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Culture War Roundup for the week of December 2, 2024

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Yes to the latter.

Reddit’s “There Was An Attempt” subreddit is for failed attempts at doing simple or easy things. This news article was posted there as “To stay alive as a PoS who made millions off the suffering of others.” As of now, approx 8000 upvotes and 1000+ comments, most of them cheering on the assassin.

It’s culture war because the Democrats forced the country’s insurers via the ACA to stop offering all healthcare except “Cadillac plans,” and to cover all pre-existing conditions, and reduced the employer-provided requirement down to 30 hours.

Then they successfully blamed Republicans and the profit motive for increasing the percentage of 29 hr/wk jobs with no healthcare, making all healthcare costs skyrocket, making doctors and nurses quit and new people not want to go into the field, and making Big Pharma rich.

Then they successfully blamed Republicans and the profit motive for increasing the percentage of 29 hr/wk jobs with no healthcare, making all healthcare costs skyrocket, making doctors and nurses quit and new people not want to go into the field, and making Big Pharma rich.

I get the 29 hr/wk thing, assuming it's basically a variation on the minimum wage leads to less jobs argument.

Why does skyrocketing healthcare costs drive doctors and nurses to quit?

How does Big Pharma specifically benefit?

I wrote that as a list of individual things the ACA did, not a causal sequence. Sorry for the misunderstanding.

I get the 29 hr/wk thing, assuming it's basically a variation on the minimum wage leads to less jobs argument.

Sorry you read too much into this. The main effect of 29 hr workweeks for low income labor was to shift their healthcare from partial plans (now illegal) to Medicaid, being meta-insured by taxpayers in higher brackets.

Why does skyrocketing healthcare costs drive doctors and nurses to quit?

Again, a list of things the ACA did, not a causal sequence. Medical professionals leave the field for a variety of reasons. One of the big ones is the bureaucracies both public and private (their own business insurance, for one) which turn their days into endless paperwork, and turn the brightest and kindest of humanity into overburdened cogwheels.

How does Big Pharma specifically benefit?

Per Google’s search AI: “the ACA mandates that all health plans cover essential health benefits, including prescription drugs, which means more people can afford to purchase their medications.” It wasn't specifically caused by the lack of personnel.

Agree with all of this.

Many people don't realize just how expensive health insurance is now because somebody else is paying it for them.

A bronze plan for a family of four is now over $20,000 a year and covers essentially nothing. Obamacare was an abomination.