Why are people against obama health care?

Answer 1

Opinion:

Right now (November 2013), people are angry about the Affordable Care Act for several reasons.

It was misrepresented when it was being introduced during speeches made by President Obama. People were told they could keep their present health insurance if they liked it. That is not true. Many insurance policies do not meet the standard requirements and can no longer be offered. Thousands of people have received cancellation notices and must obtain new coverage at a higher cost and with higher deductibles.

The online system through which people must apply and buy coverage has been a disaster. It didn't work when it was rolled out and it became apparent that the enrollment process was not well planned at all. The process was not explained in detail to the public. A person cannot begin the procedure of choosing coverage until they have received a notice of eligibility pursuant to their application. Supposedly, the notice of eligibility details the amount of the tax credit and any other credits that can be applied toward coverage. That is taking over 30 days and an applicant cannot monitor the progress of their application. Calls to state health connectors result in a simple, "We don't know- there's nothing we can do."

One would have expected that such a desperately needed, politically trumpeted, hard fought and monumental program would have had much better planning but the creators really dropped the ball.

The ACA wiped out an excellent state run insurance system in Massachusetts that was especially helpful for the self employed. It ends December 31, 2013. Now it's anyone's guess whether or not those who had that coverage will have any health insurance at all on January 1, 2014.

Opinion:

While some of the points in the previous answer are well-taken, they miss a critical factor: politics. Much of the "outrage" has been driven by the Republican party, which never wanted the law to succeed, and their concerns and their claims (some of which are very much exaggerated) have become the total focus of the media, as Republicans hoped would happen. Agreed, the Democrats did a poor job of explaining the new law, and the roll-out was absolutely disastrous, handing the Republicans some ammunition. But more important to the process, the Republican noise machine, led by certain anti-Obama politicians, as well as Fox News and right-wing Talk Shows, and funded by the Koch Brothers and other massive anti-Obama organizations, has spent several years doing a very effective job of demonizing the new law; in fact, millions and millions of dollars were spent spreading false assertions and scaring people (remember Sarah Palin's claim of "death panels"?).

The website is indeed an embarrassment, but the Republicans in congress refused to allocate the money to do the job effectively. Further, Republican governors stymied setting up exchanges, denying their poorest citizens access to low-cost or nearly free health care, just to make a political point. This put more stress on the federal website. But in a number of states where the law was implemented locally (rather than relying on the government website), thousands and thousands of citizens are signing up and the law is becoming quite popular--Kentucky is a good example. And that should tell you something: the "anger" at the new law is politically motivated. Republicans have a lot invested in seeing it, and seeing the Obama presidency, fail. They have been very public about this goal, and they hope they will succeed, even if it means denying millions of Americans access to health care.

Yes, President Obama overstated the pledge to let people keep their own insurance, but he was not expecting that people would want to keep plans that did not really cover them. He also did not expect insurance companies to send out cancellation letters for these inferior policies. When that occurred, the Republicans in congress and Fox News almost gleefully trumpeted that the president "lied" and they interviewed people who claimed the ACA had ruined their lives. Many of these people were later debunked as Republican operatives or people who were exaggerating in order to criticize the healthcare law (a law they already opposed), but it cannot be denied that yes, some people (a tiny percentage) did lose their inferior plans. It is also true that with any new legislation, there are kinks in the roll-out-- this happened when President Bush pushed the Prescription Drug Benefit through congress, yet no Republicans went on Fox to howl with anger over that bumpy roll-out.

This leads many of us to say the "anger" is more about the many misconceptions about the new law that were artfully created by its opponents. Meanwhile, all over the USA, people are getting better insurance, people with pre-existing conditions are getting coverage, kids are staying on their parents' plan till age 26, and many preventative procedures like mammograms are now free. Sadly, the media focus remains on the problems, and the Republicans continue to only want to defeat the law, even though they have offered nothing to take its place except for the previous failed system which left so many Americans without any insurance at all.

Opinion:

Still, the site is not working right, and the numbers of people losing their coverage is in the hundreds of thousands. Fact is, very few people are getting signed up, and this is costing them much more than Obama said. (He said the average family would see a 2500 savings, which is not true at all) Many Americans want nothing to do with this law.

See Discussion page.

Answer 2

People are finding out now that we will be taxed for health care now... even though heathcare reform does not go into effect until after Obama's term is over. 2113.