How much it cost to cut off my leg

In case you're wondering how much things I had done in February of this year (2018) cost, I got a breakdown from my insurance company. My insurance is decent (thank you, Obamacare!) so I've owed only a few thousand dollars. I know you're saying "Only?!" but my parents left me some money when they died in 2011, so I can manage it. It's in ascending order and just the highest ones.

• Operating Room Service (This means cutting off my right leg at the hip and stitching up what's left. My doctor's house has a swimming pool and a tennis court. Not kidding. I like the guy, though.): $40,866
• Intensive Care (really, it was a sort of half-intensive care room for a few days until I got moved into a normal room): $17,964
• Supplies (Oh, come on, this much? What am I, going to the moon?): $6,740
• Pharmacy service (This is why you hear about $200 aspirins and things like that.): $5,479
• Anesthesia service (You're going to cut off my what? No! No! So ... sleepy ... no ... don't. Dave ... stop. Stop, will you? Stop, Dave.): $5,130
• Semi-private room (Actually, it was a private room, but I'm not going to call and tell them that.): $4,604
• Recovery room (Is he dead? No? Slap his face and see if comes to so we can get him the hell out of here.): $3,913
• Physical medicine (I have no idea what this means. They also billed me $614 for Occupational Therapy, so it can't be that, can it?): $1,688
• Laboratory service (Looks like blood all right.): $1,319

Total: $87,703

What you will say in 2022

Hate Obamacare? Very well. But change is coming and however flawed it is Obamacare will improved the trajectory of an unsustainable system. This change frightens you and you don't like the person who is causing it. He's not like you and he has a funny name. ("Roberts.")

But here is how you and all of those furious people will begin sentences about healthcare a decade from now when asked how you felt about it in 2012:

I had my doubts ...

Look at any positive change in history (voting rights for women, Social Security, integration, Medicare, environmental regulation) and ten years later the people who opposed it -- throwing bombs, marching, shouting angry slogans, chaining themselves to fences -- take a new, mild view of how they reacted at the time to the changes that scared them so. Rather than admit they were ready to kill or die to prevent those changes they say, mildly, as if they were wise and thoughtful, "I had my doubts."

I had my doubts, but letting women vote was a good idea.

I had my doubts, but it's good that the elderly don't have to die in poverty anymore.

And so on. They said that, and so will you.

You will also say, often, that you "don't like how it was done." People will press you on the specifics of that and you won't be able to come up with anything more than, "I just don't."

You watch. This will happen.

The Loser and Healthcare

The Complete and Total Loser, like many losers a Democrat, wonders whether his sense of victory from the U.S. Supreme Court's ruling allowing the Affordable Care Act to stand isn't as false and stupid as the act's opponents hate-based dislike of it. 

The below is from factcheck.org. 

Romney, Obama Uphold Health Care 

Falsehoods

Presidential candidates supremely spin court decision

Posted on June 28, 2012

Summary

With the U.S. Supreme Court upholding the constitutionality of the Affordable Care Act on June 28, voters are guaranteed to continue hearing the same old false claims about the law from politicians. And President Barack Obama and presumptive GOP presidential nominee Mitt Romney wasted little time in taking to the airwaves to rehash plenty we’ve fact-checked before. Obama even threw in a few new claims.

• Obama reiterated his "if you like your plan, you can keep your plan" refrain, despite the fact that at least a few million workers won’t keep their employer-sponsored plans, according to the Congressional Budget Office.

• The president also exaggerated the benefits of the law, such as the number of young adults who were able to join their parents’ plans, thanks to the law, and the number of individuals who will receive rebates issued by insurance companies that didn't spend enough premium dollars on health care.

• Romney repeated a number of distortions, saying that the law would "cut Medicare" by $500 billion and that it "adds trillions to our deficits." That's a reduction in the future growth of Medicare spending over 10 years. And CBO says the law would reduce the deficit.

• Romney said the law is a "job-killer." But CBO says the law would have a "small" impact on jobs, mainly affecting the amount of labor workers choose to supply. Those getting subsidies, for instance, might work less hours since they’re paying less for health care.

A healthy person enjoying life.

• Romney claimed the law "puts the federal government between you and your doctor." The law would set minimum benefits packages, but medical services will not be government-run, nor does the law allow for rationing of care.