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Originally Posted by wittynickname
You do realize that many of the people benefiting from the ACA are people who cannot afford healthcare any other way?
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There is a significant difference between not being able to afford healthcare (with the implication being that they cannot afford any healthcare at all) and not being able to afford a small health care premium.
Quite simply, if something is completely free to you, you likely have no concern for its costs or its use, and are completely insulated from the costs that are incurred by others to provide you with the item that you so freely use and consume---all of which leads to excess use of the item by the free user.
In this respect, I propose that everyone should be required to pay something for health insurance. Make it a sliding scale based on taxable income, with a minimum payment of $12 due from everyone, perhaps. But to expect--or better yet, demand--that primarily the "rich" should pay the health care bills of "society" is crazy.
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Originally Posted by wittynickname
. . . without the ACA these people are relying on emergency room visits for their healthcare needs as they do not have the money to afford it.
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People have, and find, money to purchase and consume the things that they find necessary or enjoyable. If people wish to spend their scarce dollars on consumables in such a way that cause them to be unable to pay for healthcare when they need it later, well, that's on them.
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Originally Posted by wittynickname
You have people in this country who regularly are deciding whether to buy groceries, put gas in their car to get to work, or buy their medications? Because they can't afford all three, due to wages in this country being so obscenely low that even someone working full time often can't make ends meet.
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If only there was a way people could enhance their skills to obtain a higher-paying job than the one that they currently have....
Or, if only there was a way people could move to a place that offered public transportation, thereby negating the need to own a car and pay for all of the costs that go with one....
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Originally Posted by wittynickname
Either way we as a society are going to pay for these people to obtain healthcare.
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I agree that "we as a society" do pay, and should pay, for everyone in the society to obtain healthcare.
I just believe that "we" means "everyone," and not "that "rich" group of people over there..."
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Originally Posted by wittynickname
We can pay a small fee toward medicare . . . .
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As things are now, there is no "small fee" being paid by the alleged wealthy-enough-to-pay-for-another's-Medicare.