As we sit here on the verge of a government shutdown, or even worse a debt default because of Obamacare, let us have a brief discussion to get clear about what we are talking about. The most important thing to understand about the Affordable Care Act is that helping people buy insurance from private companies is NOT a government takeover of Health care.
First of all, let's talk about insurance. We buy insurance in case the shit hits the fan. We do not expect this to happen, but we acknowledge the possibility. We also realize that cleaning up when the shit hits the fan is expensive. So, we spend X dollars every year to pay insurance companies hoping that shit does not actually hit the fan.
Insurance companies have been happy to take that money for many years. Now, in a free market you might ask what's wrong with that.
The short answer is that an insurance company is operating on a profit motive. This means that they want to avoid making payments against obligations. So, imagine shit hit the fan. The insurance company contacts the clean up company. At some point the bill from the clean up company exceeds what the insurance company planned on paying and they leave you on the hook for the balance.
Another thing that may have occurred is that the insurance company may decide that you neglected to inform them that you had a fan, a pre- existing condition that made clean-up more expensive and not their responsibility. At the same time that they are denying your claim, they are not refunding the premiums that they have been happy to collect.
Many people have had the experience of paying for insurance all their lives and then getting struck by a catastrophic illness which exceeded the amount covered by there insurance. As a result, they went bankrupt and got covered under Medicare/Medicaid.
The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, aka Obamacare, ameliorates these scenarios. Why would anyone object?