How do you feel now that Obamacare was ruled constitutional?

same

It means the healthcare industry and the insurance companies and the financial companies are against it. It doesn't mean the people are against it. It's like that in every country generally, but it's just extreme in the US.

ie the immensely rich people who control all the big companies spend billions of dollars lobbying for or against this shit in their own self-interest, and then us peons get to sit here and discuss its merits as if it actually matters which I think u all will agree is a pretty sweet deal and will definitely keep me debating if I will vote democrat or republican in the upcoming election or maybe I'll go really crazy and vote for ron paul because his name is like LOVE spelled backwards or something

it'll depend on how whatever state you're living in moves with it. the good and bad thing is that you'll likely see a bunch of cheap/subsidized bare-bones insurance plans popping up for low income people that don't really cover much beyond emergency care and annual checkups(it might even be only partial coverage as well lol sorry poors).

idk i got kicked off my folks' insurance so i kinda need something in case of an accident and even my school's insurance plans are not affordable at all. hopefully once it's mandated that we gotta get it i can get some kind of subsidized walmart health insurance and then i'll be good for an eye exam.

i wonder if dental is gonna be covered in this(LOL NOPE)

It's mighty grim that even this consolation prize legislation was only upheld by a majority of 1 vote on the supreme court, but I suppose a minor improvement isn't a bad thing. I've never looked very closely at the US health care system but I know enough to know how small an improvement to a very unfair system this is and how much resistance there has been to even this. I'll keep following the issue, perhaps more closely, and see if this results in either the entire topic being shelved for a while - which would be a shame, with all the political capital that has been used on it with disappointing results - or if there are improvements made from a place other than top-down like this was. My feeling on issues like this is that you can't really expect much from people like Obama, or any high up politician. This is all very obvious to the more political people around here, or around anywhere, but it's about as developed as I have gotten (so far).

What makes you think this?

The changes are rather small and it's 30 million new customers for them. People get a subsidy if they can't afford it, so I wouldn't be surprised if they'll be better off in the end, even if the healthcare system itself is also slightly improved.

the thing about all this though is that the 90-something dollar fine a year for not having insurance under this bullshit will probably be cheaper for most people uninsured and the kind of insurance that'll be affordable(even with subsidies) will be the horrible shitty kind that make you pay for medicine and probably most of the cost for emergency room visits. Sure you can get your yearly physical, maybe an eye exam, but mostly it'll be like a buffer for people who have accidents that would otherwise ruin them financially and the only way to get insurance companies cool with that is to widen the 'pool' of people paying them each month for nothing.

it'll be like liability insurance with your car where it's like 50 bucks a month just to cover your ass, but if you get in a wreck you're kinda fucked in terms of getting money to repair your car.

I think it would be a better idea to find out why healthcare is so expensive (taxes, regulations, whatever)

um this information is not really a secret...

PS it's not taxes and regulations you dumb idiot

I torn about it honestly. The fact that the insurance companies are fighting it makes me think it'll be good. But from what I hear I'm not sure how it'll be enforceable. (You exist, thus must have health insurance, oh? can't afford it? uhhh... hmmm...)  Also, I don't generally consider myself a constitutionalist, so this doesn't bother me that much, but I am a little confused at how it was ruled constitutional.

But really, I also don't quite understand why the insurance companies are fighting it. Wouldn't this drastically increase their profits? Or am I missing something?

I'll take a crack at answering your questions:

The enforcement of the law comes through the IRS. When you do your taxes each year they're be a box on the form asking if you have health insurance, depending on the answer your tax return will be more or less. The penalty currently being $695 or 2.5% of your families income, whichever is higher.

The constitutionality comes into play because they made the case that Congress has the ability authorize new taxes, and that the mandate fell under that authority.

Finally, the reason that insurance companies are fighting this so much is that there is a new regulation that requires them to use 80% of the money coming in for health care costs.  So they won't be seeing the mega profits that they had in the past.   Hope that answers your questions.

My parents are in the healthcare field so I know from experience that this transitional period between the healthcare systems is pretty stressful. I think it might be a little bit worse for a bit as the healthcare people scramble to get things in line with the new regulations, but I support the change and think in time it will be an improvement.