It would be nice if we weren't so NAIVE, wouldn't it?
. . . Americans, COBRA is representative of the real costs of healthcare, unsubsidized, and even though most Americans now have inadequate "underinsurance" they still cannot afford to pay for that without help. Because of that 30-50% of PROFIT which is skimmed off the top. Because of the obscene way that the more affordable plans INCLUDE SUCH HIGH UNPAID COSTS THAT THE SICK SUDDENLY BECOME UNABLE TO PAY BOTH THE PREMIUMS AND THE UNCOVERED COSTS AND PAY RENT AND FOOD. Its designed that way because once you get sick, they want you to "miss a payment"! That's COBRA in a nutshell, but its actually far cheaper than public option or individual insurance are.
Do they want us to realize how perverted and evil their system is, NOW?
NO. But, as soon as Americans have been suckers AGAIN, WHO CARES
Thats WHY they want the quick signatures on crapsurance, now.
So they don't have to extend COBRA again to keep people ignorant!
Nine years ago, in the year 2000, we passed the mark where half of American wage earners would at that point have been able to buy unsubsidized insurance, like COBRA. One could argue that 2000 was the point at which a public option without a subsidiy would have been affordable to half of our wage earners.
Now we are at the pont where ONLY A FIFTH of us could. The highest earning one fifth. The highest earning 20%. AND THAT is IGNORING the 30-50% "premium tax". (30% for the insurance companies, another 20% for those who sell it, the brokers)
Thats why they keep extending the subsidies, because the bill has not yet been passed. they DON'T want people to have their face rubbed in this UNTIL AFTER THE BAD BILL PASSES, and then, THEY WILL HAVE COMPLETED THE CON, SO BYE BYE HELP.)
So if Americans want to throw literally millions of Americans off of COBRA because they can't afford it without subsidies PASS THE CRAPSURANCE BILL and watch how the real face of the beast is revealed once they no longer want anything from you.
HUH?
You know how there are those people who never, ever do anything nice for you UNLESS THEY WANT SOMETHING FROM YOU? Well, those people exist in Washington. They never give you a gift without a bigger string attached.
I suspect that the reason the lesislators are pretending that the COBRA legislation "may" been extended is because legislators don't want news stories on it now. They DON"T especially want Americans to know the real cost of their healthcare, now, because THAT IS WHAT PUBLIC OPTION WILL COST THEM, AND ITS WAYOUT OF REACH. They don't want those millions to realize the real cost of unsubsidized middle class crapsurance UNTIL THE CRAPSURANCE BILL IS PASSED. Then, they don't care. They just want us to say yes and let them pull the sme old s*** one more time and screw it to us one more time, for TRILLION UPON TRILLONS OF MORE DOLLARS.. and as soon as we say "okay" then its poof, those COBRA subsidies will vanish for millions and millions WONT BE ABLE TO PAY COBRA and will also not be able to get new jobs and will end up naked. Waiting for five years, losing everything they own, for a fake public option that is designed to fail. Jokes on them, huh? Jokes on US.
Just pass their bad bill, the bill that absolves them of real responsibility that other governments gladly assume, and the nice treatment will end.
Public option was dreamed up by the insurance industry to make their death grip on America persist for another five or six years while it fails, and five years while we wait for it. Its designed to fail. It's based on many really shameless lies, one of which is that it CANNOT satisfy the health care needs of sick people when its forced to be self sustaining and prices are just allowed to rise. The savings they claim it will accomplish are illusory, and that is shown by their initial attempts to confuse it with single payer, which is a time proven real PLAN that WORKS. Public option is not designed to work, no, its designed to kill single payer. AND IT WILL BE SO EXPENSIVE THAT FEW, IF ANY, OF THOSE ADVOCATING IT WILL BE ABLE TO AFFORD IT because it will be more expensive than COMPARABLE INDIVIDUAL INSURANCE. Read that sentence carefully. COMPARABLE INDIVIDUAL INSURANCE.
In a civilized nation we would not have health care bills with bait and switch provisions that were designed to fail. In a civilized nation 101,000 people would not die of preventable causes each year, many with "insurance", (Our children , - yes, we could afford to have them - would not even know what "insurance" was, or why so many people died when they were still paying for it because they could not afford, or were afraid, to use it. People would not live in fear of the terrorists in Washington. Wages would be higher, people more mobile and creative. Not sick, because they could not afford to go to the doctor of buy drugs they needed. Medical tests would not be skewed as to be inaccurate, and MRIs would not cost a ridiculous $3000 instead of the $98 they cost in civilized countries like Japan. People would realize that instead of paying $4500 a year on wars, instead, the nation should spend more than $312.50 a year on making health care REALLY affordable.