60 percent in North Dakota oppose Obamacare
October 28, 2012 at 12:58 am in Grand Forks Herald
Sixty percent of North Dakotans who responded to a recent Forum Communica-tions poll said they’re opposed to the health care law commonly known as Obamacare. Continue Reading
North Dakota is a Red Republican state, so the result of this poll are not surprising. Chances are, most of the people in this poll who were against it don’t know a lot about the Affordable Care Act.
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I am sure that when it was first passed they did not know much about it since it was all done behind closed doors and voted on before people could read it. But, while I am sure no one knows everything about this huge monster law, it is just to big for that, People do know what they do NOT like about the law. That is plenty to oppose it. I am also sure the same could be said of those who support the law, they have no idea what all the provisions of the law are. Or the consequences.
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See my comment below. I have a very good understanding of the effect of the ACA on me personally, talked to my insurer (BCBS) and the effects are minimal. Have those opposed to the ACA done the same?
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I oppose the health care law (commonly known as Obamacare). Because of Obama’s affordable health care law I will lose my company paid Ins. on December 31, which is part of my retirement package. After January 1 I will be forced to get Ins. that will come out of my pocket. Thanks Obama. All the big companies that I know of will be doing the same thing. I am not even going to get into my prescription cost and deductables which could easily double in the next few years.
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Alan Larson; I may not know a lot about the Affordable Care Act. But I do know what it’s doing to me.
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Your paying for your Health Insurance whether its through wages or from your own pocket. It will be to your advantage to go out of pocket when the IRS code has companies include your health insurance pay to be shown as benefits which will be listed as taxable income to you.
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If the company that now pays my health Ins. pays me the difference after December 31, Then you are right. If they don’t then your are wrong.
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The poll results were not surprising. According to this article, “The word “Obamacare“ — a term originally coined by opponents of the plan — was used by the pollster only if the respondent said they didn’t know what he or she was talking about.” says volumes. At least 12% of the independents were honest in saying they didn’t know enough about it but I strongly suspect many of the 60% in opposition have the same problem. I read the entire bill, talked to my insurer, and determined that the ACA will have hardly no effect at all on my coverage or choices of doctors. I wonder how many others have done the same.
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One dem talking points you missed is your costs are going down and it actually lowers the deficit. Like you, I wonder if even one dem read this before they voted for it.
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Costs are not adequately contained, either before the ACA or since. It’s a toss up whether health care costs or college costs were rising faster. Nothing in the Romney/Ryan plan or the Obama plan deal with the problem.
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Yep. It’s like putting a bandaid on an amputation…
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The key to it all will be to get everybody to have health insurance. If everybody pays in, then costs will go down. currently people with no insurance stick hospitals with the bill, forcing their costs to go up for everybody else, so that leaves the ones that do pay for insurance stuck paying for the ones that don’t pay into it. The system has been broken for too long, time to get all the pieces into the puzzle.
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Those of you that say thumbs down… what do you see wrong with having an example of 50 at hospital, 50 people paying for insurance vs 50 at hospital, only 35 of those having insurance, leaving those 35 stuck paying the bill for the 15 that don’t have insurance… It makes the costs for those 35 go up where if all 50 paid in the cost would go down. Having 35 pay for 50 is just plain wrong no matter how you look at it.
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Medicare presently pay hospital and drs at less than 50% of usual and customary fees. Does this cost shifting to private insurance bother you? They make up this medicare payment shortage by passing it on to privately insured individuals. As Medicare and Medicaid grow in number of patients compounded by smaller fees paid, some hospitals and docters will be forced to drop these insurances, creating a situation where you have insurance but can not find facilities willing to treat you. At any rate these patients will experience rationed care because there will be too few providers!
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You read the full text. At 2409 pages I find that hard to believe.
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yep, and it was a long slog to say the least, particularly when cross referencing to sections of the existing federal laws. Didn’t you?
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This is no surprise. The majority of the nation is against this scam.
The same with all else ‘Bama has managed to mess up in the last 4 years…..that’s why he’s losing.
Move over Jimma, you’ll soon lose your spot as the worse prez in recent history.
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Wow, that’s a tough one! Right now it would come down to a coin flip.
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Hidden due to low comment rating. Click here to see.
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It makes a person wonder if people are going to be that foolish to buy the propaganda time and again if they shouldn’t just get stuck with the crap sandwichs the fox party has been feeding them time and again. Unfortunately it effects the rest of us too.
My favortie take on this was sombody I talked to who had the insurance rep come in and explain what it was all about to a crowd that was mostly against the Affordable Health Care because of what they heard from the right. Once explained the group was surprised at how it was actually a good thing…..Right now it’s the ignorance that’s been given wrong info that keeps the fire of discontent about this bill stoked. The biggest problem is that the supporters haven’t made more of an effort to put out actual information so most of these people that are against only have the right wing mis-information to go by.
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e.g. your second paragraph. Same here. Do those against the ACA actually know how it will affect them personally or are they just repeating what they heard or have they even read it themselves? I did so when it was first passed, and now support a majority of what the bill achieves. As to the individual mandate, I view it as no worse than the government mandate to have liability insurance on my vehicles and since I, along with some 85% of the public already have some form of health insurance, it doesn’t affect me at all.
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In the accompaning fact check article, which conveniently doesn’t have a comment section, each finding supports the Democratic view of the Affordable Care Act. The headline on the piece should have read, Berg wrong, Heitkamp right. No wonder people don’t support this act. The opposition to the ACA has been pounding home information which, it turns out, is almost all inaccurate. The recent AARP magazine went through the same exercise and lo and behold, each Republican talking point is inaccurate. How can this happen? I find it disgraceful that Berg, for example, would so willfully and completely mislead the people of North Dakota with his ads. What has our political discourse come to? How can anybody vote for someone who does this?
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Berg and Romney….two peas in a pod….rich and no core….willing to tell untruths (or say anything for that matter to get elected) and will repeat those untruths day after day. It’s like G.W.Bush said….if you say the same thing (aka..lie) enough times, people will believe it.
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Get the facts from a real live health care worker-not fox news or all the right wing propaganda that money can buy.
“The opposition to the ACA has been pounding home information which, it turns out, is almost all inaccurate. The recent AARP magazine went through the same exercise and lo and behold, each Republican talking point is inaccurate.”
Do you hate so much as to make facts irrelevant…? Wake up-how you vote could really come back to bite you…
Remember the opposition by the republicans to the start up of Medicare-same thing here….
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Medicare is going broke and many doctors refuse patients on Medicare.
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Not true…Many prefer Medicare because they get paid without having to fight for it like they do with a lot of insurance companies. That’s the thing that many on the right seem to miss. These wonderful insurance companies have had a lot to do with the sky rocketing prices in health care
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I have had a couple doctors refuse services to my client because they are on medicare…… dentists are almost impossible to find.
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I’m sure there are, but if you talk to those who have to deal with insurance companies that’s a headache nobody wants. Insurance companies are in the getting premiums business…..Not paying the actual claims business. For those who don’t get this and can’t understand why it’s important to at least start to make changes…….costs will just continue to rise, and procedures will continue to be denied
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Tundra your right, under Obama care the denials of care will increase because anyone who has dealt with the government know their is only ignorance on the other end of the phone assuming if they even bother to answer the phone. Call NDBCBS and a real and intelligent persons answers and the courts make sure they follow your contract. Ever tried to sue the US Government Tundra? We will not live long enough for resolution, will we?
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One canard (and flat out LIE) after another, during this election cycle. Interesting how this act is declared so wrong and harmful, when most of it does not even start to kick in until 2014. FOR PROFIT health care (primarily the insurance ‘middle man’ part) is broken, corrupt and unsustainable. This act does not go far enough toward fixing our RIDICULOUSLY ANTIQUATED system….but its a start.
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Sorry to break your bubble, Petey, but the taxes portion of this ACA started in 2010. When you have ten years of taxes and just 6 years of expenses of the ACA, you are still ending up with a deficit which will have to be borrowed from China. You also seem to be missing the “doc fix” which has been counted as savings in the passed bill( if I remember right amounts to about $200B per year or a 27.4% reduction in payments to doctors). Each year Congress faces this doctor payment reduction but resolves it by passing the current rates and ignoring the reduction.
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To me the Affordable Care Act is a work in progress but essential to a better future, healthwise. Adequate healthcare for the uninsured cannot be delivered through the emergency room. It is too expensive and results in unacceptable costs borne by the insured. Pay up suckers…there is no free ride when it comes to healthcare.
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This paragraph is more telling than the uber-conservative Form intended:
“The word “Obamacare“ — a term originally coined by opponents of the plan — was used by the pollster only if the respondent said they didn’t know what he or she was talking about.”
It is rare that the Obamacare opponents admit that they don’t know what they are talking about, but I guess they are willing to be honest when they are talking to friends like FOX “news” and Forum Communications.
Other examples of Republicans telling the truth unintentionally are Romney’s 47% comment to his slightly-less-rich donors, and Republican John Sununu’s round-about claim that Conservatives should support the liberal Romney because he is the same race. Anyone giving the Republican Party an honest consideration, an honest one, will have no choice but to vote Democrat.
Remember, according to Republican Sununu, if you are white and conservative, you should vote for Romney because he is white. But, wouldn’t that just make you a racist, and not a conservative?
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Federal Government has botched Social Security.
Federal Government has botched Medicare
Federal Goverment has botched “Welfare”
Federal Government has screwed-up pretty much every program they attempt.
Federal Government is now poised to ruin health care for the rest of us, too.
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You said it all Schurkey…excellent!
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I don’t know what world you live in, but in my world both Social Security and Medicare are very well run; usually they work without a hitch.
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“in my world both Social Security and Medicare are very well run…”
…except for the “going broke” part.
And the part where they pay so little to the hospital that the hospital over-charges the rest of us to make up for losses on the Medicare patients.
And the part where the Social Security trust fund was raided to fund the Vietnam war and defuse every other cash-flow problem the Government had since then.
Is that the sort of fiscal management you’re so proud of?
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Which is fixable, schurkey. Reagan did this. Why throw out the baby with the bathwater? I agree with several posters that ACA needs tweaking, so let’s tweak it. Let’s not just throw it out. And by the way, it is not going to be thrown out because that would take the Senate’s agreement and that’s not happening even if Romney wins the election.
Hot debate. What do you think?
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Obamcare was passed using the Budget Reconcilliation Act which requires only 51 votes. Because it is a budget issure it only takes 51 votes to repeal it, so I would not be so confident about your oppinion. I believe a couple Democrats may want to walk back their support as more and more undesirable features become obvious to their constituents. Heithcamp’s support for this bill is a good reason to vote Berg for those that oppose Obamacare.
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very well run??!?!??!!??! are you frigging kidding??/
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Join the low-information crowd, Joe. It actually is well run with administrative costs well below the industry standard. If you haven’t been getting either Social Security or Medicare, then you don’t have a basis for your remarks. When you do, however, you will realize how great both programs are. Really wonderful and livesaving ones.
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Realist, except for the fact that the average person pays into Medicare about $250,000 less than is paid out; that shortfall has to be paid by taking money from someone.
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A family friend died, a VERY wealthy man. When the end came (cancer), he chose to go out at the VA (Federal Government) hospital…not Sanford, or (at that time) Innovis. This guy had millions and the best insurance policy money could buy.
Hot debate. What do you think?
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If he was a veteran, then he earned the right to go to the VA.
Our Federal Gov’t gives foreign countries, illegal aliens, bums and the like cash.
At least then veteran earned his last hospital stay at the VA.
BTW, the VA is not perfect. I was in the VA in Fargo one time and was in one of the offices waiting my turn. A VA Rep was on the phone discussing dental care for a Vet. The VA Rep was saying that the VA Hospital had only $11,500 a month for dental care in its budget. He told someone on the end of the phone that this particular Vet could not get the dental service, because it would take too much of the budget.
We have money for every bum on the street to throw money at, but a Vet was getting denied dental care, because of the lack of funding.
HOW is the federal gov’t going to pay for ObamaCare??? Our country is INSOLVENT. $40 Billion is “printed” every month. When fiat paper is printed and put into the economy, it devalues the dollar. Devaluing the dollar causes inflation. Prices go up.
There are ways to fix the medical system. A government takeover is not the “cure”.
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60% oppose it only because it doesn’t help farmers out!
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The numbers are a little misleading. As has been mentioned above, very few people completely understand what this bill actually accomplishes.
There have been a number of polls that show while people dislike “Obamacare,” they like its specifics. Over 80% of the nation are in favor of no exclusion for pre-existing conditions and keeping children on your policy until 26.
Like any other poll it is all how you word it.
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Does anyone on this thread work in healthcare? Healthcare facilities are continuously having to provide a higher level of care to more patients while receiving less and less reimbursement.
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Our present reimbursement system was designed for a late 1940s early 1950s labor system. It underwent a radical change in 1968 (Johnson’s Great Society) and again in the early 1980s when Medicare adopted “Diagnostic Related Groupings” (DRG).
DRG radically changed the way Medicare reimbursed hospitals. Instead of pay for service, hospitals were now given one lump sum according to the diagnosis. These payments were based on typically complex and almost unworkable government formulas. In short, the idea was you received “X” number of dollars to care for grandma’s pneumonia. If you got her out of the hospital before you used up all that amount, you kept the rest. If you did not get her out in time, you ate the additional cost.
DRG radically changed the way healthcare was delivered to inpatients in the US.
In the late 1940s to 1950s 80% of the population received health insurance through their job. This insurance paid much better than Medicare. Hospitals could afford to care for Medicare patients because private insurance kept their profit margins stable.
Now, less than 40% of Americans have insurance through their jobs. 65% – 70% of the average hospital’s income is from Medicare and Medicaid. As mentioned above, Medicare does not pay nearly as well as private insurance and Medicaid pays substantially less than Medicare.
If the average hospital (Altru included) was forced to subsist on only Medicare and Medicaid they could not stay open (at least in the form people are used to). That is why the competition for patients with private insurance is so fierce.
This is not a “for” or “against” Obamacare post. Just understand that the system is imploding. It is not sustainable as presently constituted. There simply are not enough people with private insurance to pick up the slack for everyone else.
DRG resulted in 10% of the hospitals in the US closing. Whatever changes the new healthcare legislation results in will have a similar effect. It will not be the end of the world, but the present system (care when you want, where you want, how you want) will certainly no longer exist.
Hope this helps
In the late
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Ok FN….I think I know how to update everything and even include your favorite “soylent green” into the equation. No more Obama care then that means we just continue down this road that’s more costly then ever…..Something has to give….So why not set up a ring in each hospital for those who are either under insured or have no insurance, but are in need of medical attention. Then you put two random emergency patients in there to either battle it out to the death…Or just wait it out to see who dies first in sever emergencies. In the death matches we tape the event for PPV and the proceeds then go to a general fund to pay for these so called “Slackers” who manage to beat the odds medical treatments. Then the ones not so lucky get sent to the soylent green factories.
Of course to actually make a difference in the health care affordability problem we’ll have to include the grand parents on Medicare going to clinics. We need to cut the number of those slackers down so there’ll be more money in Medicare.
See…The best of both worlds for the severe right…a way to make sure we don’t show mercy for the poor and suffering, Having video of violence that highlights real dog eat dog combat to recieve health care, and a way do dispose and profit off the losers they want to get rid of in the first place. Like I said….An all around plan…..If the severe right had their way…
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Cartman?
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Kenny.
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Homer…..
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Nurse said 80 percent of americans were coverd through their employer in the past and currently 40 percent are covered through their employer. No wonder medicare is in rough shape. Why doesn’t the “private sector” fix this problem on their own? Oh wait they are the cause of the problem? Pushing health insurance onto the employee, increasing costs to the consumer, and denying coverage when needed and than letting the government take care of the rest. I bet if you followed the money you would see strong support by health insurance and other medical industries with canidates that support repeal of obamacare.
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You do not have to go very far. Altru has posted several press releases about the effect Obamacare would have on the bottom line.
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What everyone has to remember during this discussion is that as a nation we spend twice as much money on healthcare as a percentage of GDP as we do on defense (and we are in the middle of two wars). It is not that we do not spend enough money. We spend more money on healthcare than most of the rest of the world COMBINED. We spend it in the wrong place.
80% (80 cents out of every dollar) is spent in the last 6 months of life. While that makes sense in some ways (that is when you are sick); it shows how much money is wasted. The patient still dies. We spent all that money on horribly expensive treatments that do not change the outcome.
Food for thought: how about 75% in the last 6 months and the other 5% will be enough to immunize every child in the US, plus have one doctor visit every year. For every child birth through 18. That is how much money we are talking about.
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That’s the elephat, isn’t it?
The hyperbolic cries of “death panels!” really kept rational discussion of this point out of public discourse.
But, when you look at it like that, it does start to seem like we need to seriously consider the possibility that “fighting until the very end” and tenaciously clinging to life that can only be considered so in the clinical sense might limit the next generations from achieving full potential.
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What most people do not realize is the PATIENT, the one this is supposedly all about, rarely wants it. Dying in ICU hooked to every machine known to man, confused and disoriented because you never get any quality rest, with big tubes in every orafice is not how they want to spend their final days.
I am not guessing. I worked ICU for a long time. My will is very specific. You are not to do to me what I did to others.
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Everyone is America should have to witness chest compressions (code situation) on a 90 year old person.
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I’m sure alot of these people who oppose don’t understand the HEalth Care Initiative and many don’t realize that they would benefit from it. There’s allready 16 million young people who have help care coverage after college until they are 26. That helps families and those who can’t find jobs yet. Women recieve free birth control under the bill which helps prevent unwanted pregnancies. It’s not good to have people uninsured because we all pay for thier care anyway when they come in as emergency patients. We’re still trying to catch up with the other industrial nations of the worlson health care. When people undewrstant the plan more it will become more accepted.
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why excel and get done with college in 4-5 years when you can now soak the parents till 26!!! YAY!!!
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FN your last comment was absolutely spot on. ALthough i wonder if that 80% is even a bit on the low end. I know using the word “waste” when it comes to love ones is very difficult, however this is often the case. Life sustaining treatments that have no impact on patiet outcomes, that drag on and on when patients can longer make decisions from themselves.
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Oh and FN you also forgot to mention in your description of DRG’s that facilities are now only receiving a certain percentage of the payment as a result of HCAHP’s.
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Correct. We bankrupt the Soviet Union with defense spending. People do not realize that if we do not get a handle on things, healthcare will bankrupt us.
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…and a good way to get a handle is to spend a TRILLION dollars on healthcare for 10% of the US population!!!
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This is what this country has come to..forcing ones will on others.Some are deciding when life begins,while others have decided when it should end !! It’s all about the money!! From what I have seen Altru is hardly going
broke, It has plenty of cash for advertising, and millions
for UND..If you check your billing you will see see that
insurance com. pay about a third of what the uninsured
must pay,
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Is not it tragic that our Democrat delegation, Conrad, Dorgan, and Pomeroy did not read the bill before they voted yes for it? This type of blind following their Democrat leader is what they accuse Republicans of doing. Repeal and have a bipartisan bill that most American’s support, not just a few Obamphiles! We need Rick Berg elected who will listen to us, not Pelosi and Harry Reed!
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Regardless of who wins the election the healthcare bill will be changed. There is simply too much money involved (see above about % of GDP) to let it be.
The no exclusion of pre-existing condition and kids on parents policy till 26 will stay. Everything else will be up to negotiation. My guess is more state wide consortiums to provide insurance to those that do not get it through work.
The trouble is if you are working for $9 an hour you can’t afford $1000 a month premiums, which is what it costs.
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There has been a lot said about health care for the uninsured get’s passed on to those who have Insurence by higher cost of Insurence. Maybe or Maybe not. Health care cost of uninsured who have jobs is collected by collection agencies and (or) wage garnishment. Very little is pasted on to those that have Insurence.
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Unless that person dies.
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The same 60% say, “We don’t want a government run health care system. But keep your hand off my Medicare and SS!!!”
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The same 60% would think Obamacare was “great” if a republican came up with the idea. Oh wait…Romney DID!
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The same 60% say, “We don’t want the government to run our lives!”, as they cash their USDA checks.
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The same 60% say, “We don’t want a government involved in our health care!” while whining to the government to “buy out” their flooded houses along the Red River.
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The same 60% say, “We don’t want government involved in our health care!” while “begging” for the federal government to fund a huge ditch around Fargo.
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The same 60% say, “We don’t want a government sponsered health care system!” while begging the federal government to declare their counties/areas “disaster areas” so they can get federal assistance.
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GOP holloween is over quit using scare tatics. North Dakotans your being scared red don’t believe everything you read or hear.
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The same 60% Don’t know what they want.
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Bill are you related to Representative Pelosi? It sounds like something she said or would say in this circumstance. I believe what you are implying is the 60% who oppose Obamacare just are not smart enough to understand how goood it is for them! NOT TRUE!
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Bill I misunderstood the intent of your post so please excuse thinking you were a relative of Pelosi. My appology for my error in not understanding the intent of your post!
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