Obamacare

[ns2]

I don't know of a single successful accomplishment that Obama can point to but I do know that he was a "Community Organizer" and that he also won the Nobel Peace Prize just for getting elected president. If anybody can point to anything of real value that he accomplished along the way to his exalted status by all means please share it with us.

Even in his so-called "Community Organizing" in Chicago was anything ever accomplished there?

Seriously. Can anybody name one thing? Are there any anecdotes out there about all the wonderful things that Obama did as a community organizer? I would love to hear them?

Okay, so now he gets to do the community organizer thing on a massive scale with Obamacare. How's that working out so far?

[moda0306]

The way I see it, Obamacare is a messy way to accomplish a community rating for otherwise uninsurable or near-uninsurable Americans.

Also, certain changes in Medicare reimbursement from fee-for-service to results-based could prove useful.

Not sure if he accomplished anything as a community organizer.

[Benko]

The way I see it, Obamacare is a messy way to accomplish a community rating for otherwise uninsurable or near-uninsurable Americans.

The way I see it, followers of e.g. Alinsky (e.g. Obama and Clintons) pretend they are doing good things e.g. helping uninsured people get insurance, while their real goals are e.g. redistribution of wealth (in this case from young healthy people to older people), and increasing the number of people under gov't control (by throwing people out of health plans and forcing them to choose a gov't plan).  All of this is done for people's own good since they know best.

To answer the question, Obama is a superb cautionary tale. 

[Pointedstick]

The way I see it, Obamacare appears to be good for people too sick to be insurable, but not quote poor enough that they can't afford the insurance once it can't be denied to them.

As far as I can tell, Obamacare is bad for everyone else.

The longevity of this law probably depends on the large numbers of people hurt by it being offset primarily by their own left-wing ideology and secondarily by the small number of people helped by it.

[rickb]

If you're actually interested, the Wikipedia article on Obama is a featured article - which means it meets Wikipedia's highest quality standards (roughly on a par with Britannica).

[Benko]

If you're actually interested, the Wikipedia article on Obama is a featured article - which means it meets Wikipedia's highest quality standards (roughly on a par with Britannica).

It seems to have left out 'if you like your plan, you can keep your plan".
Imagine that.

[clacy]

If you're actually interested, the Wikipedia article on Obama is a featured article - which means it meets Wikipedia's highest quality standards (roughly on a par with Britannica).

Thanks, that's a good summary. 

What has Obama accomplished - I'll start:
1. Brought the 1985 Chicago Bears team to the White House in 2011.  That was long overdue. 
2. Withdrew from Iraq
3. Avoided war with Iran

Regarding the post subject, what's the latest Republican or Libertarian plan to address the ~50 million uninsured in the U.S.?

For decades, it appears that the uninsured have used the Emergency room, which we all end up paying for.  Or they don't use anything and die prematurely (the invisible death panel).  I'm not excited about Obamacare, but the past system leaves a lot to be desired.

I have no clue where the 50m number you used came from.  Previous estimates were 30m.  The uninsured in polls now view Obamacare unfavorable, and we're facing a huge systemic problem because not enough of them care to actually sign up for Obamcare.  Insurance HAS ALWAYS been available to the vast majority of that number.  The "uninsurable" population is quite low.  I'm pretty sure they could have found a way to insure those people though Medicaid without destroying the rest of the system and raising costs for the other 200m+ in the private market.

Most of the signups to date have actually been for Medicaid/Medicare.

Anyway, I'm not sure why it's incumbent for the Republicans to fix a problem that apparently didn't even exist.

[Pointedstick]

The best action would have been somehow making health care itself more affordable. In this manner, not only would the cost of insurance naturally fallen, but people might have started paying out of pocket for things like medicines, doctor's visits, preventative care, and minor wounds--just like we used to be able to do in the 60s, shockingly enough.

The insurance problem is and always was a red herring. If 100% of people get insured but costs keep rising, insurance would have eventually become so expensive that the number would soon fall back down to 90%, 80%, or whatever as people dropped out of the insured pool due to high premiums. If the government kept them insured through subsidies, that would just encourage the insurance companies to keep raising their prices to capture more government money (just like the universities have done with college tuition).

An affordability problem CANNOT be solved by forcing people to purchase the thing they couldn't afford and then giving some of them subsidies. This is economics 101 here. Totally mainstream stuff, not austrian econ. or monetarism or anything.

[dualstow]

He got Osama bin Laden.
Yes, the intelligence work began during the Bush administration, but Obama deserves credit for getting it done, for signing off on the Navy Seal job.

Not too much else.