Tell Us Another Sad Story New York Times . . . . .

Jeebus . . .

I see the New York Times has published yet another article about very privileged people whining about the ACA.
In this case, said article features a couple making $100,000 a year who, under the ACA, will be paying $1,000 a month for health care covering themselves and their two sons. Take it away, Dean Baker:

Here they are with a front page story telling us about the tragic situation of the Chapmans, a New Hampshire couple making $100,000 a year who will have to spend $1,000 a month for insurance with Obamacare. This would come to 12 percent of their income. The piece tells readers:

“Experts consider health insurance unaffordable once it exceeds 10 percent of annual income.”

That’s interesting. If we go to the Kaiser Family Foundation website we find that the average employee contribution for an employer provided family plan is $4,240. The average employer contribution is $11,240. That gives us a total of $15,470. Most economists would say that we should treat the employers payment as a cost to the worker since in general employers are no more happy to pay money to health insurance companies than to their workers. If they didn’t pay this money as health insurance then they would be paying it to their workers in wages.

http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/political-animal-a/2013_12/the_new_york_times_and_the_aca048305.php


The Gadfly said it quite some time ago and he will restate it --- The Gadfly would be happy to have a calm, rational and very open discussion on the issue of health care in America if any conservative anywhere can coherently and sensibly explain to The Gadfly why it is that allowing a massively inefficient and wasteful, self-interested, profit-driven entity like the healthcare insurance industry to be the arbitrating middle man between the state of our individual health and our doctors, is the one and only solution to the nation's health care dilemma.  That offer remains open and yet to be responded to.

Oh - and btw - this family in the NYT story that is bitching and moaning about having to spend $1,000 a month for health care coverage on their family of four --- on their paltry income of $100,000+ a year --- imagine another family of four facing that very same expenditure on only half of that income, or a third of it, or even less . . . .

“Piglet noticed that even though he had a Very Small Heart, it could hold a rather large amount of Gratitude.”

― A.A. Milne, Winnie-the-Pooh

When conservatives acknowledge that there is something terribly wrong with the way this country is presently providing a basic life necessity such as health care to ALL of it's citizenry, that will be the day that The Gadfly will gladly offer such a conservative a seat at his kitchen table so that we might sit down and have an adult conversation on the matter.

Until then, "news" stories about people making more than $100k a year crying about having to spend 12% of their income to provide quality health care for their family just doesn't elicit much sympathy from The Gadfly.



----TFG