The Friday Link for 9/22/17

Keeping ObamaCare is very important.  Why?  People forget what healthcare was like before it.

Two points:

• America's health system's problems, pre-ObamaCare, were not quality, but rather accessibility.  We had the greatest healthcare on the planet, but for many people, the financial challenges of treating loved ones put healthcare out of reach.
• The US government has an obligation to step up and help our citizens when the private sector, charitable organizations and individual state governments are incapable of doing so, or are out right refusing to do so.  That's why President Obama and the Democrats had to step in.

Randy in Coon Rapids, after I pointed out Senator John McCain saved the Republican Party from itself once again by stating he was against the latest incarnation of Trumpcare, Graham-Cassidy, my regular conservative caller tried to make the argument the only good thing ObamaCare did was take away the ability of insurance companies to refuse to treat people by labeling their health problem as a pre-existing condition.  He stated, outside of that, ObamaCare needed to be fixed.  Putting aside the fact Trumpcare would allow pre-existing conditions to return as a valid reason to deny someone life saving medical care, ObamaCare did a heck of a lot more:

• It dramatically lowered healthcare costs overall and made preventative care free
• It required all health care plans to cover 10 essential heath care benefits, problems which prior to ObamaCare led to people going to emergency rooms 
• It eliminated lifetime and annual coverage limits, meaning one serious medical problem no longer annihilated your healthcare for life
• Children could stay on their parents plans up to the age of 26, covering 3 million people who didn't previously have insurance
• Once they got the bugs worked out, the Federal and state insurance exchanges made it easier to search for plans
• The Middle Class got tax credits on their premiums
• It expanded Medicaid to people at 138% of the federal poverty level, insuring people who had no way to get insurance, but were making too much money to qualify for Medicaid in the past
• It tried to eliminate the Medicare donut hole gap
• It lowered the budget deficit by 143 billion

Those are some pretty damn big wins!  Did some people lose their healthcare because their employer decided to pay the penalty instead of offering a plan?  Yes, and some did so just to spite Obama.  Did some people insurance cost rise?  Indeed, but that was because they had absolute garbage insurance which didn't really cover them, so to actually make their plans 'health care,' they had to actually charge more.  That was the insurance company's dishonesty, not Obama's

Remind people of what ObamaCare gave us, and make sure everyone knows all of those benefits will be removed by Graham-Cassidy.

Fighting the good fight tonight is Jimmy Kimmel.  Here are his three monologs on healthcare, and his sensational calling out of Senator Cassidy for lying to him.

Remember, if your Christian, ObamaCare is the plan Jesus would prefer.

Have a great weekend everyone.