The accurate glance at the ACA!

In the media, they will blow things out of proportion a hell of a lot bigger then it should be. In Carlos Aguirre’s post on Blame it on Obama, Carlos lays out the negative side effects of the Affordable Care Act on the website itself. I am afraid that the website is not the only thing (if it is not working properly) that the populace should be worried about. What a lot of people do not know is the personal and business mandates that the law encircles. The website itself is just a scratch on the surface of a massive, and bigger problem waiting to be unearthed. Since the passing of the act back in 2010, Obama’s administration had 3 years to get everything in order, so that by the time it was time to enforce the law, there would be very little to worry about. I do understand that the affordable care act is meant to be a big overhaul since Medicaid was instituted under the Johnson administration in 1965. I also think it is safe to say that the nation needed some type of reform to healthcare since its foundation 48 years ago. Romney, who campaigned for the election in 2012, had set up a health insurance program back in the state of Massachusetts when he was governor.

         The 40 million Americans that Obama has promised to fight tooth and nail for that never had health care coverage will hurt people in the process. The website is what we should not be worried about. The thing that we should be worried about are the personal mandates, which will take affect this coming tax season; and the business mandates, which have been delayed a year. After Obama said that people could keep their insurance plans, during the enrollment period; those same insurance plans were “randomly” dropped due to insurance companies not being able to meet government regulations. These insurance companies had no other choice but to cancel those who were insured before, which were the same people that were told that if they liked their plan they could keep it by Obama.

         Furthermore, The Affordable Health Care Act’s business mandate will be responsible for the lay off for those that currently have a middle class job. Small business’s who show more then 50 employees on their books will have to meet stricter government regulations by the year after next. It is already proposed that these small businesses will have to lay off people in the process. Businesses will be in the same boat as the insurance companies. Having to cancel plans because their hands were tied behind their back because of government regulation, small businesses will be incapacitated because of the Affordable Care Act.

         On top of paying an increasing tax, if someone is not federally covered by a health plan in the years to come, to businesses drastically cutting jobs; the website enrollment numbers are, to me, not worthy of consideration. If we are focusing on negative enrollment numbers due to a poor website rollout, then we are going to set ourselves up for failure down the road, because there is a ton more in which people will be affected, in a negative sense, in the upcoming years. I think that the generalized media is doing a piss poor job, like usual, in only focusing on a small fraction of the encompassing and unabridged problem that, we as a nation, are going to suffer with a great and inconsolable fate.

The Perennial Benchmark of Hypocrisy

Upcoming is another strike day for fast-food workers who want to raise the minimum wage to $15/hour. One of the arguments that faces this nation is whether or not raising the wage can help keep employers around, thus producing a steady job rate growth; or hurt jobs in the long term effect. At The Daily Beast, Brandy Zadronzny posted a business article on December 9,2013. Included with the article is a chart showing the minimum wage as a percentage of hourly earnings from 1938-2013. What’s interesting to note is that one would expect the wage to rise during periods of inflation since the great depression. Making the data more interesting is that from the late 1960’s to the early 70’s, we had in increase in inflation but the peak of $11/hour in the late 60’s has been on the decline to $7.25/hour. Along with congressional support of raising the wage over the next two years to $10.10, the president shows his support of the raise. Whether or not if a dramatic increase to $15 would promote or hurt the job markets (in particular fast food chains), but my stance on the argument would be the value of the workers that lie within the employers eyes. I think that there are many hardworking individuals who are some what disfranchised from climbing the ladder to success and, in effect, working in the fast food business is all they do in life. If a worker, who works at a fast food chain, is a hard laborer at their job, then they should be compensated for their work. I think in this case that fast food chains are there to serve as a starting step in a working career.  If you want to be more valuable to your employer, then an individual should take all steps to move to a career path that will benefit them, for the better good, in their life.