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Obama: Health care decision a" victory" for Americans

June 28, 2012 9:51 AM

After the Supreme Court upheld most provisions of the Affordable Care Act, President Obama addressed the nation, saying the decision reaffirms the principle that "no illness or accident should lead to any family's financial ruin."

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by claydowner June 28, 2012 2:59 PM EDT
The Affordable Care Act is a major step forward for America. 32 million uninsured Americans can now get health insurance. The Supreme Court upheld the law, including the individual mandate. What is wrong with an individual mandate? Most states, including Minnesota where I live, require that you carry liability insurance to drive a car. So why can't the government make healthy people purchase health insurance to cover their doctor bills too? After all the law is fair because the exchanges will drive down costs and the poor get a subsidy or tax credit to buy insurance. Everyone will get sick or hurt and have to go to the ER or get hospitalized at some point in life. Women and their babies need to be able to go to the hospital when they are sick or hurt. The ACA will expand preventive care and treat conditions in a clinic setting by doctors and nurses trained in family medicine. This is a much better approach to medicine than waiting for the appendix to burst in the ER

The other issue that never gets discussed are our national security interests in having healthy young people to go into the military. I served 20 years on active duty. I would have served more but the military wears you down overtime and it was just time for me to retire. So who takes my place? Young people from the lower class or middle classes. It costs $500,000 to train an recruit to become a rifleman in an infantry squad. Military intelligence, linquists, and others can cost over one million dollars to train. Frequently, recruits that wash out of training due to medical reasons often came from families that lacked medical insurance. These recruits as youngsters did not get adequate access to a family doctor while growing up as kids. So guess who gets to eat that $500,000 to $1,000,000 when a young recruit fails out of training due to medical reasons and gets sent home? You the taxpayer gets pay for it. So a healthy recruit also means that recruit will be a healthy worker for a company in the civilian sector. So you have national security and economic security reasons because all of America's competitors like the BRIC countries have universal health care coverage. Covering the poor with health care is just as important as giving tax cuts to the rich.
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by gnsnnh June 28, 2012 2:02 PM EDT
I am glad this was passed. It would be nice for those who can afford insurance pay for it. It would be nice for children(s) to be covered under their parnets insurance until the age of 26. It would be nice that no one will be turned down for pre-condition medical illness. What is so wrong with President Obama Health Plan? I personally get tired paying for those who can afford it but will not pay for it because they can get medical attention for free.
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by shonufis123 June 28, 2012 1:26 PM EDT
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