NOT THAT YOU ASKED
Before beginning this week's tirade, let me just say that if you are sick and tired of this election, and can't wait for it to be over, I'm with you. I've never been more ready for an election to end in my life. That said; don't let the attack ads and the tons of mailbox fillers keep you from voting. It's still worthwhile, even if the process stinks. That said, on to the tirade.
Two weeks ago I wrote about how I couldn't understand why people who opposed the Affordable Care Act were so determined to repeal it instead of just amending the parts of it they didn't like. Well, after doing a little research I now know why they feel the way they do, and I should have realized it from the beginning. It's all about the money.
My first clue to what was going on came when I found out that people in the home health care business really hate the ACA. Then a story hit the front page of The Sun last week about the owner of a string of nursing homes from Fort Smith who was donating money to state legislative candidates, including one here in Northeast Arkansas who was opposed to the ACA. I figured that their opposition must have something to do with changes to Medicare caused by the ACA. I went on line and Googled the question, "How has the Affordable Care Act changed Medicare?" Here's what I found out.
The Affordable Care Act doesn't change traditional Medicare at all. Seniors in the program can still get the same benefits they always have gotten, and they can still choose their own doctor and hospital. What has been changed is Medicare Advantage. Medicare Advantage is a sort of hybrid. It is run by private insurance companies who are paid by Medicare. Before the ACA Medicare Advantage was a cash cow for nursing homes and home health care businesses. Now under the ACA that cash cow has been slaughtered and barbequed and the folks who own nursing homes and home health businesses aren't happy at all.
They don't care about the fact that under the ACA over 200,000 Arkansans now have health insurance. They are only concerned about the fact that the checks they get from Medicare aren't as fat as they used to be. They attack the ACA by saying it costs too much, or that it is a government takeover of health care to get people to agree with them. Those are just diversions. Like I said at the beginning, it's all about the money.
When you get down to it everything is always about the money, from politics to public policy to health care. The owners of nursing homes and home health care businesses are against the Affordable Care Act because it has cut off their easy money. The Koch brothers are trying to buy Congress because they don't like paying taxes and pesky government programs like the minimum wage and worker safety rules cut into their already obscenely huge profits. Members of Congress spend most of their time begging for political donations because their number one priority is getting re-elected. Once they are safely back in office they are naturally more willing to do the bidding of the people who wrote those big checks than that of the people back home who voted for them. There is a way to fight back against the cancer of big money. The first thing you can do is turn off your TV. Don't let negative ads influence you. Do what I do. Read a newspaper and a weekly news magazine. Get to a computer and go on Google. Ask it questions like, what is Mark Pryor's record? Ask it what is Tom Cotton's record? Ask it about the Affordable Care Act. That's where you can get the truth, and the truth is more powerful than all of the money that's being poured into this election.
The choice is yours. You can do a little research and vote based on true information, or you can veg out in front of the TV and let interest groups that are only concerned with their pocketbooks tell you how to vote. What are you going to do?
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