Yep, Tigger, that’s the beauty of working for a large company, and Obamacare does nothing to change that. But you do not have the freedom to quit (or lose) your job, or start your own business, because it is impossible for people like you to buy insurance on the individual market. Under Obamacare, you can get insurance even WITHOUT working for a big company. That’s a huge deal, and you should be grateful that future people in your position won’t have to find a big company that offers health insurance in order to survive and not risk losing their house, possessions, and children’s future should they get sick.
…and since the conservative posters above completely missed the point of the cartoon, the “Obamacare Train Wreck,” which involves dropping those perverse and damaging aspects of the inadequate modern American health care into the abyss, is a GOOD THING. While it’s no comparison to the health care offered in the rest of the civilized world, those are disasters we won’t have to worry about in the future. Of course, the GOP has voted 39 times to bring them back…
Thank you for relating your story. I am genuinely happy you received the treatment that you did. I am sure you are not the only one who was treated well by the system.However….things were different then. It’s hard to believe that was 23 years ago.
In the early 1980s, insurance changed its model from fee-for-service to managed care, which would more correctly be termed managed costs. The model was to lure doctors in by promising less per patient, but more patients. Doctors responded by becoming more efficient to accommodate the change. Over time, however, there was no more efficiency to improve; yet doctors were seeing more patients in less time and being paid less. It took most of the 80s for this transition really to take hold.
Until then, insurance was much cheaper, and more was covered. People were healthier then: obesity and its attendant diseases were not the national sport at that time, so there was much less demand compared to present day. And it just cost less for supplies, hospital and office equipment, etc.
Remember that Detroit’s unions had gotten great concessions and pension plans. Everyone was making money, and everyone was happy. Times changed, as you might have noticed in Detroit.
And, sincerely not to minimize your birth defect, but judging from your description, I don’t believe there would be as much issue with costs surrounding your pre-existing condition as someone with, say, a bad heart valve or cerebral palsy. Different pre-existing conditions met with different amounts of barriers.
But I believe the ’toon is spot on in representing what that industry had morphed into, 20 years on.
Agreed. However, it accomplished a lot in the short term: the delay of the pending health care tsunami. I liken it to voting to increase the debt ceiling: it doesn’t fix the problem, but it prevents immediate and certain collapse, and takes pressure off until something more worthwhile can be done. Now, if only something more worthwhile will be done. Anyone?? Republicans? Democrats? Libertarians? Greens?
I Play One On TV over 10 years ago
I’m buying a ticket for every congressperson to ride this train.
rockngolfer over 10 years ago
This is one of those “In an alternate universe” cartoons where everything pictured is the opposite of reality.
ARodney over 10 years ago
Yep, Tigger, that’s the beauty of working for a large company, and Obamacare does nothing to change that. But you do not have the freedom to quit (or lose) your job, or start your own business, because it is impossible for people like you to buy insurance on the individual market. Under Obamacare, you can get insurance even WITHOUT working for a big company. That’s a huge deal, and you should be grateful that future people in your position won’t have to find a big company that offers health insurance in order to survive and not risk losing their house, possessions, and children’s future should they get sick.
ARodney over 10 years ago
…and since the conservative posters above completely missed the point of the cartoon, the “Obamacare Train Wreck,” which involves dropping those perverse and damaging aspects of the inadequate modern American health care into the abyss, is a GOOD THING. While it’s no comparison to the health care offered in the rest of the civilized world, those are disasters we won’t have to worry about in the future. Of course, the GOP has voted 39 times to bring them back…
I Play One On TV over 10 years ago
Thank you for relating your story. I am genuinely happy you received the treatment that you did. I am sure you are not the only one who was treated well by the system.However….things were different then. It’s hard to believe that was 23 years ago.
In the early 1980s, insurance changed its model from fee-for-service to managed care, which would more correctly be termed managed costs. The model was to lure doctors in by promising less per patient, but more patients. Doctors responded by becoming more efficient to accommodate the change. Over time, however, there was no more efficiency to improve; yet doctors were seeing more patients in less time and being paid less. It took most of the 80s for this transition really to take hold.
Until then, insurance was much cheaper, and more was covered. People were healthier then: obesity and its attendant diseases were not the national sport at that time, so there was much less demand compared to present day. And it just cost less for supplies, hospital and office equipment, etc.
Remember that Detroit’s unions had gotten great concessions and pension plans. Everyone was making money, and everyone was happy. Times changed, as you might have noticed in Detroit.
And, sincerely not to minimize your birth defect, but judging from your description, I don’t believe there would be as much issue with costs surrounding your pre-existing condition as someone with, say, a bad heart valve or cerebral palsy. Different pre-existing conditions met with different amounts of barriers.
But I believe the ’toon is spot on in representing what that industry had morphed into, 20 years on.
Thanks again for sharing.
I Play One On TV over 10 years ago
“ObamaCare fixes nothing, long term.”
Agreed. However, it accomplished a lot in the short term: the delay of the pending health care tsunami. I liken it to voting to increase the debt ceiling: it doesn’t fix the problem, but it prevents immediate and certain collapse, and takes pressure off until something more worthwhile can be done. Now, if only something more worthwhile will be done. Anyone?? Republicans? Democrats? Libertarians? Greens?
Dtroutma over 10 years ago
Tigger: glad for you it was only a benign tumor, I thought, considering so many of your posts, it was anencephaly.
Of course, had the condition been a hole in your heart, diabetes, or a brain tumor, you’d have been out of luck.