's very expensive medications and, since she now had a pre-existing condition, we couldn't shift to a policy that would. Our out-of-pocket expenses ran as much as a thousand dollars a month. My salary at the time was around $40,000 a year.

CNN:  Axelrod: I cried when they passed Obamacare


The following is anecdotal evidence and heavily sentimental but it reveals something I didn't even know before the Affordable Care Act.

Wherever I go in the country, I encounter such stories. Some from patients themselves; often from grateful relatives and friends of those who have benefited from the ACA.

I can't remember anyone stopping me to share the "horror stories" President Trump and the relentless proponents of "repeal and replace" invoke, though I know there are some who had had bare-bones policies and now are paying more for more coverage than they say they need. (I didn't know what I needed until I needed it.)

- CNN

I had thought medical care was a one-size-fits-all situation and one either has it or one does not.  I did not realize there were budget health care systems which reduce benefits in who knows what ways but it's cheaper and people were gambling it would be sufficient.  Left out of any discussion regarding any replacement for the ACA is the budget plan will be sufficient in some unknown percentage of situations and the part we never hear is when it won't.


The logic is similar to anti-vaxx insofar as opposition to vaccination goes fine ... until you need one but, by then, it's usually too late.  I only recently heard some heavy opposition to the BCG vaccination which, among other things, protects against tuberculosis.  That's generally true since TB is at a low ebb in the American population but I read within days of the protestations regarding BCG of a situation in which an infectious carrier was roaming about in some American city.

I have no personal concern since I was vaccinated in Australia where the BCG shot is mandatory as it is in many places in the world.  However, in America, there's little risk ... until there is.


I wonder what case President Trump, Vice President Pence and Mitch McConnell are making behind closed doors today?

Are they arguing that this law will somehow improve the lives of the millions of Americans who will lose coverage? Or are they warning their comrades of retribution from an angry base if they don't pay off on their mantra of "repeal and replace?"

I will weep again if this retrograde and reprehensible bill becomes law.

I won't weep because of some perceived blow to "the Obama legacy," any more than I cried because of the political achievement seven years ago.

I'll cry for the sick and vulnerable and for all the families who will needlessly be exposed to the awful trials mine has known.

- CNN


That was where Axelrod closed and everything he said is true but there wasn't a word about how the problem would be substantially reduced if not for the rapacious manner of Big Pharma and which has not been addressed in any way by anyone's plan.  That's the segue to the Medicare-for-All plan since that mechanism ensures your medical needs are always covered.

Medical care in America costs $xxx and, regardless of how much any opposition may cry it only costs $yyy to do it, the $xxx cost doesn't change without taking things away.  There's no need to hammer and belabor the fact any replacement plans will take things away since you know it already.


There's no personal consideration since it's not much longer I will need any medical care and I don't get that much now.  That gives a jolly tint to all the dollars I paid in cigarette taxes over many years since that money sure went somewhere but it didn't have anything to do with my health care.  The ostensible basis for cigarette taxes has been the funds will go toward increased health costs by smokers but I have refused any of that kind of treatment.  Those tax dollars went the same place they always go:  some rich man's pocket.

I don't want Medicare-for-All for myself since it won't make any difference but I do want it for the children who need a far better job of this than we did.  They shouldn't ever have to worry whether they can afford insurance or whether that insurance will be sufficient when they do need it.

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