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this post was submitted on 09 Nov 2024
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The Affordable Care Act, the US public marketplace for private insurance. Ignorantly referred to by conservatives as socialism.
Years back, before Republicans realized it's good (as they eventually do with all social programs), I had an aunt say "I'm on that Obama care and it's awful!" So we asked which plan she's on and she just kept saying "I already told you, it's Obamacare."
I think the average Republican voter does not understand that it is private insurance
You can just stop there, and be correct about almost any topic.
I had to explain tax brackets to my mother.
She's got a degree to teach math. And I know she actually went to college since I can remember sitting in the back of her classrooms when she couldn't find a babysitter.
She used to do her own taxes and my grandparents taxes.
But, as a teenager, I had to explain why a potential $2 raise doesn't mean she's losing more money in taxes than the raise is giving her.
She also doesn't believe the welfare cliff exists, despite our family being precariously perched atop it when I was in elementary school.
At this point I think she's just heard the same stupid shit repeated over and over, she doesn't even question it anymore.
I had to explain to my mom the other day about server wages and she didn't even believe me at first.
Not to defend server wages in any capacity, but the utter fact that she didn't know the wage nor the federal minimum wage absolutely astounded me. And when she tried to tell me to vote for Trump because of no tax on tips, I told her, "then just tip in cash," she was stuttering and moved on from the topic.
Not even close to socialism or affordable. Currently paying $2400 a month on an ACA plan because my employer's benefits don't cover the services my disabled child requires.
Jfc, that's my mortgage at least 4 times over. Any money spent on your kid is well spent, but it's horrible that you must sacrifice that much.
Where do you live that you have a $600 mortgage?!???
1995
Hey, you stole my joke from last month
Mine is just over $1000 in an urban area for a town home. We got lucky though and got in right before things went stupid in 2020, so that's part of it. Also made the move and investment of a heavy down payment because we saw rent was going to become unlivable, and sure enough it happened.
Not in the US. Suburban Wales, UK.
It affords a 3-bedroom terraced home. It used to be cheaper before our previous UK government fucked interest rates.
Holy shit that's amazing. 3 bedrooms WITH a terrace?
AND you get free healthcare?
God you guys live like kings
Terraced in this instance means there are two other homes, one either side, that we share walls with.
Having good neighbours is essential.
I'd do it all over in a heartbeat but it would be nice if it wasn't so damn expensive. Compared to the literal millions of dollars all my kid's surgeries, hospital stays, home nursing, medical supplies, prescriptions, and equipment costs it's a small price to pay. So I guess I should consider myself lucky.
"Shit could be worse" never ceases to be true.
Best wishes from me, sounds like you have a handful.
That's a fraction of my mortgage ...
Do you have a 2000 year mortgage? Or do you live in hell?
Wales, so close enough.
25 years, 6 years in.
Referring to the place you live as hell while having free healthcare and a $600 mortgage on a 3 bedroom house has demoralized every American who read your comment.
Tongue in cheek, of course.
The free healthcare has nosedived over the last 2 decades. It's still free, but wait times for everything are insane unless you are actively dying. People can wait years for routine procedures & treatments. A regular GP appointment is weeks, unless you snag an 'emergency' appointment by phoning in at 8am sharp and beating everyone else doing the same.
If you need an ambulance and aren't having a cardiac episode or similar - good luck and hope someone can drive your ass to hospital. Wait times are hours at minimum. A long time to be writhing around in (non life threatening!) pain.
Yes it is free. Unfortunately it is underfunded and overworked.
Let me guess... the right wing in your country works to keep it that way to legitimize their case for privatizing healthcare?
It's a nickel & dimed hot potato that neither side wants to take the hit on now. Our 'left' (Labour) has moved right enough now that it is unrecognisable from the party that Blair led in the 90s. It took unprecedented levels of corruption, cronyism and flat out fraud from the previous Tory run government to change the winds - and honestly it's the same wind with a slightly more palatable odour.
Brexit did the service no favours. We used to be able to tap an increasing array of medical talent from the EU, which promptly plateaued then stagnated after the vote. Now we have more and more locums and agency staff that cost a bomb to keep up. Ironically, we are now seeing an marked increase of African and Asian staffers, which the racist idiots that voted Leave abhor.
https://ukandeu.ac.uk/what-has-brexit-meant-for-the-nhs/
While I have no issues with the nationalities of the people there to make me well, it has led to shortcomings such as the Nigerian nurse scandal.
Along with the many, many strikes that have occurred - the argument for privatisation sadly becomes stronger. I'm actually on our work's healthcare plan as an employee benefit, something I have never experienced before. It's very nice for me, but it shows that my company does not trust the public system to ensure my continued fitness for work.
Big ramble there, sorry.
I mean, he does live in Wales...
calling it socialism is correct, they just fail to realize that's what good governments do
A public marketplace for private insurance is not socialism. It is strictly neoliberal.
Not really? Its a marketplace and some regulations on how insurance companies can conduct business. It doesnt really have anything to do with having the common people have economic control
Socialism isn't "government does thing". It's when large groups of people get together and tell the institutions "you're going to do what's best for us, and not what's best for the .001% at the top". This goes for interacting with the government, too.
There are effects of this that can be felt, like "socialized medicine" or other public services... but they are not what socialism is, just what socialism does.
Socialism is when the government forces you to buy a product from a private company.