Why Do People Assume It's FREE?

There's a lot of misinformation. Republicans are great at messaging. They have news outlets that seem legitamate to the untrained eye. That allows them to perpetrate a whole lot of rumors, misleading information, slanted statistics, and outright lies.

Dear Denise,

The health care will be subsidized by tax dollars. I am part of the 52% of Americans who actually pay taxes. That's right - our country is broke because our current tax system has gotten to the point that 48% of the country is being supported by 52% of the people. But that is another topic for another day.

We will NOT necessarily be able to keep our employer based health care. My cousin works for United Airlines and he has already received information from them saying that they will not be offering health insurance as a benefit to any employee if Obama's plan does take effect. Why? It is cheaper for them to pay the penalty than to pay their share of the health care. So he and his wife and son will have no choices.

My husband works for a local general contractor. As you know, business in that field has been tough since 2008 - and in South FL it is really bad. He has been told that they are probably going to stop offering health care.

I work for a very small family owned business. There are 7 of us on payroll. We don't have health insurance as a benefit. They won't be required to provide it (thank goodness, because the business would be broke for sure if that was a required cost of business).

We need to fix what is broken.

NO, it is not the choice of the employer - it is the way the legislation is written. Our wonderful congresspeople have voted for legislation that actually provides an incentive for business to not offer health care. If employer A choses to continue to pay for health care and the competitor B drops paying for health care to pay the fine - then B stays in business and A goes out of business. It is that simple - but those who haven't run a business don't get that!! The fine would have to be more expensive than offering coverage in order to incentivize employers to offer health insurance. The goal is to create socialist medicine and that is what will happen unless our judicial system happens to save us by declaring the legislation unconstitutional.

IT's not going to be there. Thousands of companies are outsourcing jobs to save a few bucks. Do you really think they are going to continue to offer health care that costs them millions of dollars? NO! Once this universal medical is up and running there will be very few companies that continue to offer health insurance to their employees. Don't kid yourself. We will all be paying a very dear price. Small companies will be the first to drop your coverage. Small companies paying out to medical is sometimes death to that company. If dropping insurance means that they will turn a profit, you betcha they will drop it in a heart beat. Large companies? Like I said they are outsourcing thousands of jobs, they will also be on the boat saying so long to paying insurance premiums. The Only companies that will continue to offer coverage is those that want to employ the "elite" in their fields. All I can say is "Get Out and Vote. Educate yourself and vote. Stop following and start leading by example. Don't use this forum. We do not have all of the answers, but they are out there. Educate yourself and vote. Stop calling yourself a Dem or Rep, ask the hard questions that you want answers to! If you don't get the right answer from your party, look to another. Educate yourself and vote, but don't kid yourself by thinking that this Universal healthcare is an answer. It is not, at least not the way it is written right now.

Yep. I wanted single-payer, but that didn't come to bear. I work for a public university and provide the healthcare for my family through my job. My family would continue on that plan. I'll add that if I didn't have this though my employment, we would not be able to afford healthcare on our own. My husband is a 1099 employee.

People think it's free because Fox news tells them anything different than what the private companies mandate now would be communist and "charity". They do not have the ability to comprehend facts about the revenue streams that would be paying for it.

Yes, I find it interesting that the majority of the people who are opposed to healthcare reform are the ones who have it. You keep your wonderful healthcare and allow the people who don't have it to PAY for some form of healthcare that you personally find inadequate. Perhaps those without will be happy to pay for SOMETHING (that they can actually afford) rather than nothing. I don't know anyone who wants free healthcare. I know a lot of people who would like to be able to afford insurance...whether that be through reduced cost to them or better wages. A family of four making $35,000 a year should not be expected to pay $13,500.00 of that for insurance premiums purchased through their employer. That family of four would be more than happy to pay up to $4000 (pretty much all they could afford and still be able to feed, clothe and shelter themselves) annually for health insurance.

Tracy K, all you have to do to make your post seem more truthful is change the word "Republicans" to "Democrats".

Does anyone really believe the Democrats or Republicians (or any party)are being totally truthful with us? They all slant it their way and then they see how many people they fool with their latest propaganda. I know of no subject that gets as many people mad and voicing opposite opinions as does Obamacare.

Obamacare will make our deficits so huge, we will be in the same situation as Greece. Then hold on to your wallet, your home and your pantry. Anyone ready for 30% unemployment?

Good luck to you and yours.

The employer cannot make ANY changes to their current plan if they do they loose their "exempt" status and can get penalized. So you aren't going to get to keep your insurance if you like it and employer decides to make a change to the plan. That is a simple fact.

I do NOT like this health care legislation. It has caused our insurance here to go up and up and up. I would like government to get out of the way. I am a believer that we need to make changes to our system.

My quesiton is what are you willing to pay for health insurance?

You mean you actually read all 2,200 pages. I will be honest I have no idea what all is in there. If I am going to read a novel it should at least be interesting. :p

The problem is the tax if you do not have insurance is cheaper than carrying coverage but if you get sick they cannot charge you but what the coverage cost for everyone else.

Just pulling numbers out of the air here. Say the tax is 100 a month and the insurance is 2,000 a month. Jan thru Aug you pay 800 then in September you fall off your roof messing up your legs and you are faced with $50,000 in hospital bills so you pay the 2,000, good as new drop it and go back to the 100 a month. In O. year you paid 3,100 in insurance and took $50,000 in benefits. Where does that other $46,900 come from? What if everyone is doing the same thing? What if employers realize it is cheaper to drop insurance and pay their tax and let their employees go into the exchange.

This is only from the bits and pieces I have read but that cannot work. You cannot take in maybe, optimistically, 25% of the costs and not watch the deficit blow up.

I love you.

You Should start a Fan club:)

I would like to second what Christine talked about below. Yes, it's true that people can keep their current coverage if they like.....provided that the coverage is still there.

Many smaller insurance companies have already closed up shop and many businesses will stop providing insurance through work. It will be cheaper for some companies to pay the fine than to continue to provide coverage. Sad but true.

Obamacare is not currently a single payer system, but I truly believe a lot of the provisions are designed to turn it into O. down the road. Over time I expect to see insurance companies squeezed out of business and people forced into a government system.