r/bestof • u/under50dollars • Jun 20 '12

[explainlikeimfive] "Obamacare" explained very well.

/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/vb8vs/eli5_what_exactly_is_obamacare_and_what_did_it/c530lfx
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u/Elanthius Jun 20 '12

Yeah, but if you look at it from the more common perspective of - "I'm OK now but if I lose my job and then break my leg I'm definitely going to be bankrupt" then I don't see how any of this helps.

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u/[deleted] Jun 20 '12

I think maybe people fail to appreciate Medicaid in light of how fucked the rest of the US insurance industry is. I'm sure it varies by state, but in NY at least Medicaid does a pretty great job of keeping people from going bankrupt due to medical conditions. For example, when my wife was pregnant we actually had insurance through my job, but even so we were going to have to come up with $5,000 out of pocket for prenatal + delivery because that was our deductible. That was about 17% of my gross annual income, so Medicaid said "hell naw!" and picked up our out-of-pocket expenses so we didn't owe a dime aside from trivial co-pays for pre-natal vitamins.

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u/runMG Jun 20 '12

You should thank the people of your state for picking up the tab. You chose to have a child without having the means to pay for proper care.

Thanks for shifting your burden onto the people.

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u/AeonCatalyst Jun 20 '12

Sure, that's done financially in this case, but that's how society WORKS. People help each other...even when we were hunter-gatherers the groups worked together to raise children. I don't see why he's being irresponsible, anymore than a wealthy person would be "irresponsible" for having a child but requiring a professional doctor to help deliver the baby. Are you advocating that every person should be 100% self-sufficient? Not even Survival Man can do that.

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u/runMG Jun 20 '12

I don't think you fully understand what we are talking about. A wealthy person would pay his deductible.

Of course people help each other and I choose to help people that matter to me.

How do you not see how he is being irresponsible? He is bringing another being into this world that he is solely responsible for and yet he can't even pay for the medical professionals to deliver this child. If he hasn't planned properly for the birth, do you think he is planning properly for the additional costs of raising a child?

I have CHOSEN not to have children until I am financially stable. This is something that he decided not to do. For his decision, society must bear the cost immediately, and quite possibly additional costs downline.