The US health care overhaul and the social rights of the working class
THE OBAMAnomics of CRONY PIMP OBAMA’S HEALTH PLAN… AS USUAL,
IT ONLY BENEFITS HIS WALL STREET DONORS!
Big business is seizing on the ACA to shift retirees and active
workers to private insurance exchanges, where the burden of inadequate care
will be placed on them. In place of employer-administered health plans, these
workers will receive a health care stipend that they can use to purchase
coverage on a private insurance exchange.
The US health care overhaul and the
social rights of the working class
20
September 2013
The
health care exchanges established as part of the Obama health care legislation
are scheduled to open for business on October 1, with implementation of the
Affordable Care Act (ACA) set for January 1, 2014. The federal government and
states are scrambling to set up the insurance exchanges where individuals and
families without insurance will be required to purchase insurance or pay a
penalty.
Following
passage of the bill on March 21, 2010, President Obama hailed the measure as an
historic reform and the embodiment of the “American dream.” In the
three-and-a-half years since, the legislation has been increasingly exposed as
a thoroughly regressive measure, part of a fundamental attack on health care
for the vast majority of the population, and specifically tailored to cut costs
for the government and corporations.
The WSWS wrote
at the time that the health care bill “represents the opening shot in a
sweeping attack on health care for working people.” This statement has been
vindicated time and again. The program set to launch January 1 will be even
more reactionary than the legislation signed into law by Obama in 2010.
Big business is seizing on the ACA to shift retirees and active
workers to private insurance exchanges, where the burden of inadequate care
will be placed on them. In place of employer-administered health plans, these
workers will receive a health care stipend that they can use to purchase
coverage on a private insurance exchange.
Companies
employing tens of thousands of workers are making this move. Among others, IBM
and Time Warner are shifting retirees to private exchanges, while Walgreens,
Sears Holding, and Darden Restaurants are moving all active employees off their
company-administered health plans to these exchanges.
State and
local governments are seeking to trim health care costs by dumping active and
retired workers onto the government-sponsored health care exchanges as well.
The City of Detroit, which has filed for bankruptcy, aims to drastically reduce
the $5.7 billion owed to retirees in health benefits by pushing those 65 and
older onto Medicare and dumping those too young to qualify for the
government-run program onto the ACA insurance markets.
Big
business and the private insurers have lobbied the Obama administration to
remove any token regulations contained in the legislation that might impede
their profits. This past July, the White House announced that it would be
delaying by one year an ACA requirement that businesses with 50 or more
employees provide insurance to those working 30 hours a week or more. Companies
will not be fined the $2,000 stipulated in the bill for failure to provide this
coverage. Meanwhile the “individual mandate,” which requires those without
insurance to obtain coverage or pay a fine, remains in place.
And last
month, the president ditched another so-called consumer protection provision of
the legislation, granting a one-year grace period for insurers to adhere to
limits on out-of-pocket health care costs. Obama—who touted this cap on costs
as a protection for families against bankruptcy due to a catastrophic medical
condition, or the high cost of certain treatments and drugs—will allow insurers
to continue to gouge the insured to the tune of tens of thousands of dollars.
In May, a
largely undetected loophole in the ACA rules came to light indicating that some
larger employers will be able to provide bare-bones coverage that offers
minimal requirements such as preventive services, but may not provide coverage
for surgeries, hospital stays, or other vital services. Companies providing
these “skinny plans” will be able to dodge the $2,000 per worker penalties for
failure to provide adequate and affordable coverage.
A
cornerstone of the health care overhaul is the gutting of Medicare, which
serves an estimated 50 million seniors. The bill proposes a $700 billion cut to
the government-run program over 10 years. Doctors have already begun to limit
the number of Medicare patients they treat or drop them altogether as the ACA
takes aim at the fee-for-service system and imposes new evaluation and payment
procedures for Medicare doctors aimed at eliminating “unnecessary” tests and
procedures.
Despite
promises that the health care bill would provide “near universal coverage,” the
Congressional Budget Office predicted earlier this year that 30 million people
will remain uninsured two years into the legislation, in 2016. Many more will
be underinsured, either due to cutbacks through their employer-sponsored plans
or their inability to purchase anything but the cheapest, inferior plans on the
government-run health care exchanges.
As the
WSWS analyzed correctly at the time, the health care overhaul was the first
step in what has developed into a wholesale assault on all the social programs
and rights of the working class. It signaled a drive by the Obama
administration and the ruling elite to restructure class relations in America,
establishing one set of standards for the super-wealthy and another for the working
class.
The day
after the passage of the Affordable Care Act, the WSWS wrote: “Obama’s health
care counterrevolution is of a piece with his entire domestic agenda. It
parallels the multi-trillion-dollar bailout of the banks, the imposition of
mass layoffs and wage and benefits cuts in the auto industry, and a stepped-up
attack on public education and on teachers.”
In
opposition to those who claimed at the time that there must be something
progressive in the legislation, we argued: “All of Obama’s policies have been
geared toward increasing social inequality… The claim that the health
care overhaul is an oasis of progress in this desert of social reaction is
simply a lie.” These words have proven correct, as social inequality has now
reached levels not seen in nearly a century, and official poverty levels have
risen to a near-generation high of 15 percent, with more than 46 million
Americans impoverished.
This
immense growth of social inequality and the domination of society and the
political system by a financial aristocracy are incompatible with a government
that maintains any vestige of democratic norms. The assault on health care
encompassed by the Affordable Care Act was the Obama administration’s first
volley in its assault on social rights. The social reforms of the 1930s and
1960s, including Social Security and Medicare, won by previous generations of
workers in bitter struggle, are in the sights of the ruling class and targeted
for ultimate destruction.
The
trajectory of the Obama administration’s health care reform demonstrates the
incompatibility of the private ownership of the means of production with the
basic social rights of the working class. The provision of universal, quality
health care requires taking the profit out of health care and placing the
entire health care industry—the insurance companies, pharmaceuticals, and the
giant health care chains—on socialist foundations.
Kate
Randall
Obama’s America… a few part time jobs with miserable
wages… IMPORTING IMMIGRANTS TO FILL THE REAL JOBS CHEAP FOR BIGGER CORPORATE
PROFITS.
"The Obama administration is directing this attack,
encouraging wage cutting and the reduction of large sections of workers to the
status of casual laborers. Obama’s so-called health care “reform,” the ACA, was
designed to facilitate this process by encouraging employers to reduce the
hours of employees so as to evade requirements that they provide health
insurance to full-time workers".
more at this link – post on your Facebook and email broadcast
http://mexicanoccupation.blogspot.com/2013/08/obamas-la-raza-mexican-economy-for-wall.html
OBAMAcare or really LARAZA care???
Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) argued Tuesday that because the comprehensive
immigration reform bill prohibits immigrant workers from getting ObamaCare
benefits, employers will fire U.S. workers and replace them with immigrants.
http://mexicanoccupation.blogspot.com/2013/06/cruz-immigration-bill-obamacare-create.html
Cruz said he wanted to offer an amendment to address the “most egregious
aspect” of the immigration bill. He said that because employers with more than
50 full-time employees will face a $5,000 penalty for not providing health
insurance benefits, those employers would instead hire immigrants with resident
provisional immigration (RPI) status instead of U.S. workers.
TED CRUZ SAYS OBAMA IS
AGAIN UP LA RAZA’S BIG GREEDY A SS
BUYING THE ILLEGALS’ VOTES WITH MORE OBAMACARE WELFARE!
PELOSI – OBAMAcare
GENERATED FOR LA RAZA and BIG PHARMA!
Yes, they lied big time! PELOSI
AND OBAMA LIED THAT OBAMA CARE DID NOT INCLUDE ILLEGALS…. they had it carefully
rigged so that LA RAZA would be the biggest beneficiary!!!
OBAMAcare…. ANOTHER CON JOB BY THE
BIGGEST CONJOBBER IN AMERICAN HISTORY.
OBAMACARE SERVES THE SPECIAL
INTERESTS WORKING OUT OF THE OBAMA WHITE HOUSE, WHICH INCLUDES LA RAZA “THE
RACE”!
NEXT TO AMERICAN JOBS and LA RAZA
DREAM ACTS of WELFARE, OBAMACARE WILL BE THE DEMS LARGEST HANDOUTS TO ILLEGALS!
OBAMA and PELOSI’S STAGGERING
HANDOUT TO LA RAZA TO BUY THE ILLEGALS’ VOTES.
JUDICIAL WATCH.org
ON THE OBAMA PRESIDENCY:
With trillion dollar bailouts,
government-run healthcare, banks and car companies, ACORN corruption, attacks
on conservative media, illegal alien amnesty, unprecedented and dangerous new
rights for terrorists, perks for campaign donors—this is the Obama legacy—and
we haven't even gotten through the first year of his presidency!
MEXICO
BANKRUPTS CALIFORNIA HOSPITALS - MEX
CONSULATES URGE LOOTING OF LEGALS
more at this link – post on your Facebook and email broadcast
JUDICIALWATCH.org
While
the Obama Administration halts deportations to work on its secret
amnesty
plan, hospitals across the U.S. are getting stuck with the exorbitant tab of
medically treating illegal immigrants and some are finally demanding
compensation from the federal government.
MEXIFORNIA –
MEXICO’S $22 BILLION DOLLAR LA RAZA WELFARE STATE AND ANCHOR BABY FACTORY AND
MEX GANG PLAYLAND!
NOT ONE
AMERICAN VOTED TO BE LOOTED BY MEXICO!
THE DEMS’ WELFARE STATE of MEXIFORNIA
CENTER FOR IMMIGRATION STUDIES.. The
most successful thing the Mexican dictatorship has done is to EXPORT to AMERICA
Mexican criminals, poverty, looters, gangs, cartels and pregnant anchor baby
breeders.
HERE’S WHAT THE COST IS OFF AMERICA
BACKS:
IMMIGRANT
WELFARE
WELFARE – THE STAGGERING COST OF MEXICO’S LA RAZA WELFARE STATE IN
AMERICA. THESE ARE !ONLY! WELFARE COST
AND DO NOT INCLUDE THE COST OF THE MEXICAN CRIME TIDAL WAVE, OR THE ULTIMATE
COST OF MEXICO’S ASSAULT ON OUR BORDERS, LAWS AND CULTURE… Push 2 for English!
According
to the Centers for Immigration Studies, April '11, at least 70% of Mexican
illegal alien families receive some type of welfare in the US!!! cis.org
POST-ELECTION GIFT TO ILLEGALS: food stamps
OBMAMA’S LA RAZA WELFARE STATE… plus illegals get all the
jobs!
“Since President Obama came into office, SNAP
participation has increased at 10 times the rate of job creation, the annual
spending on SNAP has doubled, and one in seven Americans now participates in
SNAP,”
According
to the Centers for Immigration Studies, April '11, at least 70% of Mexican
illegal alien families receive some type of welfare in the US!!! cis.org
WHEN MEXICANS COME
LOOTING… the staggering cost of Mexico’s occupation:
WHEN MEXICANS JUMP OUR BORDERS, IT IS BY INVITATION OF THE
DEMOCRAT PARTY. SO LONG AS THEY VOTE DEM, DROP MULTITUDES OF ANCHOR BABIES FOR
FUTURE GENERATIONS OF “CHEAP” LABOR MEXICANS, THEY GET GRINGO JOBS, MUCHO LA RAZA WELFARE, DREAM
ACTS OF WELFARE, NO E-VERIFY, NO ID REQUIRED WHEN THEY WANT TO VOTE EXPANSION
OF THE LA RAZA WELFARE STATE….
IT ISN’T BY ACCIDENT OUR COUNTRY IS OVERRUN WITH LOOTING
MEXICANS THAT LOATHE AMERICA, OUR LAWS, FLAGS, BORDERS, WHICH THEY SAY DON’T
EXIST, CULTURE AND PEOPLE…. THEY ARE LOOTERS… THEY’RE MEXICANS!
According
to the Centers for Immigration Studies, April '11, at least 70% of Mexican
illegal alien families receive some type of welfare in the US!!! cis.org