• apfelwoiSchoppen@lemmy.world
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      5 days ago

      The Affordable Care Act, the US public marketplace for private insurance. Ignorantly referred to by conservatives as socialism.

      • BossDj@lemm.ee
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        Years back, before Republicans realized it’s good (as they eventually do with all social programs), I had an aunt say “I’m on that Obama care and it’s awful!” So we asked which plan she’s on and she just kept saying “I already told you, it’s Obamacare.”

        I think the average Republican voter does not understand that it is private insurance

        • Miles O'Brien@startrek.website
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          the average Republican voter does not understand

          You can just stop there, and be correct about almost any topic.

          I had to explain tax brackets to my mother.

          She’s got a degree to teach math. And I know she actually went to college since I can remember sitting in the back of her classrooms when she couldn’t find a babysitter.

          She used to do her own taxes and my grandparents taxes.

          But, as a teenager, I had to explain why a potential $2 raise doesn’t mean she’s losing more money in taxes than the raise is giving her.

          She also doesn’t believe the welfare cliff exists, despite our family being precariously perched atop it when I was in elementary school.

          At this point I think she’s just heard the same stupid shit repeated over and over, she doesn’t even question it anymore.

          • Mellibird@lemm.ee
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            I had to explain to my mom the other day about server wages and she didn’t even believe me at first.

            Not to defend server wages in any capacity, but the utter fact that she didn’t know the wage nor the federal minimum wage absolutely astounded me. And when she tried to tell me to vote for Trump because of no tax on tips, I told her, “then just tip in cash,” she was stuttering and moved on from the topic.

      • allidoislietomyself@lemmy.world
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        5 days ago

        Not even close to socialism or affordable. Currently paying $2400 a month on an ACA plan because my employer’s benefits don’t cover the services my disabled child requires.

        • SwizzleStick@lemmy.zip
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          Jfc, that’s my mortgage at least 4 times over. Any money spent on your kid is well spent, but it’s horrible that you must sacrifice that much.

            • Rhaedas@fedia.io
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              Mine is just over $1000 in an urban area for a town home. We got lucky though and got in right before things went stupid in 2020, so that’s part of it. Also made the move and investment of a heavy down payment because we saw rent was going to become unlivable, and sure enough it happened.

            • SwizzleStick@lemmy.zip
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              5 days ago

              Not in the US. Suburban Wales, UK.

              It affords a 3-bedroom terraced home. It used to be cheaper before our previous UK government fucked interest rates.

              • peopleproblems@lemmy.world
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                Holy shit that’s amazing. 3 bedrooms WITH a terrace?

                AND you get free healthcare?

                God you guys live like kings

                • SwizzleStick@lemmy.zip
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                  Terraced in this instance means there are two other homes, one either side, that we share walls with.

                  Having good neighbours is essential.

          • allidoislietomyself@lemmy.world
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            I’d do it all over in a heartbeat but it would be nice if it wasn’t so damn expensive. Compared to the literal millions of dollars all my kid’s surgeries, hospital stays, home nursing, medical supplies, prescriptions, and equipment costs it’s a small price to pay. So I guess I should consider myself lucky.

            • SwizzleStick@lemmy.zip
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              “Shit could be worse” never ceases to be true.

              Best wishes from me, sounds like you have a handful.

              • Schmoo@slrpnk.net
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                Referring to the place you live as hell while having free healthcare and a $600 mortgage on a 3 bedroom house has demoralized every American who read your comment.

                • SwizzleStick@lemmy.zip
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                  Tongue in cheek, of course.

                  The free healthcare has nosedived over the last 2 decades. It’s still free, but wait times for everything are insane unless you are actively dying. People can wait years for routine procedures & treatments. A regular GP appointment is weeks, unless you snag an ‘emergency’ appointment by phoning in at 8am sharp and beating everyone else doing the same.

                  If you need an ambulance and aren’t having a cardiac episode or similar - good luck and hope someone can drive your ass to hospital. Wait times are hours at minimum. A long time to be writhing around in (non life threatening!) pain.

                  Yes it is free. Unfortunately it is underfunded and overworked.

                  • Schmoo@slrpnk.net
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                    4 days ago

                    Let me guess… the right wing in your country works to keep it that way to legitimize their case for privatizing healthcare?

      • expatriado@lemmy.world
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        calling it socialism is correct, they just fail to realize that’s what good governments do

        • CarbonIceDragon@pawb.social
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          Not really? Its a marketplace and some regulations on how insurance companies can conduct business. It doesnt really have anything to do with having the common people have economic control

        • Zorque@lemmy.world
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          Socialism isn’t “government does thing”. It’s when large groups of people get together and tell the institutions “you’re going to do what’s best for us, and not what’s best for the .001% at the top”. This goes for interacting with the government, too.

          There are effects of this that can be felt, like “socialized medicine” or other public services… but they are not what socialism is, just what socialism does.

    • usernamesAreTricky@lemmy.ml
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      Affordable care act, also referred to as Obamacare. The name Obamacare was coined by republicans the actual name of the legislation was the affordable care act

      • apfelwoiSchoppen@lemmy.world
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        The ACA was basically a federal version of Romneycare. It was cowritten by Republicans who as a party instantly forgot that they helped write it and demonized it.

      • darkpanda@lemmy.ca
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        “Romneycare” was already taken, and as an uninformed Canadian, isn’t it basically similar?

        • scarabine@lemmynsfw.com
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          It’s the same thing but (and I may be mistaken on this) I think Romneycare is actually a little better? They weren’t able to implement a single payer option on the ACA because Joe Lieberman sabotaged it, but I assume he wasn’t able to sabotage it on the original draft Romney put through in his version

        • EldritchFeminity@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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          Yes. So similar in fact that Romneycare basically never changed in its original state of Massachusetts. All the systems set up for Romneycare were copied at the national level.

    • HeyJoe@lemmy.world
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      What was said here is correct, but I wanted to add that almost all the things everyone hates about ACA was also mostly brought on by Republicans that wouldn’t vote for it unless sections of it were modified. Democrats took what they could get and figured it could be revisited later to fix that at some point. Instead, the opposite happened, and it was handicapped even more by Republicans and here we are, where most people just believe democrats forced this awful plan upon us that is making everyone pay huge amounts of money.

      • BartyDeCanter@lemmy.sdf.org
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        Yeah, Obama was so fucking desperate to get bipartisan support that he and the congressional Democrats let the GOP sabotage it instead of fighting for the single-payer system that had been promised. And now here we are. I honestly believe that if he had both jailed the bakers in the aftermath of the housing crash and gone full single payer not only would we be in a much better place as a nation, but Trump would never have been elected.

      • Tinidril@midwest.social
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        Not one Republican ended up voting for it anyways. Most of the compromises were for blue dog Democrats.