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Yes! The election is over, and I can FINALLY come out of the closet! No, not that closet! My political closet! Leading up to the election and after the results were in, it was VERY difficult for me to keep my political views to myself on Facebook since the results directly affect the welfare of my family, and political posts were constantly in my Newsfeed. But I really did not feel like getting into any debates since nothing could change my mind about who I was going to vote for, and I respect that everyone has a right to their own opinion about which candidate they like and do not like. Anyway, if you have been keeping up with My Thoughts Monday, you probably could have guessed who I was voting for.

So, here it goes…I am a health insurance underwriter. I take medical histories from those applying for health insurance and decide if we can offer them coverage, including if any medical condition will be excluded for coverage, their premium will be increased due to a pre-existing condition, or premium decreased due to having good health. With “Health Care Reform” (Obamacare) in place, underwriters will no longer be needed come 2014 since health insurance companies will be forced to accept people with and cover all pre-existing medical conditions. Although I do other things for the company and hope I have put myself in the position where they will not lay me off, there is still a good chance I will lose my job. Layoffs at all health insurance companies, along with other businesses, around the country are inevitable.

I will get to explaining Obamacare the way I understand it as having background in the industry, but here’s where it gets personal for me as I have found that I’m feeling much more sensitive about the election results than I thought I would. My husband and my families have been well aware of the devastating effects Obama’s re-election could have on my family. Having a 2-year old daughter and my parents living with us, it will be a huge stretch for us to live off of one income if I lose my job, if not impossible. I have been looking for other jobs, but with unemployment at almost 8% and my only experience out of college being a health insurance underwriter, I have not had any luck even getting an interview. As I stated before, I do feel that everyone is entitled to their opinion and could vote for whoever they wish. However, I think I should have put a disclaimer on my Facebook for all of those aware of our situation, particularly our families, to block me from any of their Facebook posts promoting Obama and/or Obamacare. Although I pretty much knew who of these people were Obama supporters, it has been difficult not to take their Facebook posts personally since re-electing him could destroy the welfare of my family, including my 2-year old daughter, and they had known it for months. I am sure their intent was not to hurt me, but since I told them of our situation, seeing those Facebook posts just made me feel like they were saying to me, “Look who I’m voting for! I really don’t care if you lose your job and my niece has to go through financial hardship!” Trying to come up with a game plan for what we will do if or when I get laid off, it has been very difficult for me to stop thinking about it.

Yesterday, I spoke to my cousin, who tends to have some different political views as me but has never told me who she was voting for. I thanked her for being sensitive to our situation by never talking to me about it and not posting anything on Facebook that would have later offended me. I almost came to tears when I explained to her how personal I was taking my other family members’ Facebook posts, and luckily, she understood and actually encouraged me to write this blog post. I really don’t know how I will feel when I see those other family members next, but I am hoping I will be over it by then.

So, back to Obamacare, and what I wish I could educate all of my liberal Facebook friends about. If everyone will now be able to get health insurance to pay for their healthcare costs, especially those who need it the most, why is Obamacare bad? Contrary to popular belief, insurance companies do not decline people for health insurance simply because they are evil and are against the sick. It’s because years and years of experience (in some cases, over 100 years) in analyzing the cost of claims for medical conditions, shows that the company and their insureds (those who are insured with the company) could not afford to pay those claims. The money that pays for those claims does not just appear from thin air. The claims are paid by the income brought into the company, which comes in the form of premium from the insureds. When more money is paid out in claims, guess what – health insurance premiums increase in order to pay for them. You may have also noticed that I put “Health Care Reform” in quotes above. That is because it is not really “Health Care Reform”, it is “Health Insurance Reform”. Obamacare still does not solve the huge problem of the rising costs of health care, which essentially also contributes to how much it will cost to treat and/or maintain certain medical conditions, which affects health insurance premiums. So, it’s great! Everyone will have insurance, right? Now you just need to figure how you will afford to pay for the insurance!

I’m sure you have heard that Obamacare is socialist in nature. I have heard that there are people who are offended by others calling the President and his policies socialist and not pro-American. Part of Obamacare is that health insurance companies can only use 20% of the money they get from insurance premiums on “administrative costs”. What this means is that 80% of the premiums coming in must go to paying claims. The other 20% is to be used for things such as employees’ salaries and benefits, supplies, systems…everything that is needed to maintain the business. Their profits are then anything that may be left over from that 20%. I don’t know about you, but limiting the amount a private company can make in profits sounds very anti-free market and pro-socialism to me. Considering that America was founded on principles against socialism, I don’t see why it is offensive to say that the President is not pro-American. He has socialist views, which he has shown many many times. I am not very comfortable with this.

Having said all of that, here is what I think will eventually happen with health insurance:

• Insurance premiums will become so high that many people will not be able to afford them, leaving even more uninsured or underinsured who would rather pay the tax.
• The “80/20 rule” will keep insurance companies from making money on major medical insurance causing them to either go out of business, or drop out of the major medical insurance market all together (they will focus on selling other products).
• The lack of competition in the health insurance market will also drive up the cost of premiums.
• We will end up being on a single-payer system financed by the government, which will cause even more debt to the US and taxes to rise for every American. Note: A single-payer system is very much a socialist concept.
• In the end, Americans will not have a choice, or at least as many choices, for the type insurance coverage they get and pay for in order to meet their needs.

Business 101: If a business cannot make a profit or make money, there is no point in staying in business.

My friend who is a cardiac physician assistant, text messaged me yesterday saying “Thanks to Obamacare, we have no vials of bicarb or nitro. It’s on back order until September 23.” What does this mean? Nitroglycerin is the medication used to save you when you go to the hospital with a heart attack. There is a current drug shortage of Nitroglycerin, among many other medications, with one brand being on back order until September 2013 – yes, 10 months from now. Without this life-saving medication, anyone who goes to the hospital with a heart attack, will have a very good chance of dying, unless the hospital is quickly able to find an alternative medication (many alternatives, by the way, are also on back order). My friend actually updated me today saying that there is also a nationwide shortage of Aspirin. So, sorry to all those who have any heart conditions! It will be very difficult for any hospital to treat you and save your life. But what does this have to do with Obamacare? Part of the law is limiting the profits drug companies can make on their medications. Not only will this hurt the supply of medications, this will also limit the research being done to come up with medications for incurable diseases such as cancer, Alzheimer’s, and HIV, since they will have no money to conduct any research. But it’s okay because everyone will have health insurance, right?

Again, Business 101: If a business cannot make a profit or make money, there is no point in staying in business or providing their product or service.

I have also heard of large layoffs happening in hospitals around the country and many doctors coming to the age of retirement retiring early due to Obamacare. To be honest, I do not have much background on this subject, but I can only guess that since it can be difficult for providers to get paid from the government run programs (Medicare and Medicaid), they are projecting that they will not be receiving as much income in comparison to the cost of treatment and care once Obamacare comes into full effect in 2014. So, we will not have as many providers to choose from, and we may not have the medication we need to treat our illnesses, but it’s okay because everyone will have health insurance, right?

The health insurance and health care industries are not the only businesses that will suffer due to Obamacare. With Obamacare mandating employers with more than 50 full-time employees to provide each of them with health coverage, businesses will have to find ways to rearrange their finances so they can still afford to survive (the tax for not providing insurance will be $2000 per employee). Many companies will go through huge layoffs and/or decrease their employees’ wages, and others may go out of business all together. Some business owners will lay off many of their full-time employees and replace them with part-time workers, to avoid the extra cost. Imagine what this will do for unemployement and the median income for each family! But it’s okay because everyone will have health insurance, right?

So, those are the reasons I did not vote to re-elect our President based on the passing of Obamacare alone. I do think that Health Care Reform needs to happen, but not at the expense of every American. There needs to be a better solution put in place that is much more well thought out with less regulation on businesses that also addresses the issue of the rising costs of health care, not just health insurance. I think it’s very scary thinking about what could happen in the future with this new law. I am not only scared for my family and myself since I may not have a job very soon, but I am scared for America! And I think everyone else should be scared too!

By the way, I do support gay marriage and equal rights, am pro-choice (to a certain point), and think it may be beneficial for those who cannot afford contraceptives to receive some sort of help with provisions, but with the economy as bad as it is and headed to where I think it’s heading, those issues really do not matter. What good is it to “solve” those issues if no one has the money to support themselves and their families? Plus, I think gay marriage and abortion should be handled on the State level anyway so the President would not really have a say in what laws govern those issues.

Please let me know what you think! Am I being overly sensitive about my family members’ pro-Obama Facebook posts who have known for awhile that I could very well lose my job with Obama re-elected? Are you as terrified for our country’s future as I am? Are you completely fine with where we might be headed? Do you not believe that any of the things I mentioned above will happen (if you don’t I am very interested, and please leave me with facts to back up your argument)? Is the economy not that big of an issue to you? If not, why? Leave me a comment below, but please keep it clean and as non-offensive as possible

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Disclosure: All of the opinions expressed are my own and do not represent the opinions of my employer. This post may include affiliate links. Please see my Disclosure Policy for additional information.