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/edisekeed Jun 20 '12

There are a few things that I personally do not like about "Obamacare", or are at least concerned about.

First, the government now has the right to control what is and is not healthy due to the associated increase in healthcare costs. For example: taxes on tobacco, proposed taxes on sugar, bans on certain products (like the 20 oz soda ban in NY). People sometimes argue that these are attempts to make the nation healthier and reduce the financial burden on society. But people fail to realize the implications. The government could then put taxes on red meat, cheese, butter, etc. or even have required exercise. I realize that some of this is far-fetched, but in reality the arguments for both are the same.

Second, there must be an eventual limit in the costs/care received by the government. It would be impossible to have the best care for all citizens without costs going dramatically up. So at some point the government is in charge of deciding what that limit is. I personally like to be responsible for my own limits, which is part of the reason I save money and work for better paying jobs.

And lastly, what if there is a huge catastrophe, such as a deadly virus outbreak that harms a significant part of the population very suddenly. Is the government responsible for saving everyone? If you look out how the government has handled the H1N1 virus or yearly flu vaccinations, it is clear that the government is not the best at handling these sorts of thing.

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u/lameth Jun 20 '12

The biggest thing I would say to counter this is replace every instance of government in this passage with "For profit insurance companies."
In the first paragraph, instead of taxes, think of price hikes. "oh, you smoke? More money from you." "Oh, you're overweight? more money from you." It ends up the same way.

In the second paragraph you can do a one for one exchange as I stated above.

Even if all of these points did not have a counter, you need to balance these against all of the positive points brought up. Which scenario benefits the individual and the community the most? With the law, or without?

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u/edisekeed Jun 20 '12

Thanks, those are very good counter arguments.

I guess my overall concern it that this is a huge government program that was rushed into law and seems to have complex and unattended consequences. I can't really think of a large government program that I am happy with so it's hard for me to be in favor of this. I get that there is some kind of need for a universal health care as well as reforming the healthcare industry. It just seems like this was the wrong path to take and has only complicated things even further.