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View Full Version : Can I get a Marxist rundown on Obamacare?



Questionable
8th November 2012, 05:46
I hate to admit it but I really don't know much about how Obamacare works. It happened before I was politically conscious so I didn't pay much attention it, and now I can't find any information that isn't presented through the lens of bourgeois party politics.

Can someone explain it to me using Marxist methods?

Geiseric
8th November 2012, 06:35
He's making it so younger people can keep their parents insurance longer, and so it's illegal not to buy insurance from the capitalists. As in buy health insurance or have a fine.

Prinskaj
8th November 2012, 08:05
Here is basic rundown, though not a marxist interpretation.
http://i.imgur.com/ZkHCP.jpg

Soomie
8th November 2012, 15:31
Here's a good explanation of it from a Marxist blog:

“Obamacare” is (unfortunately) not free, universal health care
Just so we’re clear on this, Obama’s health care reform did not, unfortunately, grant universal health care access to all Americans. All it does is require all Americans to purchase private health insurance coverage, and consequently prohibits private insurers from barring someone from purchasing said coverage.
However, the reform law does absolutely nothing to address the prohibitively high rising costs of health care; the massive profits accrued by private health insurers; or the ability for these private insurers to render health care virtually unaffordable to its subscribers through extremely high co-pays, deductibles, premiums, etc.
In recent years, the leading cause of personal bankruptcy had been medical expenses. This will not change at all under “Obamacare.”
In fact, the strong possibility exists that even more people than ever will be without access to health care due to the combination of a generalized decrease in most people’s personal wealth as a result of the recession, coupled with the tendency of the parasitical, private health insurers to constantly bilk Americans for all their worth.
If the insurance companies are no longer allowed to legally bar a person from purchasing insurance coverage, they can certainly make it impossible for a person to afford to use that insurance coverage. In fact, they have an interest in doing so. As long as people are required to buy insurance and pay the annual or monthly premium to the company, the insurer stands to gain the most when people either do not have to, or cannot afford to, actually see a doctor. The insurance company isn’t billed by the hospital for any services, and the profit margins of the insurance CEO’s skyrockets.

Mr. Natural
8th November 2012, 18:52
Obamacare creates a US health monopoly for the health care and health insurance industries. It therefore represents a major advance in capitalism's relentless, malignant process.

Another inevitable capitalist "advance" will be to privatize Social Security and Medicare.

The final, currently inevitable capitalist "advance" will be to destroy itself along with its captive workers. That's us. We gotta do something about this!

NoOneIsIllegal
8th November 2012, 23:17
Younger folks can stay on their parent's health-insurance for a few more years, up to the age of 26.
People with disabilities such as diabetes, cancer, and so forth, also cannot be denied.

These are the two positives of the law. However, it's essentially a huge bow to the capitalist overlords. It is now mandated that all citizens (remember over 40 million people didn't have health-insurance) must now have health insurance. The problem is, there's almost no regulation to it. People are being forced to buy privatized, uncapped health insurance. They're calling the shots on the prices, and you legally obligated to accept that.