The Kind-Hearted Smart Aleck

Ever since then President Barack Obama signed the Affordable Care Act (AKA Obamacare), the Republican Party has made it their #1 goal to destroy the healthcare reform law before it has the opportunity to achieve success. Congressional Republicans filled the airwaves with lies about the ACA - anything from it including "death panels" to it being a government takeover and beyond. While all these egregious misstatements were called out by fact-checkers, sadly, the GOPers' heated rhetoric, at least temporarily, got the best of Democrats' even-keeled tone and fact-checking. This led to a majority of the country disapproving of the healthcare bill without knowing what was in it. Even today, a decent number of self-described Republicans believe that the Affordable Care Act and Obamacare are different laws, when in fact they're one and the same. This is what misinformation has done to this country, and ironically enough, the largest propagator of fake news is the Republic...

Just yesterday, Gallup released some rather significant findings with regard to the Medicaid expansion offered via the Affordable Care Act. According to the report, the 21 states which expanded Medicaid and established a state-based marketplace exchange or state-federal partnership have seen their uninsured rates drop to a much greater degree than the 29 states which didn't take advantage of those options afforded to them by the new healthcare law. Based on these latest numbers, the 21 states which expanded Medicaid and established a state-based marketplace exchange or state-federal partnership have seen their uninsured rates drop by an average of 3.97%. These very states hold the top 13 rankings when it comes to a decrease in the uninsured between 2013 and 2014. The 29 states which didn't expand Medicaid and the like have seen their uninsured rates drop an average of 1.95% - less than half that of the 21 other states. These 29 states hold 20 of the bottom 27 rankings when ...

Republican Louisiana Representative Bill Cassidy, who is running to be the party's Senate candidate for the coming elections, recently said the following in a speech given to the Louisiana Oil and Gas Association with regard to health insurance: "[My plan] I think actually reflects the reality of who the uninsured are, relatively less sophisticated, less comfortable with forms, less educated. Those are the folks that - not all - there's a guy who goes to my church who's uninsured, who's middle-class but couldn't get it because he has Type 1 diabetes. So it's not all, but it is the folks who I think are going to have the hardest time reaching [...]" Excuse me?!? I don't think so... What makes this quote even sadder is the fact that Mr. Cassidy is a physician. As sad as it is to say, there are many other people like the guy he knows at church whom don't have health insurance. I happen to be one of them. I happen to possess three college degre...

One anti-Obamacare talking point which has perplexed me somewhat is when people tell me, "I don't want to pay for other people's healthcare! I pay for my own! They should pay for theirs!" I'm thinking these individuals have seen one too many bumper stickers and listened to Rush Limbaugh for one minute too many (one minute by itself may be too many). While I'm not fully on-board with Obamacare, I do think it's likely a step in the right direction. It's far too early to tell what the net effect of it will be on this country, but I think in the end, it will have a positive one overall. The most controversial aspect of the bill is the mandate, which requires every person to acquire health insurance by the due date or else pay a fine. While it's probably quite discomforting for many to feel, accurately or not, that a right of theirs has been stripped from them by the federal government through this mandate, it is quite essential for the reform to be s...