Politics & Current Events
catsareniice1
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Our tech team has launched updates to The Nest today. As a result of these updates, members of the Nest Community will need to change their password in order to continue participating in the community. In addition, The Nest community member's avatars will be replaced with generic default avatars. If you wish to revert to your original avatar, you will need to re-upload it via The Nest.
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Note: This only affects The Nest's community members and will not affect members on The Bump or The Knot.
Obamacare Weaker or Stronger Middle Class
Do you think Obamacare will strengthen the middle class or hurt them financially? IMO this will crush the middle class. Many employers are going to cut hours and to avoid penalties resulting in people having to find second jobs (if they are lucky to find one).
Seems like many companies are already cutting their losses before Obamacare kicks in.
What are your thoughts on this program?
Re: Obamacare Weaker or Stronger Middle Class
It makes you poor, not lower middle class. A family of 3 making $18,000 a year is right at the federal poverty line. And even a single person making that isn't too far away from the poverty line. And let's face it, those aren't exactly positions with lots of upward mobility.
Working there with a family
. That would be beyond tough. Thank God for Obamacare and their ability to get help with health insurance.
Most of those companies would be laying off people/cutting hours even without Obamacare. They just have something to blame it on now besides them just being greedy ?ssholes.
How many times have we had this discussion?
Have you read Nickled and Dimed? It's a little old now, but it's a very interesting look into what it's actually like to work various minimum wage jobs and why it's virtually impossible to get ahead.
We are working class. I'm in graduate school and my partner has to stay home with our son while I work / go to class, because we can't afford childcare. Bun hasn't been covered by insurance ever. In his entire life. Because he's been working class all his life. So for us, the ACA was long hoped for. We actually hoped for more, a Single Payer system that would cover all of us the same way. Maybe someday. In the meantime, the love of my life has to pull his own teeth in the bathroom and hope he doesn't get an infection from it.
Obamacare isn't affecting the middle class. It's affecting the working class, and for a lot of us, it's a change that we hoped and prayed and wished for. It's still not enough, but something is better than nothing.
Working class is typically classified as the "working poor." I've always heard it discussed as those who live around poverty level.
I get what you are saying, but did you have a kid while you worked 3 part time jobs and went to college? In our area, even one part time job is hard to come by (we're moving, which also takes a lot of money, but hopefully the place we're moving to will have more opportunities). In order to help pay the normal bills (rent, electric, car payment / insurance / gas, water, phone) plus the extra childcare costs AND private health insurance that will actually cover anything, my boyfriend would have to work three part time minimum wage jobs, between 50 and 60 hours a week, probably retail hours. Our son would never see him.
no i didn't have kids at that time. I couldn't even imagine that. does your bf really pull out his own teeth? that just sounds so painful
How long ago was that?
Um, when he has to do so, yeah. There are some low-cost clinics around here, but none that do dental work. If he's really sick (like, sinus infection, feverish, stuff like that) we go to the low cost clinic and get some generic antibiotics. But anything more than that... like his perpetual acid reflux that might stem from an ulcer, or life-alteringly-bad seasonal allergies... he just has to treat the best he can with over the counter medication as we can afford it. It sucks. It would suck more if there were no low cost clinics though. And it would suck less if vision and dental were a part of a regular health insurance plan. Apparently people don't need teeth, or to see, or whatever.
Anyway, to answer your question, yes. He does have to sometimes. It's always very scary, and he is in pain for weeks. I cannot help but think that he will die earlier than he should have because of a lack of access to medical care for most of his life (he's 40).
BTW, I just want people to know... I don't share this stuff because it feels good, or because I'm proud of it, or because I want sympathy, or whatever. I share it because I feel like it's necessary for educated, talented, motivated individuals who are impoverished to let other people know about the plight of the poor. This OpEd is really brilliantly written, and highlights some of the major reasons that people who are poor or working class need to let others know about their living conditions: http://truth-out.org/opinion/item/12457-time-for-the-poor-to-come-out-of-the-plutocracys-closet-of-shame
From the essay:
7 Simple Steps to Revolt against Plutocratic Mythology
1. Disbelieve the lie that "low-end" workers are unimportant or inessential, and, thus undeserving of respect and compensation that affords a decent life.
2. Stop believing and teach others to stop believing the myth that those who are well off are necessarily harder working or more deserving than those who are broke. Some of the hardest workers in this country are also among the poorest.
3. Pay the people whose labor you rely on fairer wages: Don't pay childcare laborers so little, for one; and buy fair-trade products rather than those that rely on unmitigated exploitation to get you a "good deal."
4. Don't presume to know others' characters simply because you know their economic standing.
5. Criticize and don't perpetuate the notion that a college education entitles you to a respectful existence. If we stand by the moral tenets that underwrite the basic concept of equality and human dignity for all, then we must maintain that being a conscious, purposeful and free being, rather than holding a degree or a type of job, entitles you to respect.
6. Take time to honor landscape workers, garbage truck workers, baristas, babysitters, cashiers, waiters, as well as police officers, firefighters and teachers. Start with simply acknowledging these peoples' existence by smiling, extending kindness, and other basic acts of respect so often denied to "low-end" workers.
Finally, if you are poor, come out of the plutocratic closet of shame. Just as brave gays and lesbians around this nation have stood up to say, yes, we are gay, we are among you, and the stereotypes and the hatred we have been saddled with are unjustified, so, too, should poor Americans stand up and say, we are among you, we have dignity, and we will not be spoken about, and for, any longer. We will tell you our stories, and if you have a shred of moral decency, you will feel the need to stop stereotyping, dehumanizing, and discriminating against, the poor."
The call to action is really quite resounding; I can't not tell people now.
Annie, you might be interested in this documentary from the BBC:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b01c2y2b
It's half an hour long but every minute is worth watching particularly the part about the health clinics.
I don't think obamacare is good for the $8.50 an hour people anyway. The law mandates that the employer has to offer coverage but not that they have to pay for it. Most healthcare plans I've seen the employer pays about 50% of the premium and the employee pays the rest. Right now a $400 premium per month to someone making $18000 a year could be the straw that broke the camel's back. Having been there and knowing people there, usually those folks forgo employer offered insurance because they don't have even the employee portion to spare. Now not only do they have to do that and roll the dice that they don't get sick, they will have to pay a tax to the IRS at the end of year for doing so. That just sounds like adding insult to injury to me.
They won't pay the tax though. At that low income level they will get a waiver. Hopefully, though, because of the ACA they will be able to now find cheaper insurance than $400/month.
the 3 part time jobs? when I was in college, about 8 years ago. I paid $160 a month for my own insurance
we pay $335 a month now for our family. I would love it if it were cheaper, but do get a decent plan like you would at a company , a family of 3 would have cost us $500/month and we don't have that in our budget.
I love you too darlin'. ::Hugs:: Better things on the horizon, right?
exactly.
This is why Medicaid is being expanded. To help those who live at / below / around poverty level.
ETA: This should say "This is why Medicaid is SUPPOSED to be expanded." I don't think anyone is positive that will happen.
this still concerns me about people receiving care because let's say best case scenario it gets expanded to cover this 18K worker, due to what medicaid pays fewer and fewer doctors are taking it. There was a lot of hubbub in our papers about a year ago over an OB/gyn practice closing here because it was the last one in town that accepted medicaid. My town is not that small either (about 100,000 people). I mentor a young woman that I met through the domestic violence shelter and she and her children are on Medicaid. There is only 1 dental practice in our town that takes it and you have to wait almost a year for an appointment.
Ultimately the goal is to get people treated not just covered right?
well for the pregnant women their choice of care was to go to the E.R. which is what they would likely do without insurance/medicaid. I suppose they aren't saddled with a big bill afterwards but I don't think that helps solve our health care costs issue which I think we 100% agree is the nasty part of the equation that no one seems to have any real good ideas of how to address
ETA: to add that even when medicaid pays it is a ridiculous amount. I have family in the medical field and they quote things like Medicaid pays $7 for appointments and $12 for tests that take staff an hour to run. The practice loses money because they pay their staff more than $12 per hour!
There are definitely low / no cost clinics. There just aren't any near us. We live in rural Texas, and when you can't afford health insurance or regular healthcare as a citizen her, you also can't afford to travel to the places that do have them.
ETA: We do have a couple of low-cost (sliding scale) health clinics in our area. No dental though, nor any programs that help low income families with things like dental or vision coverage. Last time we had to pay for Bun's glasses and exam out of pocket, it was about $120 for the exam, and another $40 for glasses from one of the discount places online. We used our tax return.
we don't have vision insurance either and I have always worn contacts. I wear 2 week throw aways and I make them last a month and I try to buy more than enough from 1800contacts so I don't have to see the eye doc for a year and 1/2. but dang! I forgot to do that last time and my script expired so I have to get a vision exam soon. i went into walmart where i get my exam and asked if I could get another pair since I was out. luckily they let me. I always hate spending that kind of money on my eyes. I can't even tell you the last time I had my glasses updated.
I am still young enough (25) that my rapidly-degenerating eyesight is STILL degenerating. I keep hoping it will level out, but thus far, I need new glasses (new lenses, anyway) every 6 months, and have to have them within the course of a year. It sucks spending that kind of money on glasses so often. Thankfully I have okay teeth, but Bun's are really awful. He brushes, flosses, and uses mouthwash, but years of no cleanings, fillings, or getting things addressed in there has had a marked effect on his mouth. Now it's like... there's so much work to do, how would we pay for it even if it was sliding scale?
This is why coverage and prevention is the most important thing. If he'd had coverage as a kid, and as a younger adult, he wouldn't be in dire straights now.
This is what I don't get - how can the Medicaid program cost SO much if they're paying such low rates? It seems like the two biggest complaints people have about Medicaid and Medicare is that they pay so little and they cost so much. How can it be both?