Public discourse about the Affordable Care Act a/k/a Obamacare has sorely lacked facts. A few weeks ago, on "Civil Discourse Now," Ryan Ripley of "We Are Libertarians" and I engaged in civil and, I thought, informative debate about whether ACA/Obamacare was or is constitutional.  

   Today Miah Akston of "The Uncontrollables" and "Creating Miah" and Andrew D. Kirch will join me from 11 am to 1 pm to discuss/debate/argue generally about ACA/Obamacare.

   There are a lot of misconceptions about the healthcare system in this country, whatever one's views about the efficacy of Obamacare. I would point to one culprit with a significant effect. People are not allowed to know what prices of procedures are when people go into a hospital. Seriously, such information is considered proprietary to the provider. Not that a person wheeled into ER has much of a choice when her or his appendix is about to burst. The notion that the information does not have to be made available to the patient-to-be, however, is ridiculous. Health care treatment becomes covered in this veil that hides what is done and how much it costs. I would suggest people always carry their analgesic of choice---aspirin, acetaminophen, ibuprophen---with them in case of emergency. Then, if a nurse says, "Doctor says you need some Tylenol(r)" i.e., acetaminophen, that they'll charge you five bucks a pill, the person can whip out a bottle and say, "Brought my own." Of course, the hospital probably has rules against BYO drugs.

   Much of the debate about Obamacare has lacked information. The Apex of Ignorance possibly was reached when our own Governor Pence said 300,000 Hoosiers who would be covered under Medicaid expansion can go to ERs. Thanks, Mike, you just increased our taxes.

   Obamacare, amongst other provisions, requires health insurance carriers to spend 80 to 85 percent of premiums on actual health care. Also, people with pre-existing conditions---and insurance companies have been very good at discovering pre-existing conditions---either have been rejected for insurance or had their rates jacked. Obamacare puts a limit/halt to those things. Rates can be increased, but not as radically as before. And a person cannot be turned down for a pre-existing condition.

   As I have written before here, I think Republicans are afraid the American people will like Obamacare. While polls indicate a majority of Americans oppose Obamacare: (1) many of those people oppose it because it does not go far enough and (2) when broken down into its components, people indicate support.

   So please listen to our podcast. Miah will be armed (with facts) and Andrew might be a bit of a lightweight (congrats on  the diet!) but will offer piquant views. This will be fun and informative.