‘Grumpy Gramps’ comes from having been around the walks of life now for a good long time and those who know me, know that I have my thoughts and opinions which seem to spew out once in a while much to the chagrin of my wife and a few of my grandkids in particular.  When it does happen the grandkids sometimes say oh Gramps is getting grumpy – so the name ‘Grumpy Gramps’.

So now that you understand why these writes are called ‘Grumpy Gramps’ even though they will not all be grumpy, warning this one may be consider one of the grumpy ones.

Let’s make a few comments about the ‘Affordable Care Act’ (the official name is not Obamacare) because once again the right-wing politicians are setting to pounce on it and extinguish it, possible putting millions into an uninsured health care crisis.

Let’s look at the current 2016 enrollment numbers – as of February, 2016 the report says that roughly 12.7 million are in the ACA marketplace and roughly 20 million is the total number of folks between the ACA Marketplace, Medicaid expansion, young adults staying on their parents plan and other coverage provisions.

In this chat I want to touch on a couple of particular points which the right-wing politicians seem to be focusing on when claiming the ACA is not working.

First of all – they claim that those being covered are finding their premiums going up by large numbers.  Ok, so why are they blaming the ACA when the real cost increases for folks is coming from the insurance companies themselves and the pharmaceutical companies that seem to have the green light to charge Americans ridiculous prices for meds which cost as much as 75% less in other countries.  Do not blame the ACA for this, but then again the right-wing politicians are convinced that the rich should always get richer.

Second of all – some are claiming that Medicaid is not working like it should be and is not being used like it should.  Well yea, that is exactly what happens in those ‘red’ states where the right-wing governors have turned their backs on Medicaid expansion, which in turn is costing their states millions of dollars to help get better healthcare available to those in need.

Thirdly – the ACA is not perfect, but the majority of it is a very good, solid idea for the citizens of this county.  Instead of repealing the whole thing, would it not be a better/smarter idea to just tweak it by upgrading the good points and fixing the bad.  Instead the right-wing politicians had their feelings hurt when President Obama managed to get a healthcare program passed, especially since much of the ACA was originally a republican idea.  So they want to repeal it totally instead of doing the common sense things and just fixing it.

Lastly – how can you expect to turn the ACA out the door without having a new plan ready to put in it’s place, which would be the common sense way to do it.  We’ve been waiting how many years for the right-wing politicians to present their version of a solid healthcare package and maybe that is because they already know that what they want to do is not what the citizens want or should have.

Every poll I have seen lately that had a question regarding the total repeal of the ACA showed that the majority of Americans DO NOT WANT IT REPEALED totally, but would prefer to have it tweaked.

Remember, while many of the right-wing politicians want to claim the election was a majority mandate to fix the ACA – the majority of individual voters did not vote for the republican, right-wing conservative ideas.  They were nearly three million votes short to call it a majority.

There you have it, another ‘Grumpy Gramps’ and while many may be spewing about things they don’t like or see has being wrong – many times it will be just ‘getting it off my chest’ type of sharing.  So please enjoy, think about it and if you feel the need or want – send me a comment or two and ‘Grumpy Gramps’ promises to get back to you.  But make your responses civil, as ‘Grumpy Gramps’ will not put up with name calling, racism, hatred, etc.

(Copyright@2017, CrossDove Writer – no part of this may be printed, copied or used without written permission.)