I really enjoy Jerry Haslip’s responses to my letters on the economy and ObamaCare. He reliably uses many exclamation points (!), somehow figuring they’ll provide proof to his fact-less diatribes. It makes me smile. He’s truly living in a fact-free zone. Trust me, some days I’m tempted also Jerry, but invariably a decent dose of integrity and attention to truth bring me to my senses.
Exclamation points or not, Jerry’s opinions and baseless assertions fall flat. You know the old saying: “Jerry’s entitled to his opinions, but not to his own facts.”
So let’s talk unemployment rates, job creation, and ObamaCare.
Like it or not, the US Bureau of Labor Statistics, using the same statistical standards for many years, pegs the unemployment rate at 5.1%, close to what most economists declare is “full employment.” I think “full employment” should be much lower. Certainly wages need to be higher. In my previous letter I listed ways we could work towards that. Indeed, unemployment is projected to drop further, and wages will improve as the economy continues to strengthen, but we as a nation also need to proactively create policies and opportunities to accelerate wage growth.
Regarding job creation, roughly 8.5 million net jobs have been created under Obama in almost 7 years, after inheriting the worst recession ever. This job creation is more than the combined 12 years of Bush family rule.
Now let’s visit Jerry’s blatant ObamaCare falsehood: “healthcare and insurance costs have sky-rocketed and are simply not affordable when compared to previous costs.” Jerry provides no facts, only spouts right wing radio talking points.
Back in March 2015 Forbes, no liberal journalistic enterprise, wrote a critique of ObamaCare. But even Forbes had to admit that an inflation index of the healthcare sector—services like doctors, drugs, hospitals, medical equipment—“is now at one of its lowest points on record….”
Is health inflation negative? No. But as was promised under ObamaCare, the health cost curve is bending down. If we had wanted even greater savings and a fully insured populace, we’d have passed “Medicare for all.” That’s what progressives like myself wanted—essentially a healthcare system that most industrialized countries use, getting much better outcomes at half the cost. But we are where we are. And it ain’t bad.
The Washington Post (March 2015) pointed out the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office reported the projected cost of ObamaCare is dropping quickly. Why? Because health insurance premiums “are rising more slowly….” Again, the cost curve—not only for doctors and drugs, but for insurance premiums too—is bending down. This is great news. As other ObamaCare policies kick in, or mature, we’ll see other improvements on the budgetary front, patient outcomes, and quality care and access.
If ObamaCare weren’t making health insurance more affordable, how could there be some 17 million more insured now? How could the uninsured rate be the lowest in 50 years?
It’s unfortunate and unacceptable that for some folks their insurance premiums have risen greatly. But as a whole Americans are benefitting with better coverage, access, and affordability. Of course ObamaCare can be improved, as can other aspects of our nation’s health system. One example is allowing Medicare to negotiate drug prices like the Veterans Administration does. This would save us billions. This is a no-brainer that drug companies and Republicans oppose. We all need to let Senators Tester and Daines, also Rep. Zinke, know that this common sense change to drug pricing should happen. It would lower seniors’ Medicare drug premiums, saving them critical income, and reducing the financial burden on our country.
Jerry Haslip clearly hates ObamaCare. He hates that President Obama has gotten us out of the Bush recession morass. He deplores that many millions of Americans, formally without insurance, now are insured, healthier, and more productive citizens. But just because you may hate a policy or a person, doesn’t mean you can simply make things up. This is exactly what Jerry Haslip has been doing for years, and did again. And I’m willing and able to call Jerry out on it. The truth will set you free, Jerry. Embrace it!
Van P. Keele
Hamilton