General Election - National Health Service
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Healthcare has always been an issue. But it came to a head with the passage of The Affordable Care Act sometimes called Obamacare.

The question is — Not how can we provide healthcare to every single American; but how can we provide health INSURANCE to every single American.

The short answer is we can’t.

No matter what program comes out of Washington someone always falls between the cracks. Their income is too high to qualify or they have no idea help exists or how to access it.

One Size Fits All — Rarely Works

Last time I looked Montana is a unisex state. Meaning health insurance policies cover the plumbing of both men and women equally.

Men pay for women and women pay for men.

We’re all different and we all have varying healthcare needs. No single program or insurance policy is ideal for everyone.

Congress Has A Big Job

President Trump and many other legislators ran on the promise of repealing and replacing the Affordable Care Act.

Since that time the ACA has gotten steadily worse. Health insurance giants are bailing. Many of the insured have only one provider in their county or state to turn to.

Yesterday that repeal process began on phase one of the three phases planned to repeal and replace the ACA.

But some want a full-blown repeal before another plan is put in place.

Are the votes there? Time will tell.

But Millions Will Lose Their Coverage

The cry from opponents of the repeal is that millions will be left with no insurance. We seem to have very short memories.

People seem to forget the worn phrase — “If you like your plan you can keep your plan.” “If you like your doctor you can keep your doctor.”

As we soon discovered after Obamacare was passed almost everyone who had an individual policy lost it.

Many businesses stopped providing healthcare for their employees and sent them to Obamacare because they didn’t have to offer healthcare if they had less than 25 full time employees.

That also meant companies were reluctant to hire the 26th employee.

Millions were suddenly scrambling to meet the enrollment deadlines that had to be lengthened because of a faulty web site.

If you didn’t have health insurance from a recognized provider you were fined. And that fine increased each year that you didn’t have health insurance.

So young healthy people paid the small initial fines rather than sign up. And why should they? If they got sick they could always sign up after the fact.

Some Final Thoughts

This healthcare insurance issue is going to get worse before it gets better. When surgery is necessary there is usually a long recovery time.

Fixing Obamacare is major surgery. It’s one sixth of our economy. Not easy to turn that ship around.

The last point to keep in mind is that every aspect of healthcare (including insurance) is delivered by a for profit company.

Eliminating profit to offer low cost insurance destroys both.

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