(My Response to someone on an Obamacare thread:

     First off, I'm going to apologize ahead of time for my rant because quite frankly you just pissed me off! I will admit it's difficult not to lump all Democrats in with Obama since the number of votes for Obama care was 100% and the ideology between a typical Democrat and Obama's "vision" aren't that far apart. But to honestly say that nobody is giving or proposing a realistic alternative is absolutely insane. It's brainwashing, MSNBC HORSESHIT!!!! And you and I have had this debate enough times to know or should know, why we are as screwed as we are.

     I have listened time and time again to people justify how Obama care could work because other countries have done similar things. I have listened to the nonsense were people state if everyone had insurance that medical procedures, in the end, would be cheaper. All of that, not only is a fantasy as ridiculous as flying pigs but is beginning to be proven as the whole thing starts to fall apart as it exactly was described to happen!!!! Now maybe some of us must be fortunetellers or sleep with crystals under our bed, or other magical nuances that must be responsible for the strange but accurate predictions, but no matter how you slice it, it comes down to a simple calculator!

     So I’m going to do this one more time, insurance does not decrease the cost of procedures. If anything it increases the cost of procedures. In the last 20 years, this is been proven time and time again because a $5000 MRI could be performed if you paid $500 cash. Now everyone has to have insurance, with ridiculous deductibles, and the price of everything is still going up. There are two things that always fix everything if done right. One is capitalism, and the other is freedom. Let me explain one more time why that is the formula for fixing this.

     The reason other countries who have government-based healthcare systems seem to be, on paper, more affordable is that primarily they're run by the government and you can't sue the government if something goes wrong. There are exceptions to all rules, but in the grand scheme of things that is what holds other country medical systems that are government-run from exploding costs. The government dictates what is allowed, what is not. The government dictates what you do, how much is allowed to have, and how you must live, (to some degree), to keep overall costs down. If you have a bad reaction to a government-sanctioned drug, you can't sue the government. Malpractice is almost nonexistent in those countries. Now I realize that there are many in this country that once realizing this would actually agree that maybe the government should run it all. I can't trade one stupid thought for another in this debate. But the fact is, as you and I have debated many times before, the problem with our medical industry is the cost to the end-user which is dictated by the cost of the procedures themselves. And those are inherently dictated by malpractice insurance, safeguards, and ridiculous regulations that all parts of the medical industry have to constantly jump through which cost incredible amounts of money. Tort reform was the start to fixing this. It was shot down for reasons which happen to be another debate. But it sounds more simple to the average idiot if you just tell him, "You should just have health care no matter what." Rather than explain attacking malpractice would cut costs in half right off the bat.

     The second problem is the regulations. If you as an individual wanting to start a blood lab, as an example, you would have $100,000 in equipment and over $2 million in building codes, permits, government bureaucracy, insurance, and a dozen other completely ridiculous regulations and hoops that you would have to go through that cost money/time. If I know someone that has an x-ray machine, I should be able to go down and use his x-ray machine and pay 50 bucks, (if that's all he wants), instead of having to go to a hospital and pay $600 for the same damn x-ray. I only use this example because I currently do something very similar with my chiropractor and his x-ray machine. If people would be allowed to grab small parts of the medical industry and compete without the regulations forcing everyone to charge ridiculous amounts of money, the people charging too much would go out of business. That forces overall prices to go lower.

     Now my wife is a health insurance agent. I know all the ins and outs of this disaster that is coming. So do most people in the industry. Repealing Obama care would be almost as disastrous as leaving it in place. Pandora's box has been opened. The American people, on a whole, cannot afford health insurance. It's not going to happen. And the IRS WILL BE THE HEAD HUNTER with the way it was set up. My wife has access to the federal exchange numbers, and every other number that has to do with this industry that nobody wants to talk about. Just two days ago I talked to a friend of mine who just found out that his place of work is now going to make him pay his medical insurance out of his paycheck. He cannot cancel medical insurance without quitting his job. They are taking 9% of his check to pay a chunk of his medical insurance. This is put a strain on him to the point he is now behind on his house payments. If something doesn't change he will lose his house. I don't care who you are, what you believe, what you want to believe, or how you perceive the world, that's simply bullshit! The money in the exchange is drying up four times faster than their projected worst-case scenario. Many states have already managed to accept new federal guidelines in which case the subsidies are half of what they were a year ago. Subsidies are also based on your zip code and the reasons for that are another debate.

     My original story that started this thread had very little to do with Obama care directly. It was simply another example of how the entire industry is falling apart and failing. And the numbers haven't even come in yet that will dictate large policy changes. Not these little protocol changes that do nothing but make everyone's life miserable. I deal with people that live paycheck to paycheck, I deal with millionaires, I deal with lawyers, cops, businessmen, and doctors. It doesn't matter who you are or what you do. You either know you're screwed, or you're about to find out. If you don't believe that you're delusional.

     I realize this has become a book and again I apologize. The worst part of all of this isn't that it can't work. The worst part is it can't be undone. I understand insurance companies very well now and they will not survive repealing Obama care. The personal physicians and the hospitals overall would be very lucky to survive such an act. Something has to be done and the only way to do it is to go back to what makes things work. Which is what should've been done in the first place. Now it's just going to hurt a whole lot more because of idiots, both political and civilian. It's simple math, it's simply human nature, and it's common sense. Everyone wants to believe in Santa clause and everyone thinks everyone else should "compromise" and this is ""where it's gotten us"". (And for those of you who still don't see it, then let me rephrase that by saying, ""where it's taking us"")